Leah Flanagan | |
|---|---|
 Leah Flanagan performing live 2015 | |
| Background information | |
| Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter |
| Instrument(s) | Vocals, guitar |
Leah Flanagan is an Australian singer-songwriter and arts administrator from Darwin, Northern Territory. based in Sydney. She has released several albums and has toured Australia with her music and as a part of festival ensembles.
Flanagan identifies as Indigenous Australian due to her Aboriginal (Alyawarre) heritage. [1] [2]
She studied classical music at the Elder Conservatorium of Music in Adelaide. [3]
Flanagan has released several albums and has toured Australia with her music and as a part of festival ensembles. [4] [5] [6] She has collaborated with Sinéad O'Connor, Meshell Ndegeocello, poet Sam Wagan Watson, [7] The Black Arm Band, [8] Paul Kelly and Ursula Yovich, and recorded a duet with Marlon Williams of Archie Roach’s "I’ve Lied". [4]
From 2009 to 2011, Flanagan performed in the productions Murundak, Hidden Republic, and Dirtsong with the touring company The Black Arm Band [8] at many major festivals across Australia. Her performances in this period included one at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In 2010 she appeared at the Melbourne International Arts Festival's production Seven Songs To Leave Behind with John Cale, Rickie Lee Jones, Snead O'Connor, Meshell Ndegeocello, and Gurrumul with Black Arm Band members Ursula Yovich, Dan Sultan, and Shellie Morris. [9]
Flanagan was invited by Deborah Conway to be part of her Song Trails project for the 2009 and 2011 Queensland Music Festivals, which led to her collaborating with Australian artists Peter Farnan (Boom Crash Opera), Robert Forster (The Go-Betweens) and Rebecca Barnard (Rebecca's Empire) to deliver a series of workshops and to perform concerts across regional Queensland. [10]
Flanagan composed a show entitled Midnight Muses, based on the work of Brisbane poet Samuel Wagan Watson, for the Adelaide Cabaret Festival in 2011. [11] It later appeared at the 2013 Sydney Festival. [12]
She was invited to perform as a featured soloist in the first Australian production of Leonard Bernstein's MASS at the 2012 Adelaide Festival. [13]
In late 2015 Flanagan was invited by Archie Roach to record a duet of his song "I've Lied" with Marlon Williams for the 25th Anniversary release of Charcoal Lane . Rolling Stone Australia gave the anniversary album four-and-a-half stars. [4]
In 2017 she featured in 1967: Music in the Key of Yes alongside Dan Sultan, Adalita, Thelma Plum, and Ursula Yovich, as part of the Sydney Festival. The show celebrated the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Australian referendum through song. [14]
In December 2019 Flanagan was appointed as national manager of the APRA AMCOS Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Music Office. [1] [2]
In January 2020 Flanagan was appointed First Nations export producer at Sounds Australia. The role entails attending key international events such as SXSW, The Great Escape Festival, Folk Alliance International, and WOMEX, as well as establishing an international bursary program for Indigenous artists. Her first assignment in the role was attending the International Indigenous Music Summit [lower-alpha 1] in New Orleans, United States. [1] [16]
Flanagan has appeared on the Australian TV music quiz shows Spicks & Specks and RocKwiz ; on the latter performing Elvis Costello's Shipbuilding in a duet with composer David Bridie. [17] Faboriginal and RocKwiz . [18]
She has also appeared on the light comedy sports programme Marngrook Footy Show , performing a version of Stevie Wonder's For Once in My Life .[ citation needed ]
| Title | Album details |
|---|---|
| Leah Flanagan (as Leah Flanagan Band) |
|
| Nirvana Nights |
|
| Saudades |
|
| Oceanic Sessions |
|
| Colour By Number |
|
| Title | EP details |
|---|---|
| Live at the Bella Union |
|
The National Indigenous Music Awards (NIMA) recognise contributions to the Northern Territory music industry. It commenced in 2004.
| Year | Nominee / work | Award | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Colour by Number | Album of the Year | Nominated | [26] [27] |
Meshell Ndegeocello is an American singer-songwriter, rapper, and bassist. She has gone by the name Meshell Suhaila Bashir-Shakur which is used as a writing credit on some of her later work. Her music incorporates a wide variety of influences, including funk, soul, jazz, hip hop, reggae and rock. She has received significant critical acclaim throughout her career, being nominated for eleven Grammy Awards, and winning one. She also has been credited for helping to "spark the neo-soul movement".
Indigenous music of Australia comprises the music of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia, intersecting with their cultural and ceremonial observances, through the millennia of their individual and collective histories to the present day. The traditional forms include many aspects of performance and musical instrumentation that are unique to particular regions or Aboriginal Australian groups; and some elements of musical tradition are common or widespread through much of the Australian continent, and even beyond. The music of the Torres Strait Islanders is related to that of adjacent parts of New Guinea. Music is a vital part of Indigenous Australians' cultural maintenance.
James Moginie is an Australian musician. He is best known for his work with Midnight Oil, of which he is a founding member, guitarist, keyboardist and leading songwriter.
Archibald William Roach was an Australian singer-songwriter and Aboriginal activist. Often referred to as "Uncle Archie", Roach was a Gunditjmara and Bundjalung elder who campaigned for the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. His wife and musical partner was the singer Ruby Hunter (1955–2010).
Emma Donovan is an Aboriginal Australian singer and songwriter. She is a member of the renowned musical Donovan family. She started her singing career at age seven with her uncle's band, the Donovans. In 2000, she became a founding member of Stiff Gins, leaving the band three years later to release the solo album Changes in 2004. She performs with the Black Arm Band and released a solo EP, Ngaaraanga, in 2009.
Ruby Charlotte Margaret Hunter, also known as Aunty Ruby, was an Aboriginal Australian singer, songwriter and guitarist, and the life and musical partner of Archie Roach.
Alexis Wright is a Waanyi writer best known for winning the Miles Franklin Award for her 2006 novel Carpentaria and the 2018 Stella Prize for her "collective memoir" of Leigh Bruce "Tracker" Tilmouth.
Black Arm Band is an Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander music theatre organisation.
Ursula Yovich is an Aboriginal Australian actress and singer.
Shellie Morris is an Indigenous Australian singer/songwriter who plays a mix of contemporary folk music and contemporary acoustic ballads.
Tracee Hutchison is a writer and TV and radio broadcaster.
The Secret River is a play by Australian playwright Andrew Bovell, based upon the novel of the same name by Kate Grenville.
Roy David Page, known as Dubboo to his close friends, was an Australian composer who was the music director of the Bangarra Dance Theatre. He was descended from the Nunukul people and the Munaldjali clan of the Yugambeh people of south-east Queensland, and brother of choreographer Stephen Page and dancer Russell Page. He was also an actor, singer and drag artist.
Ruby is a soundtrack album recorded live by Australian singers Archie Roach and Ruby Hunter with Paul Grabowsky and Australian Art Orchestra. The album, based on a musical production called Ruby's Story staged in 2004, was released in 2005.
Jada Alberts is an Aboriginal Australian actor, playwright, screenwriter, director, artist and poet.
The National Indigenous Music Awards 2017 were the 14th annual National Indigenous Music Awards.
Pantjiti Mary McLean was an Australian Ngaatjajarra Aboriginal artist.
Rhyan Clapham, known by his stage name Dobby, is a Filipino-Aboriginal Australian musician. He describes himself as a "drapper", a contraction of rapper and drummer, although he also plays other instruments and is also a composer. He sometimes raps with the indie rock band Jackie Brown Jr, but on his own is mainly a hip hop artist.
Message Sticks Festival, also known for some time as Message Sticks Indigenous Film Festival, was an arts festival celebrating the culture of Aboriginal Australians, based at the Sydney Opera House, between 1999 and 2013. It focused on film for several years, but music, theatre and dance were also showcased. The festival was succeeded by Homeground in 2014.
| Authority control databases: Artists |
|---|
