Lisa Hannigan
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Lisa Hannigan is an Irish singer best known for accompanying Damien Rice.
Hannigan was born on February 12th, 1981, and comes from Dunshaughlin, Co. Meath, Ireland.[1] She attended secondary school at The King's Hospital in Palmerstown, and was a student in art history at Trinity College Dublin. She left before finishing her degree to pursue singing.
Early in 2001, Hannigan began singing as a lead vocalist for Rice's music at a concert in the Temple Bar Music Centre in Dublin. She appears on his debut album O singing on the majority of the tracks. She also often accompanied Rice in his live performances, as a vocalist and occasionally on electric guitar and alongside bass, and on one occasion (Glastonbury Festival, 2003) played the drums on a track. Most recently, Hannigan contributed to Rice's album 9, including a lead vocal on the album's first single, "9 Crimes".
Though Hannigan has never released her solo material officially, some live recordings have been made available through trading networks of her performing covers on tour, or on radio shows. Available covers include traditional folk songs, and more contemporary covers including; Joni Mitchell's "Willy", Nina Simone's "Be My Husband" (from 1965 Pastel Blues), Janis Joplin's "Mercedes Benz" and Roy Orbison's "Love Hurts". She has also performed live with her own band, The Daisy Okell Quartet, but no recordings are known to have been released. She also performed a solo set at the 2006 Electric Picnic festival in County Laois, Ireland.
She has contributed guest vocals on a number of other artists' recordings, including The Frames, Mic Christopher, and Herbie Hancock. She performed on the track "Don't Explain," with Damien Rice on Hancock's album, "Possibilities."
In September 2003, Hannigan appeared in a new play by Jessamyn Fiore called "The Mysterious World of Birds", performed in Galway, Ireland and Dublin. She has an active history in the theatre, and even started her own theatre group - The Cowardly Lion Theatre Group.
Recently she appeared in an advertisement for Oxfam's Make Trade Fair campaign that featured her being drenched in melted chocolate. As part of the same campaign, she contributed vocals to the Irish musical collective The Cake Sale. [2]
Also in 2006, Lisa, with Vyvienne Long, Shane Fitzsimmons, and Tom Osander (the other members of Damien Rice's band) contributed to the Irish language album, Ceol 06, on the track, "Banríon mo Chroí". This translates in English to "Queen of My Heart", and is a cover of the Mic Christopher / Mary Janes song "Queen of Hearts".[3]
On March 26, 2007, Damien Rice announced that his professional relationship with Lisa Hannigan has ended, saying the relationship "has run its creative course". She has since left the band. [4]
Lisa sings Some Surprise with Snow Patrol frontman Gary Lightbody on The Cake Sale album.
Recently, two demos have been uploaded to her MySpace, 'Lille' and 'Pistachio'. In addition to this, on her MySpace she states, "I'm in the middle of making my first record and I want it to come out as soon as possible so I can sing in venues more socially acceptable than Superquinn and the Luas Station." Since then, she has posted another demo, 'Sea Song'.
