Friends - Amii Stewart - 1984

Amii Stewart

Friends

Amii Stewart

Fonte: Wikipedia

Cantante pop e disco, divenne famosa negli Stati Uniti e in tutto il mondo alla fine degli anni settanta con il singolo Knock on Wood di Eddie Floyd, (che vendendo più di 8 milioni di copie è tuttora considerata una delle più belle cover mai realizzate nell'era della 

disco[senza fonte]), Paradise Bird e Light My Fire (dei The Doors). Stabilitasi successivamente in Italia, si impose come interprete easy listening spesso in coppia con altri cantanti di successo, quali Dee Dee Bridgewater, Eros Ramazzotti, Mike Francis con la famosa Friends (singolo che scalò le classifiche mondiali) e Gianni Morandi.

Nel 1983 fu lo special guest del Festival della canzone Italiana di San Remo col singolo Working Late Tonight, segnando la sua collaborazione e passione per l'Italia. Nel 1987 partecipò alla colonna sonora dello sceneggiato televisivo Il segreto del Sahara composta da Ennio Morricone. La sigla Saharan Dream la riportò in classifica.

Nel 1993 fu una dei 12 artisti scelti da tutto il mondo a cantare per la prima volta nella città del Vaticano per il Papa. Il concerto di Natale del Vaticano, al quale parteciparono anche 

Randy Crawford e Lucio Dalla, fu trasmesso in mondovisione, e Amii Stewart fu l'unica artista ad essere stata richiesta l'anno seguente. Molto presente anche in televisione, nel 1997 fu ospite fisso alla trasmissione Fantastico.

Negli ultimi anni si è dedicata quasi esclusivamente all'attività di attrice cantante in vari musical. Nella serata speciale del Festival di Sanremo 2007 si è esibita con Piero Mazzocchetti nel brano Schiavo d'amore.

Nel 2010 ha debuttato come insegnante di canto nell'ambito di uno stage realizzato a Roma da Massimiliano Cardia e la collaborazione di Giordano Aquilini. Nel settembre 2013 collabora con il DJ torinese Gabry Ponte e pubblica un nuovo singolo: Sunshine Girl.

Il 7 e l'8 ottobre 2013 prende parte a Gianni Morandi - Live in Arena, evento musicale televisivo trasmesso in prima serata da Canale 5, in cui duetta con Gianni Morandi C'era un ragazzo che come me amava i Beatles e i Rolling Stones e Grazie perché.

Source: Wikipedia

Amy 'Amii' Paulette Stewart (born January 29, 1956) is an American disco/soul/dance-pop singer, dancer and actress most famous for her hit disco record "Knock on Wood". Stewart is the stepsister of actress-singer Miquel Brown[1] and aunt to Brown's actress-singer daughter Sinitta.

Amy Stewart is the youngest of six children.[2] Her father, Joseph Stewart II, signed her up for singing and dancing lessons in 1960, when she was four. There already was an Amy Stewart registered with Actor's Equity, so she changed the spelling of her name to Amii. 

She began attending Howard University in Washington but soon left to work with the D.C. Repertory Dance Company, studying ballet and modern dance.[2] Before being signed to Ariola Records, Stewart was in the touring company of the stage production Bubbling 

Brown Sugar in 1975, firstly in Miami, then Broadway, and eventually London's West End, where she met Barry Leng, a record producer for Hansa records. Using a combination of Linn Drum Computers and Simmons SDS7 electronic drums, Peter[who?] developed drum sounds and synching techniques that were way ahead of anything else at that time.

At the end of 1977, "You Really Touched My Heart" a Leng/Simon May composition, produced by Leng, was Stewart's first recording. An album followed, which contained five Leng/May songs, one Leng/Morris song and three cover versions.

Her first single, a disco cover version of the 1966 Eddie Floyd hit "Knock on Wood" (Floyd/Cropper), reached number one in the U.S. in April 1979, and earned her a platinum record and a Grammy Award nomination. It also reached number 6 in the UK, and number 

2 in Australia. In the same year, Amii Stewart followed up with another cover, this time The Doors' classic "Light My Fire", which reached #5 in the UK, although only climbed to #69 in the US. She recorded it as a medley, incorporating "137 Disco Heaven" and entitled "Light My Fire/137 Disco Heaven".

Among her other successes in music recordings is the song entitled "Friends" from 1985. This song was a collaboration with the Italian composer/musician Mike Francis and was a big hit in the UK and the Philippines.

In the 1998 movie 54, actress/singer Mary Griffin portrayed Amii Stewart, performing the song Knock on Wood, at the famed discothèque Studio 54. While performing, Griffin wore a 

similarly extravagant outfit to that which Stewart wore in the video to "Knock On Wood" in 1979. Although it was obvious that Griffin was portraying Stewart, the credits at the end of the movie have Griffin's character listed as Disco Star.

In 2000, Stewart toured Italy, playing the part of Mary Magdalene, in the revival of the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar. The play also starred Carl Anderson, who revived his role of "Judas Iscariot" from the 1971 movie.

In 2003, Stewart starred in the musical Lady Day, in the role of Billie Holiday; the musical was written and produced by her.

Since 2001 Stewart has been working as a goodwill ambassador for Italian Unicef and has been involved in a large number of projects such as "Uniti per i bambini, Uniti contro l'AIDS" (translated as "United for the children, united against AIDS"). In 2006, she recorded the 

charity single "Love Song" for UNICEF in four different languages, once again returning to work with Ennio Morricone. The following year saw her return to duet with Mike Francis on the track "Nothing Can Come Between Us". In 2006 Stewart and long-time friend and 

collaborator Ennio Morricone released 5 track single "Love Song", sung in English, Italian, French, Spanish as well as a multilingual version. All proceeds from the single went to Unicef's campaign "Check Out For Children".

In May 2007 Stewart again participated in the Sanremo Music Festival, performing the duet "Schiavo D'Amore" with Piero Mazzocchetti.

In 2014 she took part in the prime-time Rai TV show La Pista as teamleader of the Virality dance troupe. Stewart and the dance team became the overall competition winners. Other well known singer-contestants included Tony Hadley and Sabrina Salerno.