Belinda Carlisle

Pop icon Belinda Carlisle experienced full-blown American success twice in the 1980s, first with the all-female rock band The Go-Go's and then, on an international level (which she always wanted), as a solo artist. The Go-Go's first album, 1981's "Beauty and the Beat", spent six weeks at number 1 and they are still the only all-female band ever to have a number 1 album. (Band meaning where all the members play their own instruments). In 1982, the group released the album "Vacation" and set out on a major sell out tour of the states. The album debuted in the top 10 (one of the first albums to ever do so) peaking at number 8. It would eventually go on to sell over 1 million copies though their record company only had it certified as gold. Problems were rising in the band as tensions grew between member Jane Wiedlin and Belinda as Jane felt too much focus was placed on Belinda as the star. Members Gina Schock and Charlotte Caffey both experienced health problems and all of the members were experiencing drug addiction. The group also consistently had problems with their record label as they were not paid royalties when they should have been. 1984 saw the group releasing "Talk Show" and despite having one of the biggest tours of the summer of 1984, the album was considered a commercial disappointment. The band broke up in spring 1985. 1986 saw Belinda releasing her first solo album called, aptly, "Belinda". Drug free, married, happy, and healthy, she continued to experience major solo success through 1989 with the releases of her albums "Heaven On Earth" (1987) and "Runaway Horses" (1989). With the onslaught of grunge moving in during the early 1990s, Belinda's 1991 effort "Live Your Life Be Free" barely made a dent on the charts and its first single peaked at #83 on the Billboard Hot 100. By 1993, her solo album "Real" also tanked and her American record company MCA Records dropped her a year later. MCA technically should be to blame as they hardly promoted her work and most of it sold on its own. They did the same to Olivia Newton-John some 10 years earlier. But just because a pop star isn't experiencing American success does not mean they are not experiencing it elsewhere. Belinda proves to be a huge commodity in Europe, almost as big as Madonna, and sells out stadiums in the United Kingdom where they truly seem to appreciate her. Today, Belinda only occasionally records both as a solo artist and as a member of The Go-Go's. She considers herself a part-timer in these fields as she prefers her home life as opposed to the nail-biting entertainment industry. She appeared in the 1984 Goldie Hawn vehicle Swing Shift (1984) and, in 2001, she showed that a 43-year-old with no plastic surgery and who isn't a size 0 can still be sexually viable when she posed nude for Playboy.