Connie Champagne
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Connie Champagne (born Kelly Gabriel) is an American singer, actress, songwriter and entertainer born on November 23 19XX in Roseville, California.
She was a musical child and her singing career began at the age of 9 when she sang Hello Dolly at the Beer Garden at the Placer County Fair with the Bob Ringwald Jazz Band (father of Molly Ringwald). While attending high school she was a cheerleader and also fronted numerous bands in the San Francisco Bay Area. As a teenager she vactioned in Ireland where she was exposed to traditional music and enjoyed all types of music with Jazz being her preferred genre. She graduated with honors and a Bachelors Degree in Theatre from Mills College. She currently resides in San Francisco.
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[edit] Early success
Her first album, La Strada (HeyDay Records) received critical praise from both fans and media nationwide.
[edit] San Francisco personality
Champagne has won many awards, including The San Francisco Weekly Wammie Award for Outstanding Cabaret/Lounge Performer. She was nominated for Outstanding Female Vocalist by BAM Magazine and for the Cable Car Awards' Entertainer of the Year. The San Francisco Examiners' Readers Poll, compiled by staff writer Julian Guthrie, rated Connie #30 among the Top One Hundred Best Things About San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge was at 40th place.
Connie Champagne's career was featured in the book by V Vale crator of Research Magazine titled Swing! The New Retro Renaissance (V Search Publications).
[edit] Career highlights
Champagne toured extensively with swing band The New Morty Show, and recorded a CD, Morty-fied, on SlimStyle. She has has performed with a variety of artists and groups including: Romeo Void, Cyndi Lauper, and the Dead Kennedys. She has performed on stage with such stellar personalities as Lorna Luft, John Waters, Ann Miller, Karen Black and Christina Crawford. She has appeared in Los Angeles and New York in a one-woman show This Is War! She was cast as cult heroine Neely O'Hara in Phillip R. Ford's long-running stage adaptation of Valley of the Dolls. She has done voice overs and voiced charaters in animated films such as FernGully 2: The Magical Rescue.
Champagne cites Judy Garland as one of her idols and she won the Dean Goodman Award for Oustanding Cabaret show for iMAGINE Judy Garland: An Evening With Connie Champagne. She also played Garland in off-Broadway productions of "Christmas With The Crawfords" and "Judy's Scary Little Christmas". New York Times critic Neil Genzlinger described Champagne's performance as “the one you remember. Riding on the success of her tribute to Garland she recoded a CD "Imagine Judy Garland" in which she sings songs that Garland never sang. Champagne evokes Garland rather than imitates her and her her voice has been compared to that of Garland. Connie Champagne has been a favourite performer at Marc Huestis' Castro Theatre productions for several years.
Her current project is as lead in a vocal group called the Whoa Nellies touring in a show that is a blend of music and camp with her friends: The Whoa Nellies featuring Champagne's friends perform pop hits by groups like the [[Mamas & the Papas, the Cowsills, The Partridge Family, and The Monkees.
