Tracey Ullman (born 30 December 1959) is a British-born, now U.S. citizen comedian, actress, singer, dancer, screenwriter, and author, who is most famous for being the host of her eponymous variety television show.
In 1983, Ullman succeeded as a singer on the legendary punk label Stiff Records, although her style was more comic romantic than punk. She had six songs in the British Top 100 in less than two years, including her first hit "Breakaway" (famous for her performance with a hairbrush as a microphone); the international hit cover version of label-mate Kirsty MacColl's "They Don't Know," which went to 2 in the UK (8, U.S. - MacColl also sang backing vocals on Ullman's version), and which became the theme song to most of Ullman's later television series; and the cover of Madness's "My Girl," which Ullman changed to "My Guy's Mad At Me." (The "My Guy" video featured the British politician Neil Kinnock, at the time the Leader of the Opposition)
Her songs were over-the-top evocations of 1960s and 1970s pop music with a 1980s edge, "somewhere between Minnie Mouse and The Supremes" as Britain's Melody Maker put it, or "retro before retro was cool", as a retrospective reviewer wrote in 2002. Her career received another boost when the video for "They Don't Know" featured a cameo from Paul McCartney; at the time Ullman was filming a minor role in McCartney's film Give My Regards To Broad Street. Her final hit was Sunglasses (1984) whose video featured Adrian Edmondson. During this time, she also appeared as a guest VJ on MTV in the United States.
