When Sara Dallin and Keren Woodward took to the stage in Glastonbury’s Field of Avalon tent in 2019, the crowd stretched as far as the eye could see. Bananarama had just released their 11th album, In Stereo, to ecstatic reviews and charting in the Top 30.
That Bananarama are now a worldwide festival headline act is testament to their energy, tenacity and the huge esteem in which they are held by music fans and festival bookers alike. Their career as a two-piece has taken in seven of their dozen studio albums, more than 30 years of their four-decade career, and performances all over the world.
Bananarama formed in London in 1980 when childhood friends from Bristol, Keren Woodward and Sara Dallin, met Siobhan Fahey on the capital’s fertile post-punk scene. Their first single, ‘Aie a Mwana’, recorded with former Sex Pistol Paul Cook, brought them to the attention of Terry Hall, who recruited the trio to sing on the Fun Boy Three’s second single, ‘It Ain’t What You Do (It’s the Way That You Do It)’. A huge hit, it paved the way for Bananarama to become stars in their own right.
Redrawing what an all-girl group could be, Bananarama weren’t manufactured but in control, writing their own songs and making their own decisions. Way before “girl power” became a catchy pop-culture slogan, Bananarama were its living, breathing embodiment. Their wild spirit, kicking against – or, more often, laughing at – the systems that conspired to hold them back has been a key feature of their career.
Not only are Bananarama immortalised in the Guinness World of Records, breaking the record for the most international hits by an all-female group, they’ve also remained a vital pop presence, continuing to chart well into the 21st-century. Their achievements are not only the mind-boggling numbers – 30 charting UK singles and 11 US Billboard hits, they have sold 30 million records worldwide – but their ongoing cultural legacy and inspiration.
Key to their authenticity is their peerless songwriting, a canny ability to seek out kindred musical spirits to collaborate with, and their enthusiasm to explore new sounds and musical styles.
Irreverent, innovative, self-determining – forty-plus remarkable years into their career, Bananarama remain at the peak of their creative powers, with Sara and Keren’s lifelong friendship underpinning everything that they do.
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