Lisa Edwards

Lisa Anne Edwards (born 25 September 1958) is an Australian solo and session singer and musician. 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". As a solo artist, Edwards has issued two studio albums, Thru the Hoop (1993) and State of the Heart (2005).

Early and personal life

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, Harmony, which went from talent programs to performing on the club circuit. For most of her career, she has been based in Melbourne. It was the theme song for a film soundtrack of the same name.

Her second single, "You Are My Melbourne", was a duet with Adrian Campbell in 1985. According to George Wilson of The Sydney Morning Herald it was written by Indian-born Australian resident, Raj Marwah. It was provided to celebrate of the 150th anniversary of the foundation of Melbourne.

In 1986 Edwards was lead vocalist in Short Circuit, a dance-disco group with Trevor Courtney on drums. 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 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. 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. After a month, Edwards returned to backing vocals for John Farnham on his The Last Time Tour; State of the Heart reached No.19 on the ARIA Hitseekers Albums Chart. Edwards' solo performances are often based around tributes to her childhood idols: Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, Diana Ross and Natalie Cole.

Edwards released her third studio album, I'm Still the Woman, in 2022.

Backing vocalist for national and international performers

Aside from vocals Lisa Edwards plays percussion and flute: initially she was recruited as a flautist for the John Farnham Band in 1988. She has been one of his backing vocalists for both studio sessions and touring from Age of Reason (July 1988) to Jack (October 2010), inclusive.

Released: May 1993 Format: CD Label: Emerald City/Polydor

Released: August 2005 Format: CD Label: Warner (5046798622)

Released: 28 May 2021 Format: CD, Digital download, streaming Label: Fanfare Records (FANFARE414) Producer: Michael Cristiano

Singles + List of singles, with selected chart positions Year Title Peak chartpositions Certification Album AUS 1981 "Power" (from 'Centrespread') - 1985 "You Are My Melbourne" (Lisa Edwards and Adrian Campbell) - 1992 "Cry" 5AUS: Gold Thru the Hoop "So Dangerous" 106 1993 "Until the Day" 86 "(I Can Just) Lose Myself in You" 106

Awards and nominations ARIA Music Awards The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of Australian music. They commenced in 1987.

Paul Goldman for "Cry" by Lisa Edwards Best Video Doug Brady for "Cry" & "So Dangerous" by Lisa Edwards Engineer of the Year