Jenie Oliver comes from a long line of singers and musicians. She started singing in the church choir, as most of the good ones do. It wasn’t long before Jenie was offered a part on the local childrens’ TV series “Tick Tock Time” , which ran for 2 years. When she became a teenager, Jenie discovered “rock and roll!” and started writing songs with her band “Stardust”. “Stardust” went on to win the Inter High Schools Talent Competition and later recorded a demo record. She perfomed in “The Sound Of Music”, “Charlie Brown”, “Grease” and “The Boyfriend” at the Artscape Theatre in Cape Town.
When Jenie won the “Hope S.A.” award for one of her original songs, she decided to put her acting career on hold and joined up with the number one hit singer André De Villiers. At this time she also worked as a session singer and recorded the childrens’ series “Sounds Fun” with well-known Musical Director Ken Higgins.
Some of the music shows Jenie performed in locally and at the Grahamstown Arts Festival were: Black and Proud, Jerry and the Trix, Vuselella, The Bob Dylan Tribute Show, Kiss The Sky, Nick Taylor’s Titanic, Letters To Patient Essop, Graham Weir’s Elastic Band and Sixty Something. Graham and Christine Weir offered her a part in the acapella show “The Stompneus Varkies” and then later she joined them in the hit show “Not The Midnight Mass” which toured SA and the UK to great acclaim.
Determined to pursue her recording career Jenie produced “Pilgrims”, a collection of songs which didn’t sell all that well at the time. Undeterred, she recorded “Blackcurrant” and “Better Than Magic” which had pretty much the same result. Jenie decided to take a new approach and recorded “Live at the Leopard Lounge” which was much more gentle and vocal orientated. Similar in fact to Eva Cassidy style. This record sold out in no time at all and prompted the next and latest production “All this love”
