11 August 2025 (released)
12 August 2025
As Five Star, Deniece Pearson and her siblings took the UK charts by storm, styling themselves as a British version of The Jacksons.
With hit songs like System Addict, Rain or Shine, and Can’t Wait Another Minute, the band achieved 15 Top 40 singles, with six of them in the Top Ten, as well as four Top 20 albums. Five Star – Stedman, Lorraine, Deniece, Doris, and Delroy – also won the 1987 Brit Award for Best British Group.
Now 40 years on from Five Star first hitting the UK Top 40, the band’s lead singer Deniece has just released a brand new single, Like A Child.
The song, a soulful, sultry track with the essence of 90s band TLC, evokes a summer vibe, with lines from scripture also providing a nod to Deniece’s faith.
Like a Child is the first single off Deniece’s forthcoming album Free-Queen-See (her first for 10 years), due for release at the end of this year.
We spoke to Deniece about her new work plus other solo achievements including touring with the Jacksons and with Billy Ocean.
You’ve just released your new single, Like A Child, which will be from your forthcoming album Free-Queen-See. It’s a really soulful song and it’s got you rapping on there!
It’s really exciting. When I shared it with everyone, they said it had a TLC vibe to it. The rapping style just came along. I was in solitude for about eight months writing this album and listening to the energies that are around me. I do connect very highly with God and the angels, and the energy and frequency, and I was listening, and then the rapping style came to me. That was the first vocal that I did on it, singing into my computer, and so we used it. It’s the first single off my album, and we are looking to release the album on December 6th.
What can fans expect from the album, Deniece?
There will be a lot of soulful tracks, some dance tracks, a lot from scripture just like this one, Like A Child (“you have to be like a child, to get into the gates of Heaven”). There’s really different stuff. Bob Marley was a real influence to me in my song called Deliverance. The lyrics just came to me. We are portals to music if we listen, there are messages to be told. Bob Marley was right in my head. As soon as I went to the studio there was a great big picture of him on the wall before I went into the booth, it was really meant to be. One of my favourite tracks on the album is a dance tune, We Found Love, which has a Cherelle/Alexander O’Neal vibe. There are also interlinks of scripture throughout.
Will you be touring to promote the album?
We’ll be going out on tour next year, and I’m still doing the 80s shows, performing songs like Can’t Wait, System Addict, Rain or Shine, and Stay Out of My Life, and people are just so loving the shows. There’s a real renaissance of the 80s now, we’re the ones who are the head of the households, we are the ones reminiscing.
We couldn’t interview you without mentioning your brother Stedman, who sadly died earlier this year. We’re so sorry for your loss. How are you coping?
The more time passes, the easier it gets. But I have a very strong belief in spirituality, that we are spirits, and that our bodies are just vehicles that we travel in. I did actually see my brother and my dad, they both came to see me.
It’s 40 years since Five Star first broke into the UK Top 40 with All Fall Down, what’s your overriding memory of that time?
The first time I knew we were going to be famous was when the DJ on the radio said “Five Star, look out for these guys”, and the song was playing all the time, and we made the video with the blue sweatshirts and the big white 5. We were like, oh my God, we’re going to be famous, buy lots of chocolate, go to America and meet Michael Jackson! So that came to fruition – the first tour we did, we were sponsored by Cadbury’s, and Doris went and met Michael!
You’ve actually toured with The Jacksons later in your career, haven’t you?
Yeah, it was great! I was there every rehearsal, looking up and just watching them! (laughs). I think Jackie said, come on Marlon, Deniece needs to come on stage, she needs to rehearse, and I was just like, did Jackie just say my name?! It was just amazing because we grew up with them. We were watching their cartoon on TV. Actually we (Five Star) had our own cartoon strip, not TV, but in Look-in magazine! Just growing up on The Jacksons’ music and getting to meet them, they were just such lovely guys. I’m missing Tito. Every time, he used to come into town, I used to sing the J5 with him, so that was really, really a shock to me when he passed.
You also toured with Billy Ocean didn’t you?
Yeah, that was amazing because when we first started, we were on the circuit, we were still in school, Del was 14, and Billy Ocean was one of the first acts that we saw in the club. And then Daddy said, oh look, there’s Billy. Whenever Daddy knows someone, we get to know him! So as soon as Billy finished his song, we went mad cheering at the side of the stage, and then we met him. When I was on his tour, he asked how my dad was, and I told him he’d passed, and he was really sad about that. He really looked after me on that tour, and he brought me up stage to sing Caribbean Queen with him on his last show. I just couldn’t believe it.
Finally Deniece, a couple of random questions! When we interviewed Toyah recently, she told us about a ghost episode in a hotel at Margate, have you ever had a ghostly or supernatural experience?
Yes! Since I was a child! In the house that we lived in over in Romford, Essex, Doris always used to feel something pushing her down into the bed, and something used to stop me too, I couldn’t shout out to mummy and daddy, but it used to stop me from talking, I couldn’t move. Then my aunt came to us from Jamaica and she said to me “Do you mean that big white lady with the blue eye, standing on the top step?” so she could see the entity that lived in the house! I think she died in the house so they, kind of, stay. I don’t know whether it was her doing it or not. Yeah, I’ve seen and felt a lot of things. I think I’m quite an old spirit, I’ve been here on earth before over and over again.
If you could duet with anyone in the world, from any time, who would it be?
I think it would have to be Nat King Cole. Beautiful class and pronounciation, gorgeous.
