Lisa Kelly Biography

Lisa Kelly was born to sing, there was never any doubt she would do anything else. An “Irish Coleen” born in Dublin her whole family are musical.

Her parents and sisters are both singers and her parents are heavily involved in amateur theatre which influenced their daughter to lean towards drama. She also trained in classical piano and singing.

At the age of 7-years-old she starred in the musical version of “Bugsy Malone” and she has played some of the most iconic roles in musicals since. These include Velma Kelly in “Chicago” Florence in “Chess” Laurie in “Oklahoma” and Sandy in “Grease” but, there is still one role that evades her and she would love to play, Eva Peron in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical “Evita”.

Barbra Streisand has had the greatest influence on her career because she says Streisand can cross over between pop and theatre very well, she is also a big fan of Madonna.

Her favourite role was playing Florence in “Chess” and she says she could play almost any part in “Fiddler on the Roof” as she has appeared in the show so many times.

But her luckiest break was to become the lead vocalist in “Riverdance – the show” which she remained with for five years. Whilst she was touring she met an Australian dancer Scott Porter, who was also in the show and he later became her husband.

They have three children, sons Cian and Jack and a daughter Ellie, born in March 5th 2008. She calls them “Hands down, the most important part of my life.” When they are not at school they accompany her on tour and when she is in America her eldest son Cian makes her watch NASCAR as the family all adore cars. His favourite driver is Dale Earnhardt.

She finds the best part about touring is meeting her fans and she says life on the tour bus is very quiet as the crew spend time doing crosswords and watching movies. She uses the opportunity to catch up on her favourite reading, thrillers. With three children and a tight schedule she does not have as much time as she would like to read.

She used to work in the computer industry and still finds it hard to believe she has been able to turn her favourite hobby into a dream job.

In 2004 she was approached by a young Irish composer David Downes to be part of “Celtic Woman” for what was planned to be a one-night event at Dublin’s Helix Theatre. “Celtic Woman” has since released over five albums and DVDs of their performances and undertaken several world tours.

In 2009 she sang the main title song “If you believe” for the Disney film “Tinkerbell, The Lost Treasure.” She was thrilled to be invited to be the feature singer and excited to work with the composer Joel McNeely.

In June 2011 Lisa Kelly will be touring Germany and Austria – and catching up on her favourite books.

Write by Trending Shirts