Wendy Matthews www.wendymatthews.com.au

Wendy Matthews .
Celebrates two decades of hits with her
STANDING STRONG tour

In 1990 Wendy Matthews released her first solo album Émigré. The album went double platinum, produced a string of hit singles and won her two ARIA Awards. In the same year the readers of Rolling Stone magazine voted her Best Female Singer. Overnight sensation? Far from it. Without a doubt, Australia’s First Lady of Song had arrived!
Wendy celebrates her musical journey so far with the 21 YEARS – STANDING STRONG TOUR
Wendy left her native Montreal at only 16. Harnessing a natural and completely untrained voice, she busked her way through Canada, the US and Mexico. When there were ‘no more streets to sing on’ she returned to LA where she met Little River Band frontman Glenn Shorrock. Glenn invited her to Australia where she caught the attention of key players in the Australian music industry.
She became the session singer everyone wanted to work with and recorded a successful ABC TV soundtrack album You’ve Always Got The Blues singing duets with Kate Ceberano. After touring and recording on two wildly successful Rockmelons albums, the next step was to join frontman Sean Kelly from Models to create Absent Friends. The band’s first single I Don’t Want To Be With Nobody But You was a smash hit and the inevitable offers for solo recording deals followed.
Wendy has sales of over 1.5 million albums, 7 Aria Awards and hits that include – The Day You Went Away, Token Angels, Friday’s Child, Lets Kiss like Angels Do and, of course, Standing Strong.
She has just begun work on a new original album called “Tattoos and Polaroids”, to be released on her own “Barking Bear” record label.
“It is a huge thrill for me to tour under the banner of 21 YEARS – STANDING STRONG. These concerts will allow me to look back over the great moments of my career so far. Life is good!”

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WENDY MATTHEWS
biography

Wendy Matthews has a reputation as an artist par excellence with a sublime, expressive voice that never fails to move those who hear it.

Both acoustically and physically, Wendy Matthews moves with an enviable minimalism. Her music is an unhurried journey of clean melodies, infectious energy and simple grace. In an age when grunge is thought to be hip and cynicism an attribute, Wendy has proven that commitment to beauty is still not only valid but applauded by the public ear.

This is exemplified by the reality that Wendy’s music is now in more than 1 million homes in Australia – all her albums to date have multi-platinum status.

Wendy has an immense talent and capacity to capture and define a diverse range of styles in her music. She takes songs from every genre and makes them her own, from jazz to blues, from rock to gospel, from soul to outright infectious pop and then, of course, there are the beautiful ballads.

Wendy is adept at reaching both frenetic youth and mature audiences alike. If older ears are captured by her soul and unfazed class, a more cynical youth is convinced by her disarming ease of delivery, wooed by a voice of stunning emotive capacity yet void of sentimentality.

This outstanding capability has ensured the strength of her following – not only with the public but also the music industry. To date Wendy has won seven ARIAs.

Simply put, Wendy Matthews has a reputation for having one of the finest voices ever. As Midnight Oil frontman, Peter Garrett, says when he eloquently describes her abilities: “Wendy’s voice is to the vocal chords what the Daintree is to the wilderness”.

Such observations point to Wendy’s uncanny ability to choose great songs and interpret them with an individual polish hitherto unknown in this country.

Wendy has performed at some of the most prestigious musical events. From the Montreaux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, live TV specials in Asia, MIDEM in Cannes, to performing in front of over 40,000 people on the steps of the Sydney Opera House. Her tours play to full houses in both regional and capital city theatres.

Born in Montreal Canada, Wendy joined her first band and left home as a teenager, busking her way across the USA to Los Angeles where she met Glenn Shorrock who invited her to tour with him in Australia in 1982.

Wendy immediately became an in-demand session singer, appearing on many commercial jingles and backing vocals for the likes of The Models’ Out of Mind Out of Sight and became a semi-permanent member of the band. She also sang on albums by Jimmy Barnes, Tim Finn, Richard Clapton and Icehouse.

In 1987, Wendy collaborated with Kate Ceberano on the ABC-TV soundtrack for the series Stringer. You’ve Always Got the Blues was released the next year reaching the Top 5 national charts. She then contributed to the Rockmelons and Peter Blakeley’s respective albums. She helped form Absent Friends and sang on the number one hit I Don’t Wanna Be With Nobody But You and the album Here’s Looking Up Your Address.

After touring with Absent Friends, Wendy went into the studio to record her solo debut. The album Émigré (Double Platinum) spawned the hits Token Angels, Lets Kiss and Woman’s Gotta Have It and earned Wendy the Best Female Artist and Best Debut Single (for Token Angels) at the 1990 ARIA Awards. Wendy was also voted Best Female Singer in the 1990 Rolling Stone reader’s poll.

This was followed up by the Triple Platinum album Lily with the mega hit The Day You Went Away plus If Only I Could and Friday’s Child.

In 1992 Wendy picked up the ARIA for Best Female Artist and Best Single, and Best Female Artist again in 1993. The Day You Went Away was the Highest Selling Single of 1993 and the Single of the Year.

Wendy then followed up with another two studio albums The Witness Tree and Ghosts including the hits Love Will Keep Me Alive, Standing Strong, Then I Walked Away. In 1999 to cap off an already outstanding career, Wendy released her first Best Of….Stepping Stones which not only included her former hits but also Nobody But You the massive hit from Absent Friends.

Not resting on her laurels, in 2001 Wendy released Beautiful View featuring the hauntingly beautiful title track and club favorite Like the Sun.

2004 saw the release of the mixed-up, chilled-out Café Naturale an eclectic suite of songs that immediately evoke a sense of familiarity. The Tropfest winning film Lamb by Emma Freeman featured as the highly acclaimed video clip to the popular All I Need.

In 2008 Wendy completed her first independent record on her own Barking Bear record label. She is a personal collection of favorite songs by women who have inspired her over the years. As she puts it “songs that have made the singer, women who have made the woman”. Recorded live in a studio room together over three days with her long standing band and a few specialty players, Matthews considers it a journey through her formative years, with songs by Bonnie Raitt, Aretha Franklin, EmmyLou Harris and Chrissie Hynde and fellow native Canadians Joni Mitchell, Buffy St Marie and Jane Siberry to name a few.

There are very few artists in Australia that can cite Wendy’s credentials, seven ARIAs, a massive 19 singles, 7 top selling albums and most of all the love of her fans. When she’s not writing, recording or touring extensively, Wendy and her beloved dog Bear, enjoy the beauty of the Northern NSW coast where she has built a hand crafted home.

DISCOGRAPHY

1988 You’ve Always Got the Blues (with Kate Ceberano)
1989 Here’s Looking Up Your Address (with Absent Friends)
1990 Émigré
1991 The Way It Has To Be (live album)
1992 Lily
1994 The Witness Tree
1997 Ghosts
1999 Stepping Stones…The Best of Wendy Matthews
2001 Beautiful View
2004 Café Naturale
2007 The Essential Wendy Matthews
2008 She

ARIA AWARDS history

Single of the Year
Nobody But You (with Absent Friends) 1991 WINNER
Breakthrough Artist – Single
Token Angels 1991 WINNER
Best Female Artist
Émigré 1991 WINNER
Best Female Artist
Let’s Kiss (Like The Angels) 1991 (nominee)
Highest Selling Single
The Day You Went Away 1992 WINNER
Single of the Year
The Day You Went Away 1992 WINNER
Best Female Artist
Lily 1993 WINNER
Album of the Year
Lily 1993 (nominee)
Best Female Artist
Friday’s Child 1994 WINNER
Best Adult Contemporary Album
The Witness Tree 1995 (nominee)
Best Female Artist
Then I Walked Away 1997 (nominee)
Engineer of the Year
Ghosts 1998 (nominee)
Best Adult Contemporary Album
Ghosts 1998 (nominee)
Best Adult Contemporary Album
Beautiful View 2001 (nominee)