Little Lady...

Tacky tragic time now as we look back at the short career of songstress Aneka. Who, you ask?

Aneka (born Mary Sandeman, 20 November 1954) is a Scottish singer who hit number one in the UK Singles Chart with her song, "Japanese Boy". After her brief foray into pop she reverted back to her real name and established herself as an accomplished singer of Scottish traditional music.

Mary recorded "Japanese Boy" in 1981. Impressed with the results, her record company decided to release it as a single with full promotion. Arriving at the name 'Aneka' in a telephone directory, Sandeman fashioned a suitable image for the song. Released in summer 1981, "Japanese Boy" made an impressive leap in the charts and reached No.1 for one week in August. It ended up selling 5 million copies worldwide.

Buoyed by this level of success, the record company commissioned an album and looked to find a follow-up single. The song "Little Lady" was chosen, but caused some concern as to what her image would be now, as it was felt that a Japanese look would be inappropriate for the song as well as giving the artist a limited lifespan. In the event, Sandeman adopted a 19th Century lady image, but retained the same high-pitched voice as used for her hit. The song failed to chart highly in the UK, reaching only No.50 - securing her the label of 'one-hit wonder'.

Sandeman's debut album "Aneka" was released at the same time and featured a mix of upbeat pop tracks in the vein of "Japanese Boy" and a selection of slow-paced numbers, sung in her 'true' singing voice. The album however failed to chart.

A third and final single was released in early 1982. This was "Ooh Shooby Doo Doo Lang", which told a light-hearted tale of a singer bemoaning the fact that she is relegated to backing vocals, but goes on to mention Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder as well referencing both "Japanese Boy" and "Little Lady". The song missed the UK Chart and this effectively saw the end of Aneka. In Europe however, it gave her a third hit.



Three further singles were released. "I Was Free" in 1982, "Heart to Beat" in 1983 and "Rose Rose I Love You" in 1984, but neither of these found success. Sandeman then dropped the Aneka title and continued with the folk-singing career she had begun before her fame.