Lisa Edwards

Lisa Edwards is an Australian solo and session singer/musician. Although she earned an Australian Gold record for her album Thru the Hoop and scored a Top 5 hit with the Godley and Creme song Cry", Edwards is primarily a backing vocalist and is well known to Australian audiences as one of John Farnham’s accomplished and dynamic backup singers. She has worked with some of Australia's biggest acts over the decades, providing her mesmerizing vocals on such songs as Real Life's "Send Me An Angel" and Olivia Newton-John's "Stronger Than Before".

Early life and Career

Born in Adelaide, Edwards is the daughter of a Jazz pianist and a stage performer. She made her stage debut aged seven with her father, who would then regularly take the young girl on stage with him to perform. In secondary school, Lisa with three other students formed the quartet Harmonic, who went from talent programs to performing the club circuit.[1]

Solo Career

Edwards began her own career as a solo artist and backing singer in the late 1970s, in South Australia and Sydney supporting artists including The Seekers, The Platters, The Drifters and The Pointer Sisters.[1] She released an album called State of the Heart and a cover of the Icehouse single Man of Colours in 1981 which was not successful,[2] so she return to performance and backing singing.

Instruments

Edwards sings as well as plays percussion and flute, the later for which she was recruited to John Farnham's band in 1988.[3] In 1993 she released the solo album Thru The Hoop, from which the song Cry achieved gold status throughout Australia.[1]

Backing vocalist

Edwards work as a backing singer includes working with: Noiseworks, Black Sorrows, Real Life, Ross Wilson, Billy Thorpe, Brian Cadd, John Farnham and Kate Ceberano; and she was one of the backing vocalists on Kylie Minogue's Enjoy Yourself Tour in 1990. As a result, she performed with Yoko Ono for the John Lennon Tribute Concert in Liverpool. She returned to Australia to support Olivia Newton-John and Tom Jones on the Australian legs of their tours.[1]

She worked with Kylie again in 1998 on the singer's Intimate and Live Tour of Australia.

Edwards continues to perform, both as a solo artist, a member of Farnham's band and as a backing singer; and is renowned for her live performance capability. Her solo performances are normally based around a tribute to her childhood idols of Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, Diana Ross and Natalie Cole.[4] She was part of the "Tour of Duty" concert for the people and Australian Army troops in appreciation of the peacekeeping effort in East Timor. Edwards is an Australia Day ambassador for the state of Victoria.[1]

Personal life

She has also recently had a daughter Madison.

Discography

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Australia Day - Victoria - What's On - Ambassadors
  2. ↑ "Man Of Colours :: Lisa Edwards :: OzTrax". Abc.net.au. 2005-08-21. Retrieved 2012-03-30.
  3. ↑ "Lisa Edwards". Johnfarnham.info. Retrieved 2012-03-30.
  4. ↑ Capers Artist

External links