video may have killed the radio star but that evolution also gave british actress television
personality radio dj and former mtv vj julie brown better known as downtown julie brown
a chance to make her mark as one of the most beloved television personalities in america
during one of the greatest eras of music julie hails from a mixed background including a black
jamaican father and a white british mother she and her six siblings grew up as military brats
due to their father's stint in the royal air force she got to experience living on many bases
all over the world including cyprus and india in her teens julie engaged in some typical antics
such as sneaking out of her parents house not to hang out with friends or boys but to dance
she entered a number of disco dancing competitions and on one such occasion she won after capturing
the uk disco dancing championships she then went on to win the world disco dancing championship in
1979. julie also appeared as one of many dancers on the weekly british music series top of the pops
in the early 80s as a member of the dance troupe zoo her on-air career began on british television
as a presenter one of her biggest gigs would be on the pan european music channel music box
during this time she along with her co-workers decided to make a videotape wishing everyone
a merry christmas across the pond at mtv the american equivalent of music box the powers that
be noticed her immediately called up the station and asked if she would be interested in coming
to new york city for an audition she was after getting off the plane in the big apple she marched
herself over to mtv's office and had an audition so good that she scored the job on the spot
that job was as the host of club mtv the station's brand new dance music show it ran for seven years
from 1985 to 1992. julie told oprah's where are they now in 2014 that she was encouraged
to be natural but she did have to make sure to do her homework because you never knew
who would walk through the door another interesting tidbit julie shared was her
rumored relationship with billy idol according to julie she wouldn't call her experience with
him a relationship she had always had a major love for punk rock music growing up
when she made it to the us and broke into the entertainment industry she got the opportunity to
meet and interview him during their exchange she asked him what he would like to do and he said her
what happened next was julie making a phone call to her mother to tell her that she wanted to bonk
billy idol it's probably safe to assume that the shy coy look julie then gave to the camera
meant that the intimate moment did go down but never manifested into anything more serious her
famous nickname came from a famous basketball player john sally who was playing for the
detroit pistons at the time julie was a huge basketball fan so she found herself one day in
detroit taking in a charity game she stole the ball and proceeded to walk off the court with it
naturally the players started complaining to get the ball back so what did julie
do she launched the ball into the air from downtown and it went straight into the basket
as for her other famous attribute her club mtv catchphrase
the true story of how it came about is a little fuzzy since julie has told different accounts
one story was that as she was reading the cue cards held up by a member of the camera crew
she instead accidentally read the message printed on the person's shirt in version number two she
claims that she saw the words on one of the commercial slides that would get thrown in on
camera to create a break in the show either way it became her signature sign off as well as the
signal she'd used in the control room to indicate that something was going awry with the taping
instead of swearing a major coincidence that mtv capitalized on was that there were actually two
julie browns working for the channel at the same time comedic actress julie brown played the role
of a demanding controlling and pessimistic glamour girl from the valley making fun of popular music
apps while at the same time introducing the music videos on her show just say julie the ladies were
paired up together as correspondents for mtv news as well as featured on each other's shows
by the time 1992 rolled around mtv was beginning to shift its programming model away from music
and as a result the network cancelled club mtv and that meant julie was out of a job in an interview
with the baltimore sun just a few months after her departure julie expressed her frustration
with the decision dance is bigger than ever the reason they took it off was because a new circle
of higher ups came in they wanted to have their day in the sun and wanted to make it look like
they were making a change i think they got it all wrong maybe they killed club mtv but they didn't
kill me julie went on to work for espn conducting on and off field interviews with football athletes
and then packed up and moved to la to host the entertainment channel's hollywood gossip show
she then moved from in front of the camera to behind the mic when she became the host of the
syndicated radio program american dance tracks in the spring of 92 until its final broadcast
in late 93. five years later playboy came calling and she decided to bear it all as well as score a
feature on the cover of the august 1998 edition julie's also been able to appear in a number
of big screen movies and tv shows including spy hard baps walker texas ranger and i'm a celebrity
get me out of here julie found love and married film producer and former ceo of financing group
intermediate martin sherman in 2001. in 2012 she hooked up with billboard.com as the host of their
new weekly show the music insider bringing live access to the most popular artists and events
in music next came another turn on reality tv when julie was featured on the show wife
swap which saw her trading places with olympic basketball legend lisa leslie julie returned in
front of the camera in 2020 to host the axs show a year in music for two seasons the show takes a
deep dive into the biggest artists songs and albums of one particular year per episode mtv
celebrated their 40th anniversary in 2021 but guess who was notably left off the party list
many of julie's fans were shocked and disappointed at how the host of one of their most popular shows
could be looked over after voicing their displeasure loudly across social media julie
ultimately did get an invite to join in on the festivities for years julie's been living and
loving the bi-continent life residing in both italy and los angeles with her family
currently she hosts the 90s online show on the sirius xm channel focused on r b hip-hop rock
dance and techno hits from the iconic decade she also hosts the related weekend show back
in the day replay countdown which plays the 30 biggest hits of the week from one particular year
in the 90s thanks for watching please like share and comment also don't forget to subscribe
and turn on your notifications so you won't miss any future videos see you next time