Ivor Neville "Nick" Kamen is an English male model, songwriter and musician. He is best known for the singles "Each Time You Break My Heart" from 1986 and "I Promised Myself" from 1990. In a 1985 Levi commercial he took off his blue jean '501s' and white T-shirt in a launderette.
Career
Kamen attended St Marks RC Comprehensive School in Harlow along with his brothers Barry and Chester. Kamen was first brought to the public's attention in 1984 when Ray Petri featured him on the front cover of The Face. The cover showed him wearing a ski-hat, lipstick, orange roll-neck sweater and aviator sunglasses. He is known in the UK, for his appearance in the 1985Levi's "Launderette" commercial, where he strips down to wash his blue jeans in a 1950s style public laundromat while he waits clad only in his Sunspelboxer shorts, which was one of a series of Bartle Bogle Hegarty advertisements that dramatically increased sales of Levi 501s. The commercial, directed by Roger Lyons, was selected for, and came fourth in, The 100 Greatest TV Ads in 2000. His first single was the 1986 UK number five hit "Each Time You Break My Heart" from his eponymous début album. Written and produced by Madonna and Stephen Bray, it also cracked both the US dance chart and the Top 50 in Canada. Madonna also sang the backing vocals. Her original demo remains one of many unreleased Madonna songs. Kamen also had a No. 16 follow-up in the UK with the second single, "Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever", although his later singles were less-commercially successful in the UK but more so in the rest of Europe, particularly Italy, France, Germany and Spain. Kamen's second albumUs was produced by Patrick Leonard. Madonna again made an appearance as a backing vocalist on the song "Tell Me", this time without contributing to the songwriting or production. The song became a massive hit in Italy in the summer of 1988, spending a total of nine weeks on the number one position. In 1989 Kamen performed the song "Turn It Up" on the soundtrack to Walt Disney's film, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. 1990 saw the release of one of his biggest hits. The single "I Promised Myself", from the albumMove Until We Fly, reached Number 1 in eight European countries and was the fourth most played record in Europe in 1990. The song was later covered by Dead or Alive, A-Teens, Basshunter and most recently German punk rockers Maggers United. Kamen's 1988 hit in Europe "Bring Me Your Love" has a Cantonese cover version "今夜你是否一人" reached No.1 on the airplay chart in Hong Kong in 1989. Kamen appeared on UK television, singing, on Top of the Pops, This Morning, Night Network and The Tube. In 1992, Kamen released his last album to date, entitled Whatever, Whenever. Cherry Pop Records released his debut album as a 2-disc-deluxe-edition in 2015, followed by The Complete Collection, 6CD Boxset in 2020.
