Melissa Morrison Higgins (born 19 August 1983), known professionally as Missy Higgins, is an Australian singer-songwriter and musician. Her Australian number-one albums are The Sound of White (2004), On a Clear Night (2007) and The Ol' Razzle Dazzle (2012), and her singles include Scar, Steer and Where I Stood. Higgins was nominated for five ARIA Music Awards in 2004 and won 'Best Pop Release' for Scar. In 2005, she was nominated for sev more awards and won five. Higgins won her sevth ARIA in 2007. Her third album, The Ol' Razzle Dazzle, was released in Australia in June 2012 (July 2012 in the US). As of August 2014, Higgins' first three studio albums had sold over one million units.
Higgins' fourth studio album, OZ, was released in September 2014 and consists of cover versions of Australian composers, as well as a book of related essays.
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Alongside her music career, Higgins pursues interests in animal rights and the vironmt, deavouring to make her tours carbon neutral. In 2010 she made her acting debut in the feature film Bran Nue Dae and also performed on its soundtrack.
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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, wh she appeared in an Armadale Primary School production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
Hoping for more freedom, she urged her parts to sd her to Geelong Grammar School, an indepdt boarding school that her siblings attded. At Geelong, Higgins took up the piano again, this time playing jazz and performing with her brother David's group on weekds.
At 15, while attding Geelong Grammar's Timbertop, she wrote All for Believing for a school music assignmt, completing it just hours before the deadline.
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The assignmt earned an A and she performed her song in front of classmates. She approached a Melbourne record company and was told that they wanted more than one song.
In 2001, Missy's sister Nicola tered All for Believing on her behalf in Unearthed, radio station Triple J's competition for unsigned artists. The song won the competition and was added to the station's play list.
Watson later disclosed that Missy's the only time in my career I knew after 90 seconds I really wanted to sign her.
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The backpacking trip had be planned with a frid for years and the pair spt 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 atttion of American record labels and, by year's d, an international recording deal with Warner Bros. had be negotiated.
She was nominated in five categories at the ARIA Music Awards of 2004 for Scar: Best Female Artist', 'Single of the Year', 'Best Pop Release', 'Breakthrough Artist – Single' and 'Best Video' (directed by Squareyed Films).
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At the awards ceremony on 17 October, she received the award for Best Pop Release, beating Delta Goodrem, The Dissociatives, Kylie Minogue and Pete Murray.
Her second single T Days was co-writt with Jay Clifford (guitarist in US band Jump, Little Childr) and was inspired by Higgins' 2002 break-up with her boyfrid before she travelled to Europe.
On 29 January 2005, Higgins performed with other local musicians including Nick Cave and Powderfinger at the WaveAid fundraising concert in the Sydney Cricket Ground.
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The Special Two was released on an EP which included her cover of the Skyhooks song, You Just Like Me Cos I'm Good in Bed, recorded for Triple J's 30th anniversary. The song had be the first track played on Triple J wh it launched (as Double J) in 1975.
She was nominated for sev more ARIAs and in October won 'Album of the Year', 'Best Pop Release', 'Breakthrough Artist – Album' and 'Highest Selling Album' (all for The Sound of White) and 'Best Female Artist' (for Scar).
During 2006, Higgins lived in Broome, Western Australia for six months, away from the tertainmt industry. The relaxed lifestyle helped her focus on writing new material.
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The landscape made a big impression, It was the first place I'd ever felt honestly connected with my country, with the physical land of my country and inspired her to write Going North.
Steer was released as an EP, followed a fortnight later by its album on 28 April 2007, both debuted at No. 1 on their respective charts.
In February, Higgins had contributed a tribute song to the album, Cannot Buy My Soul, for noted indigous singer, Kev Carmody, singing Droving Woman with musician Paul Kelly and group Augie March.
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On 7 July, she participated in the Live Earth concert in Sydney, performing her own set before joining Carmody, Kelly and vocalist John Butler on stage for the song From Little Things Big Things Grow.
On 26 October, backed by the Sydney Youth Orchestra, she headlined the annual Legs 11 concert, a breast cancer befit held in The Domain, Royal Botanic Gards, Sydney.
Two days later Higgins performed at the 2007 ARIAs where she was nominated for 'Best Pop Release', 'Highest Selling Album' and 'Highest Selling Single' (for Steer) and won 'Best Female Artist' (for On a Clear Night)—her sevth ARIA Music Award.
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On 31 October, she was a guest at television music channel MAX's inaugural Concert for the Cure, a private concert for people affected by breast cancer. She sang headline act Powderfinger's Sunsets with front man Bernard Fanning and joined in with the core of These Days.
She spt November and December on her For One Night Only Tour, taking in Cairns, Sydney and Perth. You Am I lead singer, Tim Rogers, joined her on some shows.
On a Clear Night, was released in the US on 26 February 2008, supported by a tour in March. Her t-month stay in Los Angeles during 2008 promoted her songs for films and television shows.
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Her first US single Where I Stood was featured in US series including Grey's Anatomy, One Tree Hill and So You Think You Can Dance.
On 31 March she released an EP, More Than This in Australia that features cover versions of More Than This by Roxy Music, (I'm) In Love Again by Peggy Lee, Breakdown by Tom Petty and Moses by Patty Griffin.
Moses had be included on Triple J's 2005 compilation album Like a Version: Volume One and More Than This was recorded as part of Covered, A Revolution in Sound, a Warner Bros. tribute album also released in March 2009.
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Her acting debut was as Annie in 2010 film Bran Nue Dae directed by Rachel Perkins. The film is an adaptation of the 1990 musical Bran Nue Dae, Australia's first Aboriginal musical.
At Lilith Fair, she met Australian musician Butterfly Boucher and they decided to work together. In 2011, Higgins travelled to where Boucher was living in Nashville to record her third album, which is co-produced by Boucher and Brad Jones.
The Ol' Razzle Dazzle album debuted at No. 1 on the ARIA Albums Chart the week of 12 June 2012. It was Higgins' 3rd straight number one album. As of January 2019, Higgins ties Olivia Newton-John for the 3rd highest tally of Australian Number One albums by an Australian female artist. Only Delta Goodrem (with four Number 1 ARIA albums) and Kylie Minogue and Kasey Chambers (with five each) have achieved more.
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In September 2014, Higgins released her fourth studio album, Oz, which features cover versions of Australian composers, including The Angels, Slim Dusty, Something For Kate, Warumpi Band, Paul Kelly and The Drones. The album is also accompanied by a book of related essays, in which Higgins uses each of the recordings to reflect upon subjects such as music and love.
Higgins explained in an October 2014 interview that she expericed a significant bout of writer's block following the completion of her second album and someone suggested an album of cover versions at the time, but she only revisited the idea during the conception of Oz. Higgins further explained:
I responded to all these songs on an emotional level, wh I first heard them. I wanted songs I felt I could tell with my own voice, and interpret them authtically ... But it was important to maintain the emotional integrity and the heart of the song. It was a high priority to keep true to the songs.[63]
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The national Australian tour in support of Oz commced on 20 September 2014 in Cairns, Quesland, and ded in Melbourne in October 2014. Higgins was accompanied by Bischoff, and Australian artist Dustin Tebbutt appeared as a special guest.
In October 2017, Higgins appeared in a revival of the 1996 musical Miracle City by Nick right and Max Lambert at the Sydney Opera House, playing the role of Bonnie Mae.
In February 2018, Higgins released the single Futon Couch, the first single from her fifth studio album, called Solastalgia, released in May 2018.
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This would later serve as the basis of a mini-album, also titled Total Control, that Higgins announced in February 2022. It is set for release on 4 March 2022.
Higgins grew up in the 1980s and 1990s listing to artists that her older siblings liked—Nicola played Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston, while David