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Lisa Mitchell

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Lisa Mitchell

Lisa Helen Mitchell (born March 22 1990 in Canterbury, England) is an Australian singer-songwriter. She rose to prominence whilst appearing on the reality television show Australian Idol 2006 in which she placed 6th.

Born to parents Angus and Ruth and with one sister Nicola, Lisa moved to Australia at age 3, growing up in Albury, New South Wales. Beginning guitar lessons at 12 and leaning towards the folk and rock genres, she played in local cafes and events as well as with the cover band Chrome, taking inspiration from artists like Missy Higgins and Clare Bowditch. She released her debut EP, Said One To The Other on 4 August 2007.

2006: Australian Idol

Lisa auditioned in Albury-Wodonga singing Howie Day's "Collide", with Kyle Sandilands immediately giving his yes-vote and Mark Holden saying "I'm in love" (three times). She then performed an original song entitled "See it in Your Eyes", to which Sandilands responded by calling her "a true star" and Marcia Hines adding that she "explemplif[ies] what Australian Idol is about." On the Australian Idol 2006 DVD is shown an extended audition featuring Lisa singing a longer version of "Collide" and an acoustic version of the song "What I Like About You".

Her semi-finals performance (top 24), "Diamonds on the Inside", by Ben Harper, got much praise from the three judges, most notably from Sandilands who stated that Lisa could be "the best thing musically that has ever came out of this country". Lisa advanced to the final 12 because of this performance.

In the Top 12 finals, Lisa received mixed comments from the judges in her first two performances, but received positive comments from all three judges in the following two weeks, after performing Vanessa Carlton's "A Thousand Miles" in the 'Number Ones' theme night and "The Joker" by Steve Miller Band in the "Year You Were Born" theme night. The next week, her disco night performance of Blondie's "Heart of Glass" was highly criticized by Holden, saying that she was now "hanging in there by the skin of her teeth".

Mitchell's performance of Coldplay's "See You Soon" in Week 6 for her long-awaited acoustic theme, brought positive critiques from all three judges, with Holden calling her guitar playing "reminiscent of an early Joni Mitchell". This was generally considered to be her best performance on the show. For the 'Up Close & Personal' week Lisa performed an original song entitled "Too Far Gone" which she says is "a little bit about love" and "when you're doing something and you think 'I'm no good at it, but what the heck'."

Lisa was eliminated from the competition on October 14 after her final performance of The Veronicas's "Revolution", which got a positive response from Holden and Hines but with Sandilands calling it a "boring version of a great song". She was joined by Ricky Muscat and Dean Geyer in the bottom 3. Hines told Lisa that she thought she was "ready to go", with which Lisa since agreed, citing lack of control over her craft and frustration with the television medium.[1]

Mitchell was one of five 2006 series finalists that were not born in Australia. Other members born outside Australia, include Dean Geyer (South Africa), Lavina Williams (New Zealand), Guy Mutton (England), and the eventual winner, Damien Leith (Ireland).

Performances


2006-2007: Post-Australian Idol and Said One To The Other

On Friday April 13, 2007, Lisa performed at a National Youth Week event in Parkes, NSW, supporting local and well-known Australian Country/Folk family band The Lees, which fellow Australian Idol Top 24 Contestant Raechel Lee is a member of. She performed 8 original songs, and then later joined The Lees onstage, where they performed her originals "Alice" and "See It In Your Eyes" and a cover of Ben Harper's "Diamonds on the Inside".

Starting in March, Lisa performed live from her own home, which can be viewed on her official MySpace page, and continued to do so in the first week of every month until 8 June 2007. This MySpace page has generated over a quarter of a million views; the most of any Australian Idol contestant.[citation needed]

2007 was a busy year for Lisa Mitchell as she went on to be a support act on tours of some of Australia's leading artists. She was a support act for Old Man River, The Hampdens, Bob Evans, Ben Lee and Evermore, playing in some of Australia's best venues. She also embarked on her own headlining tour to release her first EP Said One To The Other which was released on August 4, 2007 via iTunes and physically one week later. It was released independently through Scorpio and Warner Music and peaked at #1 on the iTunes ‘Top Albums’ chart. It debuted in the ARIA Singles Chart on August 20 at #27.

Mitchell's songcraft grew as she collaborated with many well-respected artists, such as Ben Lee, Kevin Mitchell (Jebediah), Clare Bowditch. She also travelled to London at the end of 2007 to co-write and work on her first album, due for release at the end of 2008.

MySpace Performances

During 2007, Lisa Mitchell held several MySpace performances broadcast over the internet. All songs (except where specified) written by Lisa Mitchell

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