Jill Jones (born on July 11, 1962 in Lebanon, Ohio) is a female pop/R&B singer-songwriter who was one of Prince’s protege musicians.

Jill’s mother (who is of African-American descent) was a fashion model and her father (who is of Italian descent) was a jazz drummer. She was mainly raised by her grandparents until relocating to Los Angeles, California after her mother remarried.

She began her singing career when she was 15 years old as a back-up singer for Teena Marie (whom her mother managed) and provided backing vocals on Teena Marie’s Motown albums during the early ’80s; she also co-wrote the songs, “Young Girl in Love” (for her 1980 album, “Lady T”) and “The Ballad of Cradle Rob and Me” (from her 1981 album, “It Must Be Magic”).

Jill met Prince when she was 18 years old when Teena Marie was the opening act during his “Dirty Mind” tour. Prince was infatuated with Jill’s voice, encouraged her to sing and stayed in touched with her.  She became a back-up singer for Prince when he invited her to the Sunset Sound recording studios in 1982 to singing backing vocals for several tracks on his album, “1999.”
Jill was featured in Prince’s music videos for his songs, “Little Red Corvette” and “1999.” After joining his “1999” concert tour, she relocated to Minneapolis, Minnesota, becoming Prince’s on-and-off again girlfriend. She also had a bit part as a waitress in the 1984 film, “Purple Rain.”

In 1987, she released her self-titled debut studio album on Prince’s Paisley Park Records label; however, the album didn’t make a lot of impact on the charts at all.

The lead single from the album, “Mia Bocca” was a top 10 hit in Italy, but failed to make any impact in the United States at all.

The follow-up singles: “G-Spot” and “For Love” failed to make any music charts. After that, Jill recorded several demos for a second album, but it was never released due to Prince and Jill disagreeing on the direction of the album. A music video for the song, “Boom Boom (Can’t U Feel the Beat of My Heart)” was filmed, but never released either.
Jill later had a falling out with Prince which ended her tenure at Paisley Park Records, leaving her without a record contract, but she continued to collaborate with various artists such as Nile Rodgers, Lisa Lisa and Ryuichi Sakamoto. 
After leaving Prince, she returned to England to work on demos with Tim Simenon of Bomb the Bass which led to front a band called Baby Mother, who became very popular throughout the club scene in England. The band decided to sign a record deal with London Records, but they disbanded without releasing a single. At the time, Jill was busy in New York helping her mother, who was fighting cancer and asked to be released from the project.
After giving birth to her daughter, Jill’s mother lost her battle with cancer; her marriage also ended and at one point, she ended up hospitalized with a blood clot in her heart. By the mid to late ’90s, she re-emerged back into the music scene and toured with Chic as the co-lead vocalist.
In the following years, Jill began working with bassist/guitarist Chris Bruce on an album called “Two” which was released in 2001 on the Dav Music record label under the name Jill Jones & Chris Bruce.

In 2004, she formed a music duo called the Grand Royals with Ian Ginsberg and released an album called “Wasted” on the Peace Bisquit record label.

In 2009, Jill released the single, “Living for the Weekend” which peaked at #20 on Billboard’s Dance Club Songs chart, staying on the chart for 13 weeks.

In 2016, she released her second solo album, “I Am” on the Peace Bisquit record label. After Prince’s death in April of that same year, she wrote a tribute song to him called “I Miss You” which was released as a single.
These days (according to research), it appears as if Jill is somewhat active with her music career and is still signed to the Peace Bisquit record label; she also appears to work as a journalist for Ubikwist Magazine and her daughter, Azusena is a singer as well.
To see Jill Jones’ Facebook page, go to:
To follow Jill Jones on Twitter, go to:
https://twitter.com/jilldjones
To see a video for “Mia Bocca,” go to:

To see a video for “G-Spot,” go to:

To see a video for “For Love,” go to:

To see a video for “Living for the Weekend,” go to:

To see a video for “I Miss You,” go to:

[Updated on 10/04/2020]