Back in 1988, when Neneh Cherry paired a gold jacket with a gold bra and a pregnant belly on Top of the Pops, the world tilted a little on its axis. But Buffalo Stance – her solo hit single from the genre-busting album Raw Like Sushi – was neither the beginning nor the end of Cherry’s illustrious and vanguard-chasing artistic career.
Born in Sweden, the daughter of textile artist Monika “Moki” Karlsson and Sierra Leonean musician Ahmadu Jah, she grew up thoroughly bohemian; US jazz musician Don Cherry was both stepparent and father figure. The family divided their time between rural Sweden and bustling, down-at-heel 1970s New York, where she had a ringside seat while Cherry Sr combined free jazz with world music. Talking Heads were her neighbours.
