Facts: - instrument: vocals steel drums guitar - website: -lsb- http://www.billyocean.com/ www.billyocean.com -rsb- - years active: 1971 -- present - caption: billy ocean performing in new york in 1988 . - birth name: leslie sebastian charles - origin: romford , east london , england , - label: gto epic jive aqua music - genre: rhythm and blues pop soul - birth date: 21 january 1950 - name: billy ocean - background: solo_singer - image: billyocean.jpg - birth place: fyzabad , trinidad and tobago - occupation: singer-songwriter Based on these bullet points, write a short biography describing the life of billy ocean .
The answer to this question is:
billy ocean -lrb- born leslie sebastian charles ; 21 january 1950 -rrb- is an trinidadian-born english recording artist who had a string of r&b international pop hits in the 1970s and 1980s .he was the most popular british r&b singer-songwriter of the early to mid-1980s .after scoring his first four uk top 20 successes , seven years passed before he accumulated a series of transatlantic successes , including three u.s. number ones .in 1985 , ocean won the grammy award for best male r&b vocal performance for his worldwide hit , '' caribbean queen '' , and in 1987 was nominated for the brit award for best british male artist .in 2002 , the university of westminster , london , awarded ocean an honorary doctorate of music .in 2010 , ocean was presented with the lifetime achievement award at the mobo awards .on 29 july 2011 , ocean became a companion of the liverpool institute for performing arts , presented to him by sir paul mccartney .he is a member of the rastafari movement .