Jacquie O'Sullivan
Jacquie O'Sullivan (born Jacqueline Michelle O'Sullivan on 7 August 1960 in London, England) is an English singer and songwriter. She is best known for being a member of the pop group Bananarama from 1988 to 1991, replacing Siobhan Fahey.
Before Bananarama, Jacquie was the lead singer of the Shillelagh Sisters, which she joined in early 1983. Their first single, Give Me My Freedom, came out in April 1984. The band broke up in late 1984 due to label issues and internal disagreements. Jacquie later said the records they released weren’t very good.
In March 1988, she was chosen to join Bananarama, and she helped them continue their success. She re-recorded the vocals for I Want You Back and Nathan Jones. With Jacquie, Bananarama had eight consecutive Top 40 hits in the UK. She appeared on the charity single recording of The Beatles’ Help! for Comic Relief with French and Saunders, which reached number three in the UK in 1989. They also toured the world for the first time in 1989. Jacquie contributed to Band Aid II’s 1989 Do They Know It’s Christmas? project. Her sole songwriting credit with Bananarama is Love, Truth and Honesty from the Greatest Hits collection.
In 1991, Bananarama released Pop Life, the only full album Jacquie appeared on with them, and she left the group amicably. She has said that as a paid employee she had little say in the creative and visual direction of the group, and the ongoing pressure of being seen as the “new girl” contributed to her decision to leave. When French and Saunders parodied Bananarama in 1988, Jacquie’s character was portrayed humorously, contributing to the public image issue she described.
After leaving Bananarama, Jacquie joined the disco act Slippry Feet from 1992 to 1996, recording Freak Time Viewing before they disbanded. In 2001, she signed a three-album deal with AlmaFame Records to release unreleased material. The Slippry Feet album Freak Time Viewing was issued, and in 2002 a Shillelagh Sisters album, Sham’Rock & Roll, was released. A third album, The Jacquie O Collection, was planned but never released because the label folded.
In 1994, Jacquie trained as a yoga teacher in India and has taught yoga around the world. She continued her yoga studies with the Prana Yoga College.
In 2005, she appeared briefly in Siobhan Fahey’s Pulsatron video project.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 00:50 (CET).