West Midlands music icon Joan Armatrading on her 21st album

Joan Armatrading has an Ivor Novello Award for her outstanding songwriting, been nominated for BRIT & Grammy Awards, and was awarded a CBE in the 2020 Birthday Honours for services to music, charity and equal rights.

Growing up in the West Midlands, her mum famously exchanged a couple of prams at a local pawn shop to buy her first guitar. Joan wrote her first songs while still a teenager, and achieved her first chart success in 1976 with her self-titled third studio album and the big hit from it, Love & Affection.