Leanne Dobinson

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Leanne Dobinson
Background information
Birth name	Leanne Dobinson
Born	1986
Origin	England
Genre(s)	Pop, musicals, classical
Instrument(s)	Singing
Years active	2006–present
Website	Official Leanne Dobinson Website

Leanne Dobinson (born in Barking, England) is an English singer and was a contestant on the BBC1 show, How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? which strives to find the leading lady for the new Andrew Lloyd Webber produced version of The Sound of Music that will open in the West End in autumn 2006. She was voted out in the fourth round of the show on Saturday 2 September 2006 so will not play the part of Maria von Trapp but Webber advised her to keep training to be a singer as she has a lot of talent.

[edit] Background

Barking born, Leanne Dobinson has been singing since she was young and has had little formal training. She attended The Sandon School in Chelmsford, Essex from 1997 before studying music at the Colchester Institute in 2002. After being inspired by a Lesley Garrett TV show she taught herself how to sing in Italian, French, German and Latin after borrowing some CDs from the library.

Although Leanne Dobinson played the role of a young Eponine in Les Miserables in the West End, it involved just walking across the stage each night and she didn't get the chance to sing.

She took part in about ten local talent competitions between ages 9-15, the biggest was the Haven Stars of Tomorrow National Finals, which she won.

She was working as an Assistant Manager in a ladies clothes shop until one week before her first audition for Maria. Business was quiet and they had to make job cuts.

Leanne Dobinson loves listening to classical music and loves Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bocelli.

Regarding her similarities with Maria from The Sound of Music, she said that "I am kind-hearted, I have child-like qualities, love children and have a real flair for adventure and trying new things," adding that "My personality fits perfectly to the role as Maria and because I have had little formal training, I am a blank canvas that the producers and director can work with."

Following her appearance on "How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?" Leanne was cast in the lead role of Snow White in the pantomime Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs performed at the Theatre Royal, Windsor. Leanne performed alongside West End favourite Marti Webb (as the Wicked Queen) among other notable performers.

Leanne has been very busy recently working towards her next project called Make Do And Mend at The Royal Theatre centre, Nottingham. The show runs from the 10th july to 14th july. should be a definite hit! as well as doing this she is also currently auditioning for lots of other shows... so keep your eyes peeled for this up and coming star.

here is Leanne Dobinson's website:

www.leannedobinson.co.uk

here is Leanne Dobinson's music myspace:

www.myspace.com/leannedobinsonmusic

Songs performed for the BBC

For the first of the BBC How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? knock-out shows Dobinson sang the Björk song "It's Oh So Quiet", for which she obtained enough public phone votes to go through to the next round.
On the second of the shows she sang the Dee_C._Lee song "See the Day".
On the third show she sang the Dolly Parton song "9 to 5"
On the fourth show she sang "Hopelessly Devoted to You" from the musical Grease. She managed to secure enough public phone votes to go through the evening's first round, but in the second round was in the bottom two with Helena Blackman. They then sung a joint rendition of the song "I Don't Know How to Love Him" from the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Jesus Christ Superstar. After much deliberation Lloyd Webber said that he wanted to save Blackman. Afterwards she said "I knew this was coming. When the standard in this high – I expected it. If my age was an issue they shouldn't have put me here but I'm grateful for the opportunity. It's been amazing. And anyway – I'm glad I'm out because next week it's all about dancing!"