Leah Flanagan is an Australian singer-songwriter and

arts administrator The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both h ...

from Darwin, Northern Territory. based in Sydney. She has released several albums and has toured Australia with her music and as a part of festival ensembles.

Early life and education

Flanagan identifies as

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

due to her Aboriginal ( Alyawarre) heritage. She studied classical music at the

Elder Conservatorium of Music The Elder Conservatorium of Music, also known as "The Con", is Australia's senior academy of music and is located in the centre of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. It is named in honour of its benefactor, Sir Thomas Elder. Dating in ...

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

Music career

Flanagan has released several albums and has toured Australia with her music and as a part of festival ensembles.Rolling Stone Australia – Album Review: Archie Roach – Charcoal Lane (25th Anniversary Edition )
/ref>Buried Country – Home
/ref> She has collaborated with Sinéad O'Connor,

Meshell Ndegeocello Michelle Lynn Johnson, better known as Meshell Ndegeocello (; born August 29, 1968), is a German-born American singer-songwriter, rapper, and bassist. She has gone by the name Meshell Suhaila Bashir-Shakur which is used as a writing credit on so ...

, poet Sam Wagan Watson,Exile Concert – Bio
/ref>

The Black Arm Band Black Arm Band is an Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander music theatre organisation. History The organisation was founded in late 2005 by Steven Richardson and has produced seven large-scale productions since its debut performance a ...

, Paul Kelly and

Ursula Yovich Ursula Yovich is an Aboriginal Australian actress and singer. Early life and education Yovich was born and grew up in Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. Her father, Slobodan Jović, was a Serbian immigrant who anglicised his name to Stan ...

, and recorded a duet with Marlon Williams of

Archie Roach Archibald William Roach (8 January 1956 – 30 July 2022) was an Australian singer, songwriter and Aboriginal activist. Often referred to as "Uncle Archie", Roach was a Gunditjmara and Bundjalung elder who campaigned for the rights of Abori ...

’s "I’ve Lied". From 2009 to 2011, Flanagan performed in the productions ''Murundak'', ''Hidden Republic,'' and ''Dirtsong'' with the touring company The Black Arm Band at many major festivals across Australia. Her performances in this period included one at the

2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics )'' , nations = 82 , athletes = 2,626 , events = 86 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = February 12, 2010 , closing = February 28, 2010 , opened_by = Governor General Michaëlle Jean , cauldron = Catriona Le May DoanNancy GreeneWayne Gretz ...

. In 2010 she appeared at the Melbourne International Arts Festival's production ''Seven Songs To Leave Behind'' with John Cale,

Rickie Lee Jones Rickie Lee Jones (born November 8, 1954) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and author. Over the course of a career that spans five decades, she has recorded in various musical styles including rock, R&B, pop, soul, and jazz. A two ...

, Snead O'Connor,

, and Gurrumul with Black Arm Band members Ursula Yovich, Dan Sultan, and

Shellie Morris Shellie Morris is an Indigenous Australian singer/songwriter who plays a mix of contemporary folk music and contemporary acoustic ballads. Biography and career Shellie Morris was raised in Sydney and began singing at an early age. She often perf ...

.Nocookies , The Australian
/ref> Flanagan was invited by

Deborah Conway Deborah Ann Conway (born 8 August 1959) is an Australian rock singer-songwriter and guitarist, and had a career as a model and actress. She was a founding member of the 1980s rock band Do-Ré-Mi with their top 5 hit "Man Overboard". Conw ...

to be part of her Song Trails project for the 2009 and 2011

Queensland Music Festival The Queensland Music Festival (QMF) is a series of musical events staged in a number of locations in Queensland, Australia, usually around late July, every second year. It is financially supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queens ...

s, which led to her collaborating with Australian artists Peter Farnan ( Boom Crash Opera),

Robert Forster Robert Wallace Forster Jr. (July 13, 1941 – October 11, 2019) was an American actor, known for his roles as John Cassellis in '' Medium Cool'' (1969), Captain Dan Holland in ''The Black Hole'' (1979), Abdul Rafai in '' The Delta Force'' (1986 ...

(

The Go-Betweens The Go-Betweens were an Australian indie rock band formed in Brisbane, Queensland, in 1977. The band was co-founded and led by singer-songwriters and guitarists Robert Forster and Grant McLennan, who were its only constant members throughout ...

) and Rebecca Barnard (

Rebecca's Empire Rebecca's Empire (also written as the variant Rebeccas Empire) were an Australian indie pop-rock band formed in 1994. Their mainstay members were Rebecca Barnard on lead vocals and her then-domestic partner, Shane O'Mara on lead guitar. They ...

) to deliver a series of workshops and to perform concerts across regional

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

.Making Song Trails in north Queensland – ABC North Qld – Australian Broadcasting Corporation
/ref> Flanagan composed a show entitled ''Midnight Muses'', based on the work of Brisbane poet

Samuel Wagan Watson Samuel Wagan Watson is a contemporary Indigenous Australian poet. Early life Samuel Wagan Watson was born in Brisbane and is of Mununjali clan, Munanjali and Germanic descent. His father is the novelist and political activist, Sam Watson (act ...

, for the

Adelaide Cabaret Festival The Adelaide Cabaret Festival is an annual arts festival featuring cabaret held in the South Australian capital of Adelaide. It has been held in June each year since 2001, with the exception of 2020 owing to the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia, ...

in 2011.Leah Flanagan – Midnight Muses , ArtsHub Australia
/ref> It later appeared at the 2013 Sydney Festival. She was invited to perform as a featured soloist in the first Australian production of Leonard Bernstein's ''MASS'' at the 2012

Adelaide Festival The Adelaide Festival of Arts, also known as the Adelaide Festival, an arts festival, takes place in the South Australian capital of Adelaide in March each year. Started in 1960, it is a major celebration of the arts and a significant cultural ...

.Adelaide Festival // Mass
/ref> In late 2015 Flanagan was invited by

to record a duet of his song "I've Lied" with Marlon Williams for the 25th Anniversary release of ''

Charcoal Lane ''Charcoal Lane'' is the debut studio album by Australian singer song writer Archie Roach, released in 1990. Name From the 1960s through to the 1980s, the inner-city Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy was a meeting place for Aboriginal people who had ...

''. ''

Rolling Stone Australia ''Rolling Stone'' Australia is the Australian edition of the United States' ''Rolling Stone'' magazine devoted to music, politics, and popular culture, published monthly. The Australian version of ''Rolling Stone'' was initially published in 197 ...

'' gave the anniversary album four-and-a-half stars. In 2017 she featured in ''1967: Music in the Key of Yes'' alongside

Dan Sultan Daniel Leo Sultan (born 1983) is an Australian alternative rock singer-songwriter and guitarist, actor and author. At the ARIA Music Awards of 2010 he won Best Male Artist and Best Blues & Roots Album for his second album, '' Get Out While Y ...

, Adalita,

Thelma Plum Thelma Amelina Plumbe (born 21 December 1994), known professionally as Thelma Plum, is an Aboriginal Australian singer, songwriter, guitarist and musician from Delungra, New South Wales. Her father is renowned lore-man Paul Winanga-li Gii Spear ...

, and

, as part of the Sydney Festival. The show celebrated the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Australian referendum through song.

Arts administration

In December 2019 Flanagan was appointed as national manager of the

APRA AMCOS APRA AMCOS consists of Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) and Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS), both copyright management organisations or copyright collectives which jointly represent over 100,000 songwri ...

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Music Office. In January 2020 Flanagan was appointed First Nations export producer at

Sounds Australia Sounds Australia is an Australian organisation established to assist Australian musicians become established overseas. Set up in 2009, Sounds Australia began as an initiative of the Australia Council for the Arts, APRA AMCOS, and the federal go ...

. The role entails attending key international events such as SXSW,

The Great Escape Festival The Great Escape Festival is a three-day music festival held in Brighton and Hove, England every year in May. It is operated by MAMA Festivals and showcases new music from a variety of genres. The festival was founded in 2006 and roughly hosts ...

Folk Alliance International Folk Alliance International (previously the ''North American Folk Music and Dance Alliance'') is a non-profit organization that produces an annual conference that is the world's largest gathering of the folk music industry and community. Founded ...

, and WOMEX, as well as establishing an international bursary program for Indigenous artists. Her first assignment in the role was attending the International Indigenous Music Summit in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

, United States.

Television appearances

Flanagan has appeared on the Australian TV music quiz shows '' Spicks & Specks'' and '' RocKwiz''; on the latter performing Elvis Costello's ''

Shipbuilding Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to befo ...

'' in a duet with composer

David Bridie David Ross Hope Bridie is an Australian contemporary musician and songwriter. He was a founding mainstay member of World music band Not Drowning, Waving which released six studio albums to critical acclaim. He also formed a chamber pop group, ...

.LEAH FLANAGAN ON SPICKS & SPECKS Pt 1 – YouTube
/ref> ''Faboriginal'' and '' RocKwiz''. She has also appeared on the light comedy sports programme '' Marngrook Footy Show'', performing a version of Stevie Wonder's ''

For Once in My Life "For Once in My Life" is a song written by Ron Miller and Orlando Murden for Motown Records' Stein & Van Stock publishing company, and first recorded in 1965. It was written and first recorded as a slow ballad. There are differing accounts of ...

''.

Collaborations and projects

*Mission Songs Project *Buried Country *Black Arm Band *''1967: Music in the Key of Yes'' *Exiles *Seven Songs To Leave Behind *Midnight Muses *MASS *Liberty Songs *Songtrails

Discography

Studio albums

Extended plays

Awards and nominations

National Indigenous Music Awards

The

National Indigenous Music Awards The National Indigenous Music Awards (NIMA), also known as the NT Indigenous Music Awards from 2004 to 2008, are music awards presented to recognise excellence, innovation and leadership among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander musicians in ...

(NIMA) recognise contributions to the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Aust ...

music industry. It commenced in 2004. ! , - ! scope="row" rowspan="1",

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...

, ''Colour by Number'' , Album of the Year , ,

Footnotes

References

External links

*
Black Arm Band bio
(archived March 2012) {{DEFAULTSORT:Flanagan, Leah Living people Australian women singer-songwriters Australian singer-songwriters Indigenous Australian musicians Year of birth missing (living people) People from Darwin, Northern Territory Musicians from the Northern Territory