Who is Lisa Hunt?

http://www.youtube.com/WugHFDhDLgE

Mandy Nolan

Lisa Hunt is an American-born, Byron Bay-based soul sensation! Her show ‘Forever Soul’ (a retrospective of Motown, soul, funk and disco) has been wowing audiences here in Australia for a decade. She is not only the darling of the glamorous party circuit (recent shows include Collingwood Football, Linfox, Gold Coast Titans, Magic Millions, Spotlight and Westpac), but she also pulls big crowds in the public arena. Her current residency venues include great hotels such as The Beach Hotel – Byron, Brunswick Heads; QWB – Newcastle; Banora Tavern and The Coolangatta Hotel. She does great business on ticketed shows at The Dee Why RSL; Wests Leagues – Tamworth; Star Court Theatre – Lismore; and The Panthers – Port Macquarie. Her casino gigs include Conrad Jupiters (four consecutive NYEs as headliner), The Treasury Brisbane (5-year residency), The Reef Casino Cairns (seven years), and many events at the Crown Casino Melbourne and Skycity Darwin. Lisa has signed to headline NYE 2013 at Twin Towns. Festival appearances include Byron Bay Bluesfest; Groove and Grape – Brisbane; Jazz and Shiraz – Logan; Caloundra Surf and Soul; Jazz in the Vines – Hunter Valley; Adelaide Cabaret (handpicked by David Campbell); and a full decade at Tamworth Country Music!

Lisa has performed, recorded and toured with some of the most legendary people in show business including Aussie icons such as Jimmy Barnes, Diesel, Tina Arena, Darren Percival, Jon Steven and Midnight Oil. On the international scene her credits include the one and only Luciano Pavarotti, Ray Charles, Eric Clapton, James Brown, Ronan Keating, Macy Gray, Dionne Warwick, Joe Cocker, Miles Davis and Andrea Bocelli. Incredible, some would say, for someone you may have never heard of.

Lisa Hunt Rocks… Your Soul

Lisa was the winner of [ITALIC]Australian Idol[/ITALIC]’s ‘My Mum Rocks’ contest for NSW. Kyle Sandilands called her ‘A Knockout!’ Paulini replied ‘They call us the young divas, but you are a True Diva!’ Marcia Hines called her performance ‘Very Soulful!’

‘Awesome Voice’ – Michael Bolton; ‘Great Voice’ – Peter Gabriel; ‘A true force of nature’ – Fausto Pirito (Russia)

So what about the show? This review says it best…

‘If you missed American soul sensation, Lisa Hunt and her band Forever Soul, at the Beach Hotel in Byron Bay last week, then you missed an absolutely fantastic night! One of my best friends Roma is a real fan of Lisa’s and raves about her all the time. So I thought I would see what all the fuss was about and went along to hear this talented “diva”.

‘Well, Roma, were you right! This lady is simply sensational! She has one of the best voices I have ever heard and her performance was one of the best I have ever been to. A huge crowd danced for two hours (including myself) nonstop and it was great to see so many locals enjoying themselves. Lisa Hunt has a fantastic repertoire of songs, including lots of old favourites by Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding and The Supremes.

‘She has a great knack of really involving the audience in her performance and she has a voice that is simply awesome. So if you get a chance to see Lisa Hunt and her band, then make sure you do! It will be a night you will not forget.’

For well over a decade internationally acclaimed Lisa Hunt has been knocking the socks of punters around the country with her retrospective [ITALIC]Forever Soul,[/ITALIC] a combo of Motown, soul, funk and disco. Lisa is our reigning Soul Queen, able to reach inside and touch even the most resistant punter. For Lisa it’s always been personal.

‘It’s like probably the soundtrack of my life,’ she says. ‘I love the music because it makes people happy.

‘I can still remember being five years old and lying in bed and hearing [ITALIC]Dock of the Bay[/ITALIC] and feeling that I was totally overwhelmed. My body was tense, my stomach hurt; it was the most intense feeling I’d ever had and I had no idea what it meant.’

So this was how soul music found Lisa Hunt, its power rendering her motionless. ‘There were a few Stevie Wonder songs; when I heard them I couldn’t move, I would be so emotionally captured.’

Of course now Ms Hunt has regained mobility, but the intensity of the impact of the songs are still the same.

‘I have no choice; I have to go there. I don’t care what is happening during the day, when I get on stage I just go there; its like opening Pandora’s box. It’s something I am happy I can go to even when I get tired of music sometimes. If I just get there and start then there is nothing else.’

Lots of people can sing. And even some of them can sing particularly well. So what is it that separates a singer from the herd?

‘I was thinking about that this morning,’ says Lisa. ‘I was thinking about Pavarotti a lot (with whom Ms Hunt has sung!), and I was trying to isolate what that thing is that makes one person transcend – soul or performance or magic, I don’t know what it is, you just have it or you don’t – you can’t learn it or buy it. Aretha opens her mouth and she goes up and down your arms and I love it when people tell me that I have that effect on them.’

Like most things, Lisa took performing with the world’s best tenor in her stride.

‘I have always been a bit unafraid, although I was a little bit starstruck! I was just in that moment. I only think about it afterwards and then I go WOW! Look what happened to me! I was more intimidated when I was busking on the streets; that’s when I got over stagefright because you are either going to grab them or not.’

It was on the streets of New York where Lisa first found her mojo with the public. She’s had it ever since.

‘I would go in to Grand Central Station at 9am and sing my heart out. That was the only way you were going to stop people – you had to give everything. For half an hour I would give it everything I had. I would make $200 and go have breakfast!’

A few years back Lisa made it through to the finals of [ITALIC]My Mom Rocks.[/ITALIC]

‘It was an interesting experience, although I understand the business and I understood they did not want a big black American woman being Australia’s Mum!’

That may have been the producer’s call, but audiences certainly felt differently.

While Lisa hasn’t found ‘stardom’ in the industry, she admits she has something just as good.

‘You know what I have found, which is great, is that I have the same gigs as celebrities; every weekend we are with Australian celebrities somewhere. We have been gigging for 12 years – word of mouth is the strongest promotion you can have!’

So would Lisa Hunt consider doing a Darren Percival and giving something like [ITALIC]The Voice[/ITALIC] a shot?

‘I would consider doing [ITALIC]The Voice.[/ITALIC] I would have to lose weight first; they don’t like fat people – that’s right – the people who sit there and listen to you and they love it – then it’s like, whoa big black mama! The marketing people are like how do we market this?’

What marketing people don’t know is you don’t have to. The enigma of Lisa Hunt and the power of her shows just market themselves. Catch the shire’s own American Soul Sister with her band at the Bangalow Bowlo on Friday 1 March. Tickets are at the club and are available now.