Lisa Hannigan

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Lisa Margaret Hannigan (born 12 February 1981) is an Irish singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist.

Her music has led to much success, critical praise, airplay and award nominations in her native Ireland and, more recently, in the United States. Hannigan is best known for having accompanied the highly successful singer-songwriter Damien Rice. Since leaving him, she has begun her own career, with her 2008 debut album Sea Sew spawning the hit single "Lille", a Choice Music Prize nomination, two Meteor Music Awards nominations and a Mercury Prize nomination. There has also been praise from fellow musicians and, in recent times, Jools Holland of the United Kingdom and US television hosts Jay Leno and Stephen Colbert, the latter of whom is not renowned for his endorsement of musicians.

She is known for aiding charities such as Oxfam and her "Some Surprise" duet with Gary Lightbody featured on the US television series ''Grey's Anatomy. As part of an advertising campaign for fair trade the singer permitted herself be covered in melted chocolate. Hannigan has performed and been associated with musicians such as Cathy Davey, Mic Christopher, Mick Flannery, David Kitt and members of Snow Patrol, The Frames and Bell X1 and has performed at the Glastonbury Festival both as a solo artist and alongside Damien Rice.

Style

Hannigan emits "a moan of delicate strength, and stirring warmth and humanity", describing her style as that of "plinky plonk rock", a genre coined by a friend. She performs using "broken-down, wheezy old instruments", assisting her band members in the transportation of this equipment. Her blog posts are noted for containing recipes for baking cakes.

Early life

Hannigan was born on 12 February 1981,title=Lisa Hannigan and comes from Kilcloon in County Meath. She was "quiet and bookish", attending primary school at Scoil Oilibhear Naofa in Kilcloon where she first sang as a six-year-old fairy on top of a Christmas tree in her school play.title=Official Biography She developed her singing through other avenues such as providing the backing vocals to her mother's front seat Joni Mitchell and Nina Simone when she was being driven to West Cork on summer holidays. She also sang and danced to the first tape she bought, Michael Jackson's "Bad". Hannigan later attended secondary school at The King's Hospital in Palmerstown and, at the age of eighteen, became a student of art history at Trinity College, Dublin

. She met Damien Rice in Whelans, a pub that is popular with up and coming musicians, during her first week of college. She bumped into him a few times after that. He told her that he was a musician looking for a female backing singer and Lisa timidly told him that she was a singer. He came to listen to her when she was singing in a classical concert and liked what he heard, resulting in the start of their musical partnership.

Career

Damien Rice collaborations

Hannigan began singing as a lead vocalist with Rice's band at a concert in the Temple Bar Music Centre in Dublin in early 2001, collaborating with him for six years. She featured on Rice's debut solo album O, first released in 2002, and sang on the majority of his tracks. The singer became a frequent companion of Rice during his live performances as a vocalist, and on occasion as an electric guitarist or bassist. At the Glastonbury Festival in 2003, Hannigan played the drums on one track. Hannigan went on to contribute to one more Damien Rice album 9, released in 2006, on which was included a lead vocal on "9 Crimes", the first single taken from the album.title=Refined Lisa Hannigan She has been dismissive of her role on the Rice records, telling The Daily Telegraph in 2009 that "it wasn't my record". However, Rice had a difficult relationship with Hannigan, as he had with other band members, and in one rare interview with The Independent he suggested their styles of song writing were incompatible and were to blame for the inadequacies he felt about the co-written "Unplayed Piano".title=Damien Rice: The world's most reluctant pop star Hannigan's duet with Snow Patrol frontman Gary Lightbody has featured on the U.S television series ''Grey's Anatomy''.title=Grey's Anatomy gets an Irish flavour

Prior to Hannigan's official release of solo material in 2008, some of her live recordings and covers performed on tour were made available through trading networks or on various radio shows. Such covers included a mix of traditional folk and more contemporary songs such as: "Willy" by Joni Mitchell, "Be My Husband" by Nina Simone (from the 1965 album Pastel Blues), "Mercedes Benz" by Janis Joplin and "Love Hurts" by Roy Orbison. Hannigan also performed live with her own band, called The Daisy Okell Quartet although no recordings are known to have been released. She then performed a solo set at the Electric Picnic music festival in Stradbally, County Laois in 2006.title=Lisa Hannigan By this time she had contributed guest vocals on a number of recordings by other artists, including Mic Christopher, The Frames and Herbie Hancock, on whose track, "Don't Explain", she performed alongside Damien Rice on the album, Possibilities.

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On 26 March 2007, Damien Rice announced that his professional relationship with Lisa Hannigan has ended, saying the relationship "has run its creative course" and that Hannigan would leave the band immediately to pursue a solo career.title=Rice & Hannigan no longer working together Hannigan had been in Munich, Germany with Rice's tour when she had learned that she was no longer needed and returned to Dublin immediately to begin work on her solo career. The singer later said of the split: "I suppose it was coming for a long time. I had become pretty outspoken about my frustrations at the direction the band was going in, and I'm sure he was starting to find me a pain." She was comforted by members of The Magic Numbers and has not spoken to Rice since the incident.
She has since described the split as the best thing that has ever happened to her.

Solo career

Lisa Hannigan's debut solo album, titled Sea Sew, was prepared in a barn in Thomastown and recorded in Dublin before being released in Ireland on 12 September 2008. The lead single, "Lille", was made available as a free download on lisahannigan.ie on 25 August. The sleeve featured needle-work knitted by Hannigan.title=Lisa Hannigan confirms album track-list She had previously previewed tracks "Lille", "Pistachio", "Some Surprise" and "Sea Song" on her MySpace page with the message: "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." The album was a critical success, earning rave reviews and being named by some music critics amongst the best Irish albums of the year.

Sea Sew garnered airtime on American radio station KCRW and earned early praise from that country's press, including the Los Angeles Times, which called it "charmingly idiosyncratic" and The New York Times which described it as "exquisitely ethereal". Lead single "Lille", released on 25 August 2008, became an airplay hit on Irish and American radio stations.title=Lisa musters the chutzpah to go solo in spotlight Hannigan went on to perform at Electric Picnic 2008. The admiration of Jason Mraz led to Hannigan supporting the Grammy-nominated Californian singer-songwriter on a 42-date U.S. tour which began on 8 October 2008.title=Music: Jason Mraz * * She lent her vocals to the charity album Even Better Than the Disco Thing, on which she performed a cover of Diana Ross's "Upside Down",title=Loaded: 12/12/2008 and on 5 December 2008 she performed a duet of Mick Flannery's new song "Christmas Past" with Flannery on Tony Fenton's Christmas Special on Today FM.title=Lisa's Duet with Mick Flannery Also in December 2008 she made her UK solo debut at St Johns Church in London.title=Lisa Hannigan's DEBUT Album 'Sea Sew' Shortlisted For Barclaycard Mercury Prize Hannigan signed with ATO Records in the U.S., where her album was released in February 2009. Sea Sew was then nominated for both the Choice Music Prize, and Best Irish Album at the Meteor Music Awards in January 2009.

Hannigan has been interviewed by the US television host Jay Leno. On 9 March 2009, Hannigan was interviewed by the US television personality Stephen Colbert and performed the song "I Don't Know" from her Sea Sew album on the television show The Colbert Report. Colbert allegedly saw a YouTube video of Hannigan performing the song in a Dingle pub which had been shot by Donal Dineen. The presenter also requested his viewers to buy Sea Sew, an unusual happening considering his portrayal as a "gormless, right-wing blowhard". Colbert even quizzed Hannigan on her sewing of the album's cover, asking if she had sewn the instruments as well – Hannigan is reported to be sewing Colbert a note of thanks for asking her to perform on his show. The singer later described The Colbert Report as an "amazing experience" and "the best thing ever", referring to the fact that Colbert invites very few artists to perform, and even this is usually limited to well-known acts such as R.E.M. and Neil Young.title=Hannigan shenanigans

On 12 May 2009, Hannigan made her debut on the BBC's Later... with Jools Holland, performing "I Don't Know" during the sixth episode of the show's thirty-fourth season.title=Lisa Hannigantitle=Episode 6 She was reported to have been excited about the appearance and hoped her co-performers on the episode would include Tony Bennett.title=Lisa Hannigan interview for her album 'See Sew' Sea Sew rose through the UK charts following this appearancetitle=Lisa Hannigan moves up the UK charts and she performed at Glastonbury 2009 as well as a sold-out UK tour later that year.title=Irish bands tuning up for Glastonbury Her subsequent Mercury Prize nomination saw her defined by the British press as "an Irish singer known for her collaboration with Damien Rice and now recognised for her debut album Sea Sew".title=Female solo artists dominate Mercury prize nominations She performed at the nomination ceremony where, considered a surprise inclusion by the country's media, she was greeted by confused journalists wondering "Lisa who?" followed by "about 10 photographers in my face shouting ‘Lisa, Lisa, Lisa’".title=Champagne moment

Hannigan's song "Ocean and Rock" is also familiar as the background to a 2009 Irish video supporting same-sex marriage entitled "Sinéad's Hand" that has become a surprise internet hit.

Hannigan performed at Electric Picnic 2009title=Nutty boys set for Electric Picnictitle=Electric Picnic bill unveiledtitle=Flaming Lips, MGMT & Madness top EP line-uptitle=Picnic promoters put faith in Electric line-uptitle=Electric Picnic 2009 - The List and Le Chéile.title=Le Cheile line-up announced Later in 2009, she will tour the United States again, accompanied by David Gray on this occasion, as well as performing her own shows in New York in October and Los Angeles in November. She will then perform a show in London before returning for an Irish tour, including dates in Killarney, Ennis, Donegal and Limerick, to end the year.title=Lisa Hannigan announces December dates

Side projects

further Side projects of Lisa Hannigan

Other pursuits

Hannigan has a history of theatre performance, having auditioned for musicals as a teenager but remaining largely unsuccessful except for being cast as Second Urchin in her school's production of My Fair Lady. She went on to start her own theatre group called "The Cowardly Lion Theatre Group". Hannigan appeared in a Jessamyn Fiore play titled The Mysterious World of Birds in September 2003; the play received performances in Dublin and Galway. As part of an advertisement for Oxfam's Make Trade Fair campaign she allowed herself to be drenched in melted chocolate. As part of the same campaign, she made major contributions to the Irish musical collective The Cake Sale, with lead vocals on the tracks "Some Surprise" (a duet with Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol with whom she has been romantically linkedtitle=THE CAKE SALE - OUT FRIDAY!) and "Last Leaf".title=Side Projectstitle=The Cake Sale She also contributed to the 2009 charity album, ''Sparks n' Mind, released in aid of Aware.title=Springsteen, Pixies & Portishead covered for Irish charity album Hannigan has also spoken of her intention to run the Dublin Marathon one day.

Discography

further Discography of Damien Rice

Sea Sew (2008)
Lille - EP (2009)
Lisa Hannigan - Live at Fingerprints (2009)

Awards

Hot Press Readers' Poll

Hannigan has four Hot Press Readers' Poll awards. She won Best Debut Album, Best Irish Album, Best Irish Track and Best Female in 2009.

awards table

Signed Music Artists