Jim Jayawardena & Eliot Kennedy
Jim Jayawardena is a composer, producer and electronic music designer based in Sheffield in the UK.
Throughout a long career, Jim has worked with artists including Donny Osmond, Gary Barlow, Nicole Scherzinger, Bryan Adams, Dame Shirley Bassey, The Wanted and Geri Halliwell, among many others.
Jim is also an in-demand electronic music designer in musical theatre. Credits include: MEAN GIRLS THE MUSICAL (UK tour), FINDING NEVERLAND (Broadway and US tours), DEATH NOTE (West End), THE KARATE KID THE MUSICAL (UK and Canada tour and west end 2027) THELMA AND LOUISE (West End) and STRICTLY BALLROOM (West End).
Eliot Kennedy is a multi-award-winning songwriter and record producer, who has turned his hand in recent years to writing musical theatre shows and music for film and TV, along with music for mental health therapy. Eliot’s first global songwriting success, the Spice Girls smash hit single ‘Say You’ll Be There,’ was followed by a string of major hits written and produced for artists including Celine Dion, Bryan Adams, Boyzone, Blue, S Club 7, Five, Billie Piper and Atomic Kitten. In 1997, Eliot won an Ivor Novello Award for Boyzone’s ‘Picture Of You,’ and in 2006 his song ‘Never Gonna Break My Faith’ earned a Grammy award when it was performed by Aretha Franklin and Mary J Blige for the multi-award-winning feature film, BOBBY. Alongside Bryan Adams, Eliot also won Canada’s Juno Award for Songwriter of the Year for ‘When You’re Gone’, and was nominated for a Critics Choice Award for ‘Never Let Go’, which featured in the 2006 film THE GUARDIAN, as well as collaborating with Hans Zimmer on the Dreamworks movie SPIRIT.
For many years, Eliot has enjoyed a fruitful songwriting partnership with Gary Barlow. In 1993, Eliot co-wrote and co-produced songs on Take That’s second album and Eliot’s first UK Number One record, ‘Everything Changes’. In 2008, Eliot and Gary wrote songs for BRITANNIA HIGH, a TV series for which Eliot also scored all of the episodes, and in 2012 they co-produced ‘Sing,’ the official song for the Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty The Queen. In 2017 together they wrote the songs for the musicals FINDING NEVERLAND (which won Broadway.com awards for Best Musical and Best Song), CALENDAR GIRLS and AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS.
Eliot has recently had more chart success with Dame Shirley Bassey, writing her single ‘Look But Don’t Touch’ and Bryan Adams and is currently working on a new ‘Broadway bound’ musical titled EMPIRE STATE DREAMS. After 25 years of writing and producing hits for international artists, Eliot finally recorded his own album, A YACHT NAMED SUE, with singles ‘My Destiny’, ‘When Love Breaks Down’ and ‘A Love If Your Own’ gaining fan and radio support.
During the Covid-19 lockdown Eliot composed and produced an album, MIND MUSIC, to help with anxiety and general mental health. This was followed by a radio show focussed on assisting people to relax and find peaceful sleep. Eliot also has a passion for his home city , Sheffield, where he has devoted many years to charities supporting homelessness, mental health and cancer research.
