Lucy Woodward

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In her teens, Lucy Woodward studied voice, piano, flute and began writing her own songs. At 16, she was accepted to the Manhattan School of Music to study jazz, but opted instead to focus on honing her songwriting and performing skills. She spent the next few years paying her dues by singing with cover bands and wedding combos, working as a session singer, waiting tables and singing jazz standards in a Greenwich Village restaurant.

“When I was 19, I became obsessive about learning jazz standards,” Woodward recalls. “I would lock myself away for hours and hours, learning the vocabulary of this style, studying different singers’ vocal techniques, writing out the lyrics by hand and copping the riffs. That was my job for a year; I waited tables and learned songs. After that, I met a bunch of pop writers and that felt good, so I followed that and started writing pop-rock songs.”

Woodward’s talents won her a deal with Atlantic Records, resulting in her well-received 2003 debut album While You Can, which spawned the infectious hit “Dumb Girls.” That early success led to a year of international touring, including a spot on The Tonight Show. Although her efforts won her mainstream notoriety, making slick, radio-ready pop and sharing bills with lip-synching teen acts proved artistically unsatisfying for Woodward.

“I got propelled into that whole 14-year-old pop world, and it didn’t feel like me anymore,” she explains. “It was fun and I’m grateful for that experience, and I have no regrets. But it got to the point where I realized that it didn’t feel right.”

A crucial turning point arrived when Woodward was asked to record a big-band version of It’s Oh So Quiet – originally recorded in 1948 by Betty Hutton and subsequently popularized by Bjork – for the Disney film Ice Princess. According to Woodward, that experience reconnected her with her musical roots and set her back on a more personal creative path.

“That was the turning point for me,” she says. “It felt so organic and so right, and I felt so connected singing it. I realized that this is the music I should be making.”

Inspired by the experience, Woodward began a remarkable musical reinvention on 2008’s independently released Lucy Woodward Is…Hot and Bothered, a transitional effort that incorporated R&B grooves and electronic beats, while mining the deep-rooted jazz influences that sparked the musical rebirth that’s manifested on Hooked! The critics took notice, with Billboard raving, “Lucy’s a ball, equally appreciable for fans of melodic sing-along baubles and highbrow aficionados of finely honed musical composition.”

In addition to working on her own albums, Woodward has also kept busy with a variety of extracurricular activities. Her song There’s Gotta Be More To Life earned her a BMI Songwriter’s Award, and she’s contributed songs to several film soundtracks, including the recent Sandra Bullock hit The Blind Side. She was also a guest judge on American Idol and a noted producer on Randy Jackson’s 2008 album Randy Jackson’s Music Club, Volume 1. She’s also devoted considerable energy to several charitable projects, making multiple trips to Africa on behalf of relief organizations, singing for Bishop Desmond Tutu at a benefit for his foundation in Dallas and performing with Carole King at another benefit in New York.

Recently relocated from her longtime home of New York to Los Angeles, Woodward is feeling excited and energized by her current musical rebirth. “I still have a lot of old fans that have stuck with me since my first album,” she says, “so it’ll be interesting to see how they react to Hooked! I can’t really second-guess that, but I do know that this record represents the real me. Artists always say that about their new record, but in this case it’s really true.”


Website: www.lucywoodward.com
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/lucywoodward
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/lucywoodward
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