Here is someone that you might have heard of before and that is Lisa Hannigan but if not you will be hearing a lot from her in the near future. This singer from Ireland has been performing in Europe and in America for many years and has toured again with one of Ireland’s greatest exports and that is the one and only Damien Rice who I will cover in the coming weeks.
Lisa Margaret Hannigan is an Irish musician, singer, composer, and voice actress. She began her musical career as a member of Damien Rice’s band. Since beginning her solo career in 2007 she has released three albums: ‘Sea Sew’ (2008), ‘Passenger’ (2011), and ‘At Swim’ (2016). Hannigan’s music has received award nominations both in Ireland and the United States. Hannigan also received attention in North America for her role as Blue Diamond in ‘Steven Universe’, an American animated television series created by Rebecca Sugar.
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 and enrolled at Trinity College, Dublin to study French and art history.
While still in college, Hannigan met Damien Rice at a concert in Dublin in early 2001. Rice enlisted Hannigan to sing on his 2002 album ‘O’ and his later album ‘9’, featured in the hit ‘9 Crimes’. She toured with Rice as part of his band during that period, lending vocal support and occasionally playing guitar, bass or drums.
Hannigan briefly studied English and art history at Trinity College in Dublin. During her first week at university, she became friends with Irish singer-songwriter Damien Rice. Hannigan eventually left university to travel with Rice across Europe.
Returning to Ireland, both Hannigan and Rice began to work together recording music, including songs like ‘Unplayed Piano’ and ‘Once I Loved’. Hannigan featured on Rice’s first two solo albums and a number of EPs and live recordings. Both Irish artists toured for a number of years together and were in a relationship, but in 2007 Hannigan left Damien Rice and his band the afternoon before a live show in Munich. Rice released a statement saying that their professional relationship had “run its creative course” in March 2007.
In 2007, Hannigan returned to Dublin and began a solo career. 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 Boudreaux Bryant. 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. 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’ received favorable reviews in the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times. The single ‘Lille’ was released in August 2008 on Irish and American radio stations.
Hannigan performed at Electric Picnic 2008. She was the opening act for singer-songwriter Jason Mraz on his 2008 US tour. That year 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 US, 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 year, Hannigan appeared on the American television shows The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and The Colbert Report. 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?”.
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 ‘An Ocean and a Rock’ was used in a 2009 Irish video supporting same-sex marriage entitled ‘Sinead’s Hand’. 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. In 2009, a broadcast of ‘Other Voices’ was recorded. The songs ‘Lille’ and ‘Braille’ from this album were used in the film Ondine in 2009.
In 2015, Hannigan decided to move from Dublin to London to begin a new life, which involved beginning to write new material for her third studio album ‘At Swim’. She also started pursuing a part-time degree in English literature.
In 2020, Hannigan was part of an Irish collective of female singers and musicians called ‘Irish Women in Harmony’, that recorded a version of the song ‘Dreams’ in aid of the charity Safe Ireland, which deals with domestic abuse which had reportedly risen significantly during the Covid-19 lockdown Her music has received critical praise, airplay and award nominations both in her native Ireland and the United States.
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.”
Hannigan has four Hot Press Readers’ Poll awards. She won Best Debut Album, Best Irish Album, Best Irish Track and Best Female in 2009. Now that says it all, showing again that Ireland is full of with talent though most of then have not been discovered yet… you heard that here.