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Judie Tzuke (born Judie Myers, 3 April 1956 in London) is an English singer/songwriter. Her father, Sefton Myers, was a successful property developer who also managed artists and singers—most notably Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice during the writing of Jesus Christ Superstar. Her family relocated from Poland to England in the 1920s, and changed their surname from Tzuke to Myers. When Judie embarked on her singing career, she decided to reclaim the family's Polish name. Her mother, Jean Silverside, was a television actress famous for her roles in The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin and The Goodies. Judie has two daughters, Bailey, also a singer-songwriter, and Tallula.
Educated in the visual arts, performing arts, and music, Judie performed in folk clubs from the age of 15. Her meeting with Mike Paxman in 1975 was a turning point and they began to collaborate. They eventually secured a recording contract and formed a band with Paul Muggleton. Under the name of "Tzuke and Paxo," the band released critically acclaimed singles, beginning with "These are the Laws" (1975). Judie and Paul later had two children together, Bailey and Tallula.
Judie's career proper began in 1977, when she signed to Elton John's label Rocket Records. Her first single on Rocket, "For You" (1978), was released under the name of Tzuke and Paxo; however, her first major success - the classic single "Stay with Me till Dawn", released in 1979 - was released simply under "Judie Tzuke." Judie's first album, Welcome to the Cruise, which featured "Stay with Me till Dawn" and some of the Tzuke and Paxo singles, achieved great critical and commercial success. In 2002, "Stay With Me Till Dawn" was chosen by the British public as one of the fifty best British songs 1952-2002 (ranking number 39)[1]. The song was also sampled by Mylo in the song "Need You Tonite", which is taken from his 2004 album Destroy Rock & Roll.
The singer's second album, Sportscar (1980), did not fare so well; part of the reason for this was that Elton John decided to change his label's distribution company part-way through his American tour (on which Judie was support act), meaning that all support for the tour, and for Judie's records in the USA, was pulled. Judie released one more record on Rocket, I Am the Phoenix (1982), but then decided to leave for Chrysalis Records.
The singer never again found the level of commercial success she had enjoyed with her first two albums; she recorded a number of albums with a number of different record labels, but found that none was willing or able to promote her music to a wide audience. It was during this period that Judie and Paul set up a studio in their home, giving Judie a measure of creative independence. After a major dispute with Polydor Records, in which her album Turning Stones (1989) was deleted, and a lack of success with other labels, Judie and Paul decided to set up their own small-scale record label, Big Moon Records, and set about recording the album Under the Angels, released 1996.
With Big Moon Records, Judie's audience has grown steadily; Judie toured Under the Angels and released a live CD, Over the Moon (1997), and went on to record a second studio album, Secret Agent (1999). Judie's work with Big Moon has attracted a large amount of interest, not only from listeners, but also from industry figures: for example, Bob Harris of BBC Radio 2 included one of her songs, "Tonight" (from Secret Agent), on his compilation CD. Such momentum by 2000 that Elton John was persuaded to gave back to Judie the rights to her first three albums recorded under Rocket Records; Judie named her tour later that year the "Phoenix Tour," a reference to her last Rocket Records album, "I Am the Phoenix." Following this came a new live album (Six Days Before the Flood, 2000), a new studio album (Queen Secret Keeper, 2001) and a third live album (Drive Live, 2002).
The level of Judie's success under Big Moon has been such that Judie has been approached by a number of well-known artists to work as a songwriter. Fans were given the first hints of this during the Queen Secret Keeper tour of 2001; more and more news of Judie's songwriting collaborations has arrived each year since then. Judie has worked with artists such as Lucie Silvas (resulting in a publishing deal with Universal Records), Phixx "Strange Love" and Alex Parks, as well as expanding her own label to manage new artists. Judie went on to release a covers album, The Beauty of Hindsight (2003), and a new studio album, The End of the Beginning (2004), supported by Lia Sáile 's art work.
Over the last few years, Judie has contributed vocals and co-written with a varied selection of artists, including several dance-oriented projects: B.E.D. Ver 1.0 & 1.5 (BMG Japan & Australia 2003 & 2004), Freemasons(2007), Morcheeba (2007) Kirsty Hawkshaw (2006) and Hybrid "I Choose Noise" (2006).
Judie has a new album Songs 1, released during her biggest tour in almost a decade, with her daughter Bailey Tzuke on backing vocals and collaborations with other musicians (such as Gareth Gates on piano). The album is a collection of songs Tzuke has written recently for or with other artists, and is composed principally of quiter songs (Tzuke mentioned in her latest tour that the next 'Songs' album would probably be a collection of 'loud ones'). A single release ("The Cup of Tea Song") was released as a download on 5th March on iTunes.
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