Brooke Fraser

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Brooke Gabrielle Fraser
Brooke Fraser, 2007-05-05. Photo by Ronnie Ling.
Brooke Fraser, 2007-05-05. Photo by Ronnie Ling.
Background information
Birth name Brooke Gabrielle Fraser
Born December 15, 1983 (1983-12-15) (age 24)
Origin Wellington, New Zealand
Genre(s) Pop
Alternative
Pop/Rock
Folk rock
Years active 2002 – Current
Label(s) Sony Music Entertainment New Zealand
(2002 – Current)
Website Official Website

Brooke Gabrielle Fraser (born December 15, 1983 in Wellington, New Zealand) is an award-winning New Zealand singer-songwriter. She is also one of the principle worship leaders of the Christian worship band Hillsong United.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Brooke is the eldest of the three children born to former All Black, Bernie Fraser and his wife Lynda Fraser. Brooke grew up in Naenae, Lower Hutt and attended Dyer Street School then Naenae Intermediate and Naenae College.

Brooke started taking piano lessons at seven years of age, continuing until seventeen. She started writing songs at age twelve and taught herself the acoustic guitar at fifteen. Notably, she has never taken any singing lessons.

She performed at Parachute, an annual New Zealand music festival, and has continued to do so each year since 2000 - including a special guest performance in 2007.

Brooke was a presenter on a cable television show. She began writing for the Soul Purpose Magazine at age fifteen and was later made editor in 2002. She gave up her job as editor shortly after moving to Auckland in late 2002 in order to pursue her music career.[1]

[edit] Record deal

In 2002, while Brooke was in Auckland Scotty, the drummer for Elemeno P, organized a meeting with producer Matty J for her. Matty J became her manager, liaising with the major labels who had shown interest and compared their offers. Brooke had about five different labels offering her deals, and in late 2002 she ended up signing a multi-album deal with Sony Music Entertainment New Zealand.

[edit] What To Do With Daylight

Main article: What to Do with Daylight

Brooke's first album What To Do With Daylight was released in New Zealand in late 2003, debuting at #1 and achieved gold-selling status in the same week. The album eventually went 7 times platinum, selling over 100,000 copies in New Zealand alone. She remained on the album charts for a record 66 weeks [2]. All five singles from her album reached the top 20 RIANZ charts, the official singles chart of New Zealand. Her album was the second best selling NZ album of 2004 (behind Hayley Westenra's Pure which went 11 times platinum).

Following the release of What To Do With Daylight, Fraser toured Australia and New Zealand with American artist John Mayer and then toured New Zealand with veteran U.K. rock artist David Bowie[3]. Following this, Fraser set out with her band for her own What To Do With Daylight Tour. Australian Engineer Gareth Stuckey was enlisted to mix Front of House sound, and has done so since. Included amongst these live appearances, Fraser made several public and television appearances. Whilst on tour with John Mayer, she met with his guitarist and keyboardist Michael Chaves who, after recording Mayer's album Heavier Things, Fraser enlisted to play on her album and future concerts.

[edit] Albertine

Main article: Albertine (album)

In 2005, prior to writing and preparing her follow-up album, Fraser took a trip to Africa to immerse herself in Rwanda before visiting her sponsor children in Tanzania, as she is an advocate for child sponsorship. In this trip, she was so moved that she wrote the song "Albertine" about a young child (named Albertine), whom she met while in Rwanda. It was later decided to make this song the album's title track.

For the second album, Fraser decided to enlist a new band, primarily constructed from American musicians who'd worked with an array of notable artists, both live and recorded[4]. In 2006, Fraser and the band went into the studio in Los Angeles to record the album. Later, Fraser also allowed her MySpace page to give visitors a listen to the album's first single "Deciphering Me," which was later released initially to radio and ultimately to CD single, and achieved #4 in the New Zealand single charts.

On December 4, 2006 Albertine was released in New Zealand, achieving double platinum status less than a month after its release and has remained, to date, in the top 20 every week since. The album was released in Australia and internationally on March 31 2007. In Australia, it charted at #29 in its first week on April 9.

On April 6 2007, Fraser performed "Deciphering Me" for the Good Friday Appeal, an annual televised fundraising event to raise money for the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne.

In 2008, Fraser appeared on the Dave Barnes song "Believe" from his album Me + You + the World, performing backing vocals.

She is currently on tour in Canada and the United States to promote her CD release in these countries. She will appear at numerous venues across the continent.

[edit] Hillsong United

In 2006, Brooke joined Hilllsong United on stage at their yearly Encourterfest Event to lead the congregation in a worship song she wrote called "None But Jesus." Fraser joined the band full time the next year as one of its worship leaders, and has contributed to both the United Series of albums as well as the Hillsong Live albums.

[edit] Personal life

After the success of her first album, Fraser moved to Sydney, where she has lived for four years. She commutes to the U.S. for touring. Her album Albertine is commercially released in North America on May 27 on 2008. Fraser attends Hillsong Church. She is a worship leader and collaborator on the Hillsong United series of worship albums[5]. She is a Christian, and much of her lyrical content indicates this, as well as her continued participation in Christian and church events[6]. She is married to Scott Ligertwood.

[edit] Charity Work

Fraser has, since 2005, been the public face of World Vision in New Zealand. She has visited Cambodia and Tanzania with World Vision, the Philippines with Opportunity International and independently travelled to Rwanda in June 2005, in June 2006 as part of charity event "Hope Rwanda", and in May 2007 when she filmed the music video for the song 'Albertine'. In 2006 she, along with Petra Bagust and Tau from Spacifix, appeared advertising the World Vision 40 Hour Famine - an event which raises funds for children in third world countries. She also sponsors a number of children through World Vision.

[edit] Songs with Hillsong

Songs written or co-written by Brooke Fraser with Hillsong and Hillsong United include:

[edit] Awards

  • Most promising Woman Musician Award & Overall winner 1999 Hutt Valley Pepsi Smokefree Rockquest regional finals
  • Best Female Solo Artist: What To Do With Daylight - 2004 NZ Music Awards
  • Breakthrough Artist of the Year: What To Do With Daylight - 2004 NZ Music Awards
  • Most Performed Work on NZ radio in the Last 12 Months: Better - Apra Silver Scroll Awards 2004
  • Australasian Performing Right Association's Silver Scroll: Albertine - Apra Silver Scroll Awards 2007
  • The Warehouse Highest Selling Album: Albertine - 2007 NZ Music Awards
  • NZ on Air Airplay Record of the Year: Deciphering Me - 2007 NZ Music Awards


Fraser was also awarded a satirical award:

  • The most used fairy lights in a video clip (for "Arithmetic") - Studio 2 Awards (2004)

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Sunday Star-Times article regarding Fraser's music career, personal views, and involvement with Soul Purpose.
  2. ^ The RIANZ Chart indicates the chart run for What To Do With Daylight.
  3. ^ 2004 Performance details
  4. ^ The NewsTours Page on Fraser's website indicates her band's history.
  5. ^ Praise-Him.org details the Hillsong United lineup for United We Stand.
  6. ^ NZ Girl article confirming Fraser's Christianity and other facts about Fraser.

[edit] External links

BrookeFraser
v • d • e
Albums: What To Do With Daylight (2004) | Albertine (2006)
Singles: Better | Lifeline | Saving the World | Arithmetic | Without You | Deciphering Me | Shadowfeet | Albertine
Related: Hillsong United | Bernie Fraser | Naenae, Lower Hutt, New Zealand
Publishing: Sony BMG | Columbia Records
Official Sites: BrookeFraser.com | Brooke Fraser MySpace | Brooke Fraser Fansite
v • d • e
Hillsong musicians
Languages