'80s Icon Sheena Easton: Here's How Different She Looks at 67!

Sheena Shirley Orr grew up in Bellshill, Lanarkshire, as the youngest of six children. The death of her father, Alex Orr, a steelworker, forced her mother, Annie, to support the family on her own. The movie “The Way We Were,” starring Barbra Streisand, inspired the young Scottish girl to become a singer herself.

From 1975 to 1979, Easton trained as a speech and theater teacher at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow. At night, she performed in clubs with the band “Something Else” and honed her voice. No one could have guessed then that the student teacher would soon become a global superstar.

Producer Esther Rantzen makes the young singer the star of the BBC show “The Big Time,” which documents her journey from unknown to pop star. Eventually, she lands a record deal. The single “Modern Girl” flops at first, but after the documentary airs in August 1980, she shoots into the Top Ten with the song “9 to 5.”

In 1981, Easton released “For Your Eyes Only,” the title track for the James Bond film of the same name, after “9 to 5” had already reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and achieved gold status in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. Her debut album, “Take My Time,” cemented her status as an international star.

At the 24th Grammy Awards in February 1982, Easton was named Best New Artist. Around the same time, her duet with Kenny Rogers, “We’ve Got Tonight,” became an international hit. After that spectacular start, however, her commercial success began to level off noticeably at times.

Her fifth album, “A Private Heaven,” marked a deliberate break from her “good girl” image and a shift toward that of a self-assured pop singer. The single “Strut” climbed into the Top Ten in Argentina, Canada, New Zealand, and the U.S. The song “Sugar Walls,” written by Prince under the pseudonym Alexander Nevermind, sparked controversy due to its explicit lyrics.

For her collaboration with Mexican singer Luis Miguel on the single “Me Gustas Tal Como Eres,” Easton received the award for Best Mexican-American Performance at the 27th Grammy Awards. This success underscored her growing openness to international collaborations. In the United Kingdom, however, her career was losing momentum at that time.

After five years, Easton makes a comeback on the British charts with her ninth album, *The Lover in Me*. The title track reaches number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and tops the Dance Singles Sales chart. In retrospect, *The New York Times* hails her as an “80s pop phenomenon.”

A last-minute lineup change at the Big Day Out festival in Glasgow in 1990 led to Easton being booed—of all places—in her hometown. The incident shows just how far the singer had drifted from her roots after moving to the U.S. and losing her Scottish accent. Nevertheless, with an estimated 20 million records sold, she remains one of the Scottish music scene’s most successful exports.

Today, Sheena Easton leads a more secluded life, but she remains the only artist in chart history to have placed a Top 5 hit on every major Billboard singles chart. Her collaborations with greats like Prince, Babyface, and Nile Rodgers continue to shape her reputation as a versatile performer. At 67, she is still considered one of the most influential voices of the 1980s pop scene. Despite an obvious transformation, she still looks great.