Biography Wikipedia
Wikipedia:
Lisa Margaret Hannigan (born 12 February 1981) is an Irish singer, songwriter, and musician. For several years she was a member of Damien Rice's band before beginning her solo career in 2008. To date she has released two albums: Sea Sew (2008) and Passenger (2011).
Hannigan has been the recipient of various award nominations and critical praise both in Ireland and the USA. She has performed and been associated with Cathy Davey, Mic Christopher, Mick Flannery, David Kitt and members of Snow Patrol, The Frames and Bell X1. She has performed at the Glastonbury Festival both as a solo artist and with Damien Rice.
Early life and education
Hannigan was born in Dublin but grew up in Kilcloon, County Meath, Ireland. She attended primary school at Scoil Oilibhéir Naofa in Kilcloon and secondary school at The King's Hospital in Palmerstown. At the age of eighteen, she enrolled at Trinity College, Dublin, where she studied Art History.
Career
2001–2007
Hannigan began her six year collaboration with Damien Rice at a concert in the Temple Bar Music Centre in Dublin in early 2001. She sang on most of the tracks for Rice's 2002 album . In 2006, she sang the lead vocal on Rice's song "9 Crimes" and performed at the Electric Picnic music festival in Stradbally, County Laois. As a member of Rice's live performance band, she contributed vocals and on occasion electric guitar, bass and drums.
In 2007, Hannigan left the Damien Rice band to pursue a solo career. “It was upsetting, but worse things have happened. For everybody it was coming to the end of its cycle.” Hannigan returned to Dublin and began 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." Rice said that their incompatible song writing styles were to blame for the inadequacies in his song "Unplayed Piano". She was comforted by members of The Magic Numbers and has not spoken to Rice since the split.
2008–2010
Some of Hannigan's live recordings were made available through trading networks radio shows. These recordings included: "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 and contributed guest vocals to the recordings of Mic Christopher, The Frames and Herbie Hancock.
Lisa Hannigan's debut solo album, titled Sea Sew, was rehearsed in a barn in Thomastown and recorded in Dublin before being released in Ireland in September 2008. The lead single, "Lille", was made available as a free Internet download and other tracks were available for preview on her Myspace page. The sleeve featured needle-work by Hannigan. Some music critics called the recording one of the best Irish albums of the year.
Sea Sew was played on the American radio station KCRW and received favourable reviews in the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times. The single "Lille", released in August 2008 on Irish and American radio stations. Hannigan performed at Electric Picnic 2008. Hannigan supported singer-songwriter Jason Mraz on a 42-date U.S. tour in 2008.
Also in 2008, she appeared on the charity album Even Better Than the Disco Thing and performed a duet of Mick Flannery's new song "Christmas Past" with Flannery on Tony Fenton's Christmas Special on Today FM. In December 2008, she made her UK solo debut at St Johns Church in London. Hannigan signed with ATO Records in the U.S., where her album was released in February 2009.
Sea Sew was nominated for the Choice Music Prize and Best Irish Album at the Meteor Music Awards in January 2009.
That same year, Hannigan appeared on the American television shows Jay Leno, The Colbert Report and was well received by their respective hosts. In 2009, Hannigan also appeared on the BBC's Later... with Jools Holland, performing her song "I Don't Know". Sea Sew rose in the UK charts following this appearance and she performed at Glastonbury 2009 music festival and went on tour later in the year. She performed at the nomination ceremony and she was greeted by confused journalists wondering "Lisa who?".
Hannigan performed at Electric Picnic 2009 and Le Chéile. Later in 2009, she toured the United States with David Gray and performed solo shows in New York, Los Angeles and London. She then began a tour of Ireland to finish the year. Hannigan's song "Ocean and Rock" was used in a 2009 Irish video supporting same-sex marriage entitled "Sinéad's Hand".
In 2009, a broadcast of Other Voices was recorded.
2011–present
Hannigan recorded her second album, titled Passenger, at Bryn Derwen Studios in North Wales with producer Joe Henry and engineer Ryan Freeland. The album was released in the US and Canada on 20 September 2011, and on 7 October in Ireland and the UK.
Hannigan performed at the Eurosonic Festival in 2012 when Ireland was the "Spotlight Country".
Reception
Her music has received critical praise, airplay and award nominations both in her native Ireland and the United States. In 2008, her debut album Sea Sew spawned the 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.
Hannigan 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. Herbie Hancock said of her vocals, "there's so much jazz in the notes and phrases that she picks. She was singing the ninths, the elevenths of the chords...I mean some of the things sound like choices that Miles would have made." Possibilities DVD.
To date, Sea Sew has sold 45,000 copies worldwide – with 15,000 of those copies sold in Ireland.
Personal life
As part of an advertisement campaign for Oxfam's Make Trade Fair, Hannigan was drenched in melted chocolate and she participated in the Irish musical collective The Cake Sale with lead vocal on the track Some Surprise, which was played on the US television series Grey's Anatomy.
Hannigan also contributed to the 2009 charity album, Sparks n' Mind, released in aid of Aware.
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.
Choice Music Prize
Hannigan's debut album, Sea Sew, was nominated for the Choice Music Prize in January 2009. The award was won by Jape for the album Ritual on 4 March 2009.
Hannigan's second album, Passenger, was nominated for the Choice Music Prize in January 2012.
Meteor Music Awards
Hannigan and her work was nominated in the Best Irish Female and Best Irish Album categories at the Meteor Music Awards in 2009. She was the only solo artist nominated in more than one category at the awards. She lost to Imelda May and The Script's self-titled album respectively.
Mercury Prize
Sea Sew was nominated for the Mercury Prize on 21 July 2009. It was Hannigan's first nomination.
Hannigan was referred to as 2009's "token folk nominee" in the UK, with the NME calling her a "token folkie". One British journalist even claimed she was "truly obscure" and part of the "moribund sensitive singer-songwriter genre". Ed Power, writing in the Irish Independent, criticised such claims, wondering if Jape (whose album Ritual beat Hannigan to the Choice Music Prize) had come close to receiving a Mercury nomination—"Or, for that matter, how many of the judges had even heard of him".
