About Eddy Grant

Eddy Grant (b. 1948) is a Guyanan musician. Born Edmond Montague Grant on the 5th March 1948 in Plaisance, Guyana, he emigrated with parents to London, England when he was still young. As a teenager he formed the multi-racial group The Equals. He sported dyed blonde hair, and had his first million-selling number-one hit in 1968, when he was the lead guitarist and main songwriter with his song "Baby Come Back". Grant openly used his songwriting for political purposes, as in "Police on My Back", and later "Gimme Hope Jo'anna" about the then-current apartheid regime of South Africa. By the early 1980s Grant released Killer on the Rampage, using MTV exposure to have big hits in the U.S., the U.K., and Australia with the '80s techno reggae of "Electric Avenue", and following that up with the title song for the successful 1984 film Romancing the Stone. The album Walking On Sunshine produced the popular tracks "I Don't Wanna Dance" and "Gimme Hope Jo'anna". Grant owns and operates a leading recording studio called Blue Wave in Barbados, near St Lawrence Gap, and it has hosted some of the world's top recording artists and producers over the years. He has produced music for the likes of Sting, Mick Jagger, and Elvis Costello.