Yvonne Elliman

Yvonne Marianne Elliman ( born December 29, 1951 in Honolulu, Hawaii) is an American singer and actress.

Yvonne Ellimans father is of Irish descent and her mother is Japanese- Chinese roots. She was born in Honolulu and grew up. In 1969 she went to England, where she began to work in London as a bar and club singer. Here she was discovered for the background vocals for Eric Clapton. She sang on some of his albums in the early 1970s (including on I Shot the Sheriff) and also received a recording contract. In a folk club she was seen by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, who were just the cast for the recording of their rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar. They hired Yvonne Elliman for the role of Mary Magdalene. When the musical was first performed on Broadway, she played this role as well as in the later film version of Norman Jewison. In 1974 she was nominated for this work as the first actress that comes from a Pacific island, for a Golden Globe Award.

In 1972, she had released her first solo album. This was followed in the 1970s, five more, which recorded average successes. Their album Night Flight came in 1978 as a best-selling up to # 40 on the Billboard charts. Greater success had granted her with the Bee Gees song If I Can not Have You 1977. She recorded the song for the soundtrack album to the film Saturday Night Fever. The single reached the top spot on the Billboard charts.

In the late 1970s, she appeared in two episodes of the TV series Hawaii Five-O, and then said goodbye to the show business into private life. She married and gave birth to a daughter in 1982 and 1985, a son. In the 1990s, several compilations of their best songs released in 2004 and they returned with a new album in the music scene.