Robbie Nevil
American musician

Robert S. Nevil (born October 2, 1958) is an American pop singer, songwriter, record producer, and guitarist who had five Billboard top 40 hits including his songs "C'est la Vie" (#2, 1986), "Dominoes" (#14, 1987), and "Wot's It to Ya" (#10, 1987).
Life and career
Nevil began playing guitar at age 11 and played in a series of cover bands. He began performing his original music and signed a publishing deal in 1983, writing songs for the Pointer Sisters; El DeBarge; Alison Moyet; and Earth, Wind & Fire.
In 1986, he obtained his first recording contract, signing with Manhattan Records, and he recorded his debut album with the producers Alex Sadkin and Phil Thornalley. His debut single "C'est la Vie" reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, propelling the album into the top 40 on both the U.S. pop and Billboard R&B chart. His second single "Dominoes" hit #14 on the Hot 100 and #22 on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart, while the third single "Wot's It to Ya" peaked at #10 on the Hot 100 and Dance Club/Play charts, and #69 on the R&B chart. He sang backup on Stevie Nicks' version of "Silent Night" for the holiday compilation A Very Special Christmas.
Nevil's second album was released in 1988; however, it did not match the success of his debut album. A Place Like This (#118) spawned the top 40 moderate hit "Back on Holiday" (#34), and a second single, "Somebody Like You", became a minor hit, peaking at #63. During this period, Nevil was also in discussions regarding becoming the lead singer of Yes following the departure of Jon Anderson.
“Robbie Nevil” enters the record as american musician. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Robbie, Nevil and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Robbie Nevil” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Robbie, Nevil and American provides the most credible route into that argument.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q162732. VIAF identifies the subject as 66658275. The Library of Congress control number is n91119652. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1958, 1986, 1987 and 1983.
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This entry incorporates text from “Robbie Nevil” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.