Melissa Morrison "Missy" Higgins is an Australian singer-songwriter and musician. Her most popular singles include "Scar", "Steer", and "Where I Stood".
Her Australian number-one albums are The Sound of White (2004), On a Clear Night (2007) and The Ol' Razzle Dazzle (2012). In 2018, she released a greatest hits album called The Special Ones.
real name: Melissa Morrison Higgins
labels: Eleven: A Music Company
genres: rock music
plays: guitar, piano, voice
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Melissa Morrison Higgins was born in Melbourne on 19 August 1983 to Christopher Higgins, an English-Australian general practitioner, and Margaret (née Morrison), an Australian childcare centre operator. Her sister, Nicola, is seven years older and her brother, David, six years older. Higgins learned to play classical piano from age six, following in the footsteps of Christopher and David, but realised she wanted to be a singer at about 12, when she appeared in an Armadale Primary School production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Bored with practice, she gave up playing piano at that time.
Two record companies showed an interest in Higgins—Sony and Eleven. She signed with Eleven, partly because they agreed that she would not be "made into a pop star" and partly because they were happy for her to take time off for a backpacking holiday. Higgins's manager is Eleven's John Watson, who also managed rock band Silverchair. Watson later disclosed that "Missy's the only time in my career I knew after 90 seconds I really wanted to sign her." The backpacking trip had been planned with a friend for years and the pair spent most of 2002 in Europe; while Higgins was travelling, "All for Believing" started to receive airplay on Los Angeles radio station KCRW. Such radio exposure attracted the attention of American record labels and, by...
Higgins grew up in the 1980s and 1990s listening to artists that her older siblings liked—Nicola played Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston, while David favoured Queen and Kiss. Departing for boarding school at age 13, she was exposed to alternative artists like Nirvana and Hole and started teaching herself guitar and writing her own music. She also began singing with David's jazz group on weekends. As an adult she prefers Nina Simone and Ray Charles to "poppy dance music". She has cited Patty Griffin, Ron Sexsmith, Rufus Wainwright, Paul Kelly and Sarah McLachlan as influences. Material from her third album is influenced by ambient music from Low, Jon Hopkins, Icelandic band Sigur Rós and Estonian classical composer Arvo Pärt.
Underlined songs have their story further down.
"Peachy" is a song by Australian singer-songwriter Missy Higgins and the third single released from her second album, On A Clear Night. The track features a guest appearance by Neil Finn playing electric guitar.
The single was released on 10 November 2007, as a digital download only. At the ARIA Music Awards of 2008 Higgins was nominated for Best Female Artist for this single.
In 2004, Higgins released the song "Ten Days" which documented her feelings following a break-up with her boyfriend before she travelled to Europe after leaving high school. Though they later reconciled, the relationship ended and subsequently inspired the lyrics for "Peachy". The song was written in half an hour at a friend's house where Higgins locked herself in a room with a guitar. She said of the song, "[i]t's all those mind games you play with someone you've just broken up with [...] They're pretending they've moved on; you're pretending you have, too, but neither of you has. It's ridiculous."
"Peachy" was released for digital download only on 10 November 2007. "Peachy" was voted the number 51 song in the Triple J Hottest 100, 2007 and was included on the 2008 compilation CD Triple J's Hottest 100 Volume 15.
"Steer" is the first single from Australian singer-songwriter Missy Higgins' second album, On a Clear Night (2007). The song was released in Australia on 14 April 2007 and became the most-added track that same week.
Higgins stated that the song is "about steers" and that she wrote it after overlooking the southern celestial hemisphere from a bay in Western Australia. The song has instrument backings of acoustic guitar and drums.
"Where I Stood" is the second single from Australian singer-songwriter Missy Higgins' second album, On a Clear Night (2007). The single was released on 4 August 2007 and reached No. 10 on the Australian ARIA Singles Chart.
In the United States, it became Higgins' second song to appear on the Billboard charts, reaching number 10 on the Adult Contemporary ranking. In a similar promotional scenario as her previous single "Steer", Higgins gave her fans the opportunity to purchase a signed single along with signed lyrics.
There are two videos for the song: one for Australia and one for the United States. The Australian video premiered at midnight (12am AEST) on 26 June 2007, via Higgins' MySpace page. The video was directed by Australian filmmakers Paul Goldman and Alice Bell, who were also responsible for Silverchair's "Straight Lines" video. The US video uses a more uptempo mix of the song which is also the version played on American radio stations, rather than the version that appears on the album. This version was directed by Steven Murashige. Both videos can be seen on Higgins' website.