- Megan Washington
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Megan Washington Birth name Megan Washington Born 7 January 1986 Origin Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea Genres Jazz/Indie pop/Alternative Occupations Musician
Singer-songwriterInstruments Vocals, piano, guitar Years active 2006–present Labels Mercury/Universal, Albert Records Website washingtonmusic.com.au Megan Washington is an Australian musician and songwriter who records and performs under the single moniker Washington. She sings and plays piano and guitar.
Contents
Biography
Washington was born in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, where she lived until 1997 when the family moved to Brisbane, where she spent her teenage years, and attended Moreton Bay College. After that, she also attended Sheldon College, where she discovered her talent for music.[1] She is currently based in Melbourne, Australia.[1][2] She studied jazz voice at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music[2] and released Nightlight, an EP with jazz pianist Sean Foran in 2006, and then an EP Bennetts Lane with pianist Paul Grabowsky in 2007.
Washington moved away from jazz shortly thereafter and began performing in Old Man River, as the keyboardist and backing vocalist.[1] She has also been a keyboardist and backing vocalist for Ben Lee. In late 2008 she launched her current band, Washington, with Lance Ferguson (The Bamboos), John Castle, Des White, Ross Irwin and Ryan Monro (The Cat Empire, Jackson Jackson) on bass. The band released their debut EP, Clementine, in 2008. In November 2008 they were announced as Triple J's Unearthed winners and performed at the Melbourne Big Day Out.[3] This was followed by the release of a second EP, How to Tame Lions in September 2009. Following appearances on Spicks and Specks and RocKwiz, Washington attracted the attention of a wider audience.
You might think that most people get their information from the charts or something like that but I had so much great feedback after being on those shows.
—Megan Washington[1]In December 2009 she won the inaugural Vanda & Young Songwriting Competition for her song, "How to Tame Lions". The competition was conducted by APRA/AMCOS and was open to all songwriters across Australia, with all money raised going to the Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy program.[4] She then went on to perform a duet with Keith Urban at his Rod Laver Arena concert in Melbourne.[4]
In early 2010 Washington sang on an acoustic cover version of Ross Wilson's "Bed of Nails" which was used as the main song of the ABC1 TV drama series Bed of Roses starring Kerry Armstrong. She has also appeared on Network Ten's program Good News Week as a guest for the Strange But True segment to sing a song as a clue several times, and once as a member of the panel.
In October 2010 Washington performed live[5] during YouTube Play, an event produced in partnership between YouTube and the Guggenheim Museum.
Washington won two 2010 ARIA Music Awards, Best Female Artist and Breakthrough Artist,[6] and received a further three nominations: Album of the Year, Best Adult Alternative Album for I Believe You Liar and Single of the Year ("How to Tame Lions").[7]
Discography
Megan Washington discography Releases ↙Studio albums 2 ↙EPs 5 ↙Singles 7 Studio albums
Year Notes Peak chart
positionsCertifications
(sales thresholds)AUS[8] 2010 I Believe You Liar 3 Platinum 2011 Insomnia - Released: 21 October 2011
- Label: Mercury Australia
- Format: CD
24 — Extended plays
Year Album details AUS chart
peak2006 Nightlight - Released: 2006
- Label: Spacebar/Newmarket (NEW3227.2)
- Format: EP
53 2007 Bennetts Lane - Released: 2007
- Label:
- Format: EP
— 2008 Clementine - Released: 5 January 2008
- Label: Independent (HUB001)
- Format: EP
— 2009 How to Tame Lions - Released: 14 September 2009
- Label: Mercury Records (2717430)
- Format: EP
73 2010 Rich Kids - Released: 7 May 2010
- Label: Mercury Records (2737298)
- Format: EP
70 Singles
Year Title Peak chart positions Album AUS 2010 "Rich Kids" (live) 69 I Believe You Liar "Sunday Best" 64 2011 "Holy Moses" 100 Insomnia "—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory. References
- ^ a b c d Mengel, Noel (11 December 2009). "Megan Washington in the spotlight". The Courier-Mail. http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,26466738-5003421,00.html. Retrieved 6 January 2010.
- ^ a b ArtsHub (17 December 2007). "Career Profile: Megan Washington". ArtsHub. http://www.artshub.com.au/au/news-article/profiles/performing-arts/career-profile-megan-washington-169030. Retrieved 21 October 2009.
- ^ "Big Day Out 2009". Triple J. http://www.triplejunearthed.com/competitions/default.aspx?TripleJCompetitionId=84. Retrieved 6 January 2010.
- ^ a b Adams, Cameron (10 December 2009). "Megan Washington wins Vanda competition, gets invitation from Keith Urban". Herald Sun. http://www.heraldsun.com.au/entertainment/music/megan-washington-wins-vanda-competition-gets-invitation-from-keith-urban-sia/story-e6frf9hf-1225809133369. Retrieved 6 January 2010.
- ^ Megan Washington: excerpt from YouTube Play at the Guggenheim
- ^ Winners of the 2010 Aria Awards Announced Australian Recording Industry Association. Retrieved 24/11/2010.
- ^ 2010 ARIA Nominations Announced Take40 Australia (mcm entertainment). Retrieved 2010-09-29.
- ^ "Washington Discography". Australian-charts.com. http://www.australian-charts.com/showinterpret.asp?interpret=Washington. Retrieved 20 May 2011.
External links
Categories:- 1986 births
- Living people
- Australian female singers
- Australian musicians
- Australian pop singers
- Australian singer-songwriters
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