Lisa Edwards

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Lisa Edwards is an Australian singer and musician, who had an Australian Top 5 hit with the Godley and Creme song Cry.

Born in Adelaide, she is the daughter of a Jazz pianist and a stage performer. She made her stage debut aged seven with her father, who would then regularly take the young girl on stage with him to perform. In secondary school, Edwards with three other students formed the quartet Harmonic, who went from talent programs to performing the club circuit.^[1]

Edwards began her own 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.^[2] She released a single in 1981 which did not sell well,^[3] so she return to performance and backing singing.

Edwards sings as well as plays percussion and flute, the later for which she was recruited to John Farnham's band in 1988.^[4] In 1993 she released the solo album Thru The Loop, from which the song Cry achieved gold status throughout Australia.^[5]

Edwards work as a backing singer includes working with: Noiseworks, Black Sorrows, Real Life, Ross Wilson, Billy Thorpe, Brian Cadd and Kate Ceberano; and was one of the vocalists on Kylie Minogue's European tours. As a result of the later, she performed with Yoko Ono for the John Lennon Tribute Concert in Liverpool, and then returned to Australia to support Olivia Newton-John and Tom Jones on the Australian legs of their tours.^[6]

Edwards continues to perform, both as a solo artist, a member of Farnham's band and as a backing singer; and is renowned for her live performance capability. Her solo performances are normally based around a tribute to her childhood idols of Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, Diana Ross and Natalie Cole.^[7] She was part of the "Tour of Duty" concert for the people and Australian Army troops in appreciation of the peacekeeping effort in East Timor. Edwards is an Australia Day ambassador for the state of Victoria.^[8]