France Joli

Born France Joly in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Joli grew up in Dorion. Her father was a hardware merchant and her mother was a teacher. As early as age four, Joli was performing for relatives lip-syncing to Barbra Streisand records while handling a skipping rope like a microphone; she had appeared on television by age six. At age 11, Joli left the public school system (her mother tutored her) to concentrate on her performing career by appearing regularly in television commercials and talent shows. A mutual acquaintance suggested Joli meet up with musician Tony Green whom Joli approached backstage after he had given a concert, with Joli inviting Green to be her record producer. Green did not take the 13-year-old Joli seriously: he recalled: "To get rid of her I [told] her to keep in touch." According to one source, Joli eventually visited Green's home to sing for him; it is also reported that Green first heard Joli sing from the audience of an "end-of-school-year show" in which she performed in the fall of 1978. Both accounts concur that Green first heard Joli singing along with a Streisand record. Green had written the song "Come to Me" for Joli by the next day. "Come to Me" began a three-week reign atop the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play on September 22, 1979, and the France Joli album rose to No. 26. On the Billboard Hot 100. "Come to Me" peaked at No. 15 on November 17, 1979. However Joli, as evidenced by her opening for the Commodores during their American tour of 1981, was still viewed as having star potential: she departed the dance music-oriented Prelude label for Epic Records. • 1The track: "Your Good Lovin'" was arranged and produced by Prelude regulars Eric Matthew and Darryl Payne. • 2"Gonna Get Over You" reached No. 43 on the French Pop chart. ==Epic albums==

Joli's Epic debut Attitude (1983), was produced by Pete Bellotte; Giorgio Moroder was credited as executive producer. The album personnel included Martin Page on electric guitar, Page's Q-Feel sideman Brian Fairweather on electric bass and Richie Zito on electric bass and electric guitar: Zito also performed arranging duties. The tracks included Joli's original "Dumb Blond" (co-written with Daniel Vail) and a remake of the Four Tops' "Standing in the Shadows of Love" which featured Gladys Knight's backing group the Pips; the latter was a moderate club success in tandem with the cuts "Girl in the 80s" and "Blue Eyed Technology" but despite a performance by Joli on Solid Gold the single "Girl in the 80s" – written by Jay Ferguson and Deborah Neal – garnered no evident mainstream interest. Joli's next Epic release was Witch of Love (1985), produced by George Duke: prior to the album's release Joli had performed the Duke-penned track "Party Lights" at the Yamaha Music Festival in 1984 and had won the Grand Prix. The title cut of Witch of Love was a Joli-Vail composition as was the track "What About Me". However, as with Attitude, the choice for single was a Ferguson-Neal composition: the rather quirky "Does He Dance", which again failed at US radio – although it did become a Canadian airplay item – while becoming a moderate club hit boosted by a remix by Shep Pettibone. The commercial failure of both of her Epic album releases led to the label dropping Joli, who spent the next ten years with her career focused on performing rather than recording. ==1996 and 2000s==

In 1996, Joli reunited with Tony Green for the single "Touch" on Popular Records. The original incarnation of the single was a CD single with Eurodance/Hi-NRG styled remixes intended for radio but received limited airplay. The song belatedly became a hit in clubs, reaching No. 24 on Hot Dance Music/Club Play, (2003), a documentary detailing the 50-year history of the Fire Island Pines community. The film – which had its television premiere on June 10, 2006 – includes much previously unseen archival footage, but Joli's July 1979 performance of "Come to Me" is presented only in still photographs with musical background, suggesting no footage of that event exists. The sequence included interviews with those who recall Joli's 1979 performance on Fire Island. When Ocean Meets Sky is seen occasionally on the Logo channel. In addition, it was also featured in the 1998 movie 54, depicting the events at Studio 54 in New York. ==Discography==