Monica Trápaga

Monica Maria Trapaga (born 1965) is an Australian television presenter, jazz singer, and writer.

Trapaga started her career in children's entertainment as a presenter on Play School, from 1990 to 1998; and had provided the vocals to the theme of Bananas in Pyjamas from 1992.

Trapaga joined lifestyle program Better Homes and Gardens in 1997 presenting decoration-related segments until 2003.

Whilst Trapaga had been on Play School, she started recording children's music albums as well as jazz ones. She was a member of various groups: Pardon Me Boys, Monica and the Moochers, and Monica Trapaga and the Bachelor Pad. Since the early 2000s, she has owned stores in Summer Hill and Newtown.

Early life Trapaga was born in 1965 and grew up in Wahroonga, New South Wales, as the youngest child of Spanish American mother Margot Trapaga (born 1935, née Esteban) and Spanish Chinese father, Nestor Juan Trápaga.

Her older siblings were all born in Manila, Philippines: Juan Ignacio, the eldest later became known professionally as Ignatius Jones, and became an events director, journalist, actor and shock rocker. Luis Miguel and Rocio Maria Trápaga – the family had relocated to Sydney by March 1963. In November 1991 she described her "fairly crazy Latin family. I grew up surrounded by music – everything from jazz and Latin to opera and classical music. My father had an interest in jazz, particularly Afro-Cuban jazz." In February 1988 they issued a self-titled album, which Lisa Wallace of The Canberra Times felt that "the harmonies on this disc would rival any Andrews Sisters' recording... Hot, tasty and jazzy". Trápaga left Pardon Me Boys as "I wanted to present myself as more of a musician than a cabaret performer" and they were a group she "outgrew because it wasn't my band".

In July 1988 she founded Monica and the Moochers in Sydney; a reviewer from The Canberra Times described the group, as "a band that emulates the music of the late 1940s and 1950s" ahead of a gig in Canberra, which was to be followed by a tour itinerary including Perth. By November 1989 the line-up were Trápaga on lead vocals, Andrew Dickenson on drums, Julian Gough on tenor saxophone, Bernie McGann on alto saxophone, Adrian Mears on trombone, Alister Spence on piano and Jonathon Zwartz on bass guitar.

Monica and the Moochers' first studio album, Too Darn Hot, was released by August 1990 on rooArt Jazz/PolyGram. Michael Foster of The Canberra Times declared her voice "always amazes me... through the years, with the volume and range of sound generated from such a small, fine frame" while she "has a very strong and very accomplished and versatile backing group". For the album, the Moochers were Dickenson, Gough, McGann, Mears, Spence, now including Mike Bukovsky on trumpet and Dave Ellis on bass guitar. The Canberra Times Brad Turner caught a performance which provided "some powerful and tightly-played jazz, swing and Latin standards, and of course a selection from Cotton on the Breeze, most of which Monica wrote". The group performed at Sydney's inaugural International Jazz Festival in January 1992. Two years later she married Julian Gough, a jazz saxophonist, musical director and sometime member of her backing groups, they are also parents of a child. In 2008 the couple were married; as of August 2013 they live in converted flour mill of five levels.

Trápaga authored a cookbook, She's Leaving Home: Favourite Family Recipes for a Daughter to Take on Her Own Life Journey, which was issued in October 2009.