Lisa Edwards

Lisa Anne Edwards (born 25 September 1958) is an Australian solo and session singer and musician.

Lisa Anne Edwards was born in 1958 in Adelaide.

Her father is a jazz pianist and her mother was a stage performer.

Edwards made her stage debut aged seven with her father, who regularly took her with him.

In secondary school, with three other students, she formed a quartet, Harmonic, which went from talent programs to performing on the club circuit.

For most of her career she has been based in Melbourne.

Edwards' domestic partner is Michael Turner, a barrister, and the couple have a child.

Lisa Edwards began her 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.

In September 1981 she issued her debut single, "Centre Spread", on Mushroom Records.

It was the theme song for a film soundtrack of the same name.

The song was written and co-produced by John C. Sharp, which was recorded and mixed at Pepper Studios in Adelaide.

Her second single, "You Are My Melbourne", was a duet with Adrian Campbell in 1985.

Lisa Edwards at the Australian Rock Database:

According to George Wilson of The Sydney Morning Herald it was written by Indian-born Australian resident, Raj Marwah.

It is a cover version of Godley and Creme's single (March 1985).

In 1986 Edwards was lead vocalist in Short Circuit, a dance-disco group with Trevor Courtney on drums.

Both Edwards and Courtney joined White Light Orchestra, a 36-member ensemble, which issued an album, Halley's Comet, in April.

Mike Daly of The Age described the track, "Moon and Stars", as an "uninspiring piece of technopop", which, written by "Bill Miller, is sung by [Edwards]."

Edwards and Lindsay Field provided vocals for the score of the comedy feature film, "Crocodile" Dundee (April 1986), with music composed by Peter Best.

Edwards sang "Playing with Fire", music by Frank Strangio and lyrics by Eve Dembowski, for the feature film, Dead End Drive-In (August 1986).

Turbo Luv Nuns was a group, in 1987, with Edwards on backing vocals, Ronnie Charles (ex-The Groop) on lead vocals, Peter Coughlan on bass guitar, Mark Greig (ex-Australian Crawl) on lead guitar and Des McKenna on drums.

They issued an album, They Don't Know.

She also provided vocals for Short Circuit's album, Waiting for the Big One (1988).

In that year she joined with members of Schnell Fenster – Phil Judd on guitar, trumpet, keyboards and vocals; Nigel Griggs on bass guitar; Noel Crombie on drums and percussion; and Michael den Elzen on guitars, guitar synth, fretless guitar and keyboards – to form Noel's Cowards with Vika Bull on vocals; Michael Harris on fiddle; Wendy Matthews on lead vocals; and Louis McManus on mandolin.

They provided six songs for the soundtrack of the feature film, Rikky and Pete (1988).

In July 1992 she had a top 5 hit on the ARIA Singles Chart with her cover version of Godley and Creme's "Cry".

Edwards is primarily a backing vocalist and has worked for fellow Australian and international artists, including John Farnham and Kylie Minogue.

Edwards also provided vocals on Real Life's "Send Me an Angel" and Olivia Newton-John's "Stronger Than Before".

In April 1992 Edwards issued a single, "Cry", which reached the top5 on the ARIA Singles Chart.

On the ARIA End of Year Singles Chart for 1992, it reached No.41.

Subsequent singles, "So Dangerous' (1992)", "Until the Day" (June 1993) and "Lose Myself in You" (September), had less chart success, and Edwards returned to performing as a backing singer.

As a solo artist, Edwards has issued two studio albums, Thru the Hoop (1993) and State of the Heart (2005).

She released her debut solo album, Thru the Hoop, in May 1993, with backing vocals from Farnham and Jack Jones (of John Farnham Band and Southern Sons).

Bevan Hannan of The Canberra Times, rated the album as seven out of ten.

Hannan praised the opening track, "Satisfy Me", as having a "funky feel [that] grabs you by the ears, the type of sound which you would swear was stripped from Kate Ceberano's Brave or Think About It."

He opined that the rest of the album "doesn't sink to wallowing depths, but the conservative nature of the other nine tracks only earns it a solid rating."

Edwards wrote the track, "Stay with Me", which Hannan described as "first class".

From 1993 Edwards has contributed Christmas carols for the annual The Spirit of Christmas album series, which is produced and compiled by fellow John Farnham Band backing singer, Lindsay Field.

It was provided to celebrate of the 150th anniversary of the foundation of Melbourne.

Also in that year she provided vocals on Joe Lamont's album, Secrets You Keep.