Ella Keighery Hooper (born 30 January 1983) is an Australian rock music singer-songwriter, radio presenter and TV personality. Hooper is the lead singer of

Killing Heidi Killing Heidi are an Australian rock band, formed in Violet Town, Victoria in 1996, initially as a folk-pop duo by siblings Ella and Jesse Hooper. The band has released three studio albums: '' Reflector'' (March 2000), which reached No. 1 ...

. The band formed in 1996 (when Ella was 13) and also featured her older brother Jesse Hooper. Killing Heidi broke up in 2006. Ella and Jesse have performed small scale venues as an acoustic band, The Verses. Hooper has worked on 2DayFM and was one of the two captains in the short-lived revival of the ABC television show '' Spicks and Specks'' that commenced in February 2014.

Career

1983-1995: Early Years

Born in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metro ...

to Helen Keighery and Jeremy Hooper. Hooper grew up in Violet Town, a small rural township (950 people) 175 km north of

. After finishing Violet Town Primary School, Hooper travelled 27 km by bus to Benalla High School (called

Benalla College Benalla P-12 College is a state college located in the regional town of Benalla which is located on the Hume Highway in central Victoria, on the Melbourne to Sydney Highway, 180 km north-north-east of Melbourne. It was one of the first high ...

from 1994) until Year 11. Her parents worked as English and drama teachers, and encouraged Hooper to develop her songwriting skills while Jesse became a guitarist very early on.

1996-2006: Killing Heidi

The Hooper siblings wrote and performed songs for a 1996

Triple J Triple J (stylised in all lowercase) is a government-funded, national Australian radio station intended to appeal to listeners of alternative music, which began broadcasting in January 1975. The station also places a greater emphasis on broad ...

competition and won with "Kettle". Hooper moved to Melbourne after Killing Heidi were signed to a recording deal with Wah Wah Music. In August 1999, Killing Heidi released "

Weir A weir or low head dam is a barrier across the width of a river that alters the flow characteristics of water and usually results in a change in the height of the river level. Weirs are also used to control the flow of water for outlets of l ...

" as their debut single. At the

ARIA Music Awards of 2000 The 14th Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (generally known as the ARIA Music Awards or simply The ARIAS) was held on 24 October 2000 at the Sydney Entertainment Centre. Presenters distributed 28 awards with the big winne ...

won four

ARIA Music Awards The Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (commonly known informally as ARIA Music Awards, ARIA Awards, or simply the ARIAs) is an annual series of awards nights celebrating the Australian music industry, put on by the Austr ...

. At the

APRA Music Awards of 2001 The APRA Music Awards of 2001 were a group of awards given on 28 May 2001, as one in the series of APRA Awards. These are presented annually by Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) and the Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Soc ...

Ella and Jesse Hooper won Songwriter of the Year. Killing Heidi released three studio album before disbanding in 2006.

2007–2011: Verses

In mid-2006, she toured Australia with the all-female musical line-up of Broad, alongside Australian pop musician

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 ...

, among others. After Killing Heidi broke up, Hooper began playing acoustic gigs at smaller venues in Australia alongside Jesse as The Verses. Verses released one studio album titled ''

Seasons A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and po ...

'' in 2010.

2011-present: Solo career

In March 2011, Hooper released her version of " On the Inside", the theme song to ''

Prisoner A prisoner (also known as an inmate or detainee) is a person who is deprived of liberty against their will. This can be by confinement, captivity, or forcible restraint. The term applies particularly to serving a prison sentence in a prison. ...

''. In 2012, Hooper became the host, mentor and MC for The Telstra Road to Discovery, a respected talent development program that scours the country for the next generation of singing and songwriting talent. In 2012, Hooper decided to embark on a solo career after a conversation with

Stevie Nicks Stephanie Lynn Nicks (born May 26, 1948) is an American singer, songwriter, and producer known for her work with the band Fleetwood Mac and as a solo artist. After starting her career as a duo with her then-boyfriend Lindsey Buckingham, releasi ...

. Hooper released her first solo single "Low High" on 9 November 2012. The single was produced and recorded by Jan Skubizewski (

Owl Eyes Brooke Addamo (born 2 January 1991), better known by her stage name Owl Eyes, is an Australian recording artist from Melbourne signed to the Illusive / Wunderkind Label with distribution through Universal Music Group. She released her debut st ...

, Illy, Way of the Eagle) in his Collingwood studio. "Häxan", her second single, was released on 26 April 2013, and launched at ''The Workers Club'' on 9 May 2013. A third single, "The Red Shoes", followed in June 2014. All three singles feature on Ella's debut album '' In Tongues'', which was released on 21 November 2014 via Pledge Music. Hooper returned to television on 5 February 2014, as one of two team captains (along with Adam Richard) in the comeback of the ABC's musical quiz show '' Spicks and Specks''. In Hooper Ella made a surprise appearance in the seventh episode of an Australian documentary web series called ''

How To Be A Fan With Hex ''How To Be A Fan With Hex'' is an Australian observational documentary web series created and presented by Stephanie Bendixsen. The show originally aired on ABC iview ABC iview is a video on demand and catch-up TV service run by the Au ...

''. In July 2018, Hooper released the single, "To the Bone". She later announced in an interview that she is planning to release a mini-album in 2019. On 18 January 2019, Hooper was named as an entry in

Eurovision - Australia Decides The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pri ...

, a competition to represent

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

at the

Eurovision Song Contest 2019 The Eurovision Song Contest 2019 was the 64th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Tel Aviv, Israel, following the country's victory at the 2018 contest with the song " Toy" by Netta. Organised by the European Broad ...

. Her song "Data Dust" finished 10th out of 10. In February 2019 Hooper confirmed the upcoming release of an EP saying "I've been working on a new EP or mini album over the last few months and playing the new tracks live before they're released is a great way to see what's really connecting with my audience before I put the final touches on the songs." In 2019, Hooper joined seven celebrities including

Lisa Curry Lisa Gaye Curry AO MBE (born 15 May 1962), also known by her married name Lisa Curry-Kenny, is an Australian former competition swimmer. Curry won seven gold, two silver and one bronze Commonwealth Games medals, and is the only Australian s ...

Georgie Parker Georgina Parker (born 16 December 1964) is an Australian television soap actress and has also appeared in film and theatre. She is a double Gold Logie winner, best known for her acting roles in Australian soap operas; as Lucy Gardiner (later T ...

, Casey Donovan and

Lynne McGranger Lynne McGranger (born 29 January 1953) is an Australian actress and longest serving female cast member of a television soap opera in Australia, having starred as Irene Roberts on soap opera ''Home and Away'' for over 29 years. She joined the se ...

for ''All new monty, The All New Monty: Ladies Night'' – a one night only special event choreographed by Todd McKenney, where they bared all for women's health awareness, in particular breast cancer. Hooper shared publicly for the first time that her mum was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. In 2021 Hooper was revealed to be Baby during Season 3 of The Masked Singer Australia. In October 2022, Hooper released "Words Like These" and announce the forthcoming release of her second studio album, ''Small Town Temple'', scheduled for release on 20 January 2023.

Discography

Albums

Extended plays

Singles

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hooper, Ella 1983 births Living people APRA Award winners Australian songwriters Women rock singers People from Victoria (Australia) 21st-century Australian women singers 21st-century Australian singers