Missy Higgins

Melissa "Missy" Morrison Higgins (born 19 August 1983) is an Australian pop singer-songwriter, musician and actor. Her No. 1 albums in Australia are The Sound of White (2004) and On a Clear Night (2007), and her Top Ten singles are "Scar", "The Special Two", "Steer" and "Where I Stood". From a musical family in Melbourne, she played piano by age six and sang at twelve. While boarding at Geelong Grammar School, she wrote a song for an assignment which was then entered into the national Unearthed radio competition for unsigned artists. Higgins won and signed recording contracts with Eleven and Warner Bros. After taking time off, backpacking in Europe, she recorded her first album The Sound of White, which was released in 2004. The album, and its first single, "Scar" both went to No. 1 on the relevant Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Charts. Its second single, "The Special Two", went to No. 2. Higgins was nominated for five ARIA Music Awards that year and won 'Best Pop Release' for "Scar". In 2005 she was nominated for seven more awards and won five. She won her seventh ARIA in 2007.

In 2006, Higgins wrote new material for her second album, and following a US tour she recorded On a Clear Night, which gave her another No. 1 single with "Steer". Higgins has conducted several well received Australian tours and performed at high-profile charity events WaveAid (2005) and Live Earth (2007). She has toured internationally and lived and worked in the United States for ten months in 2008. Her song "Where I Stood" has been used in television shows including Grey's Anatomy, One Tree Hill and So You Think You Can Dance. Her third album is due to be released in 2012.

Alongside her music career, Higgins pursues interests in animal rights and the environment, endeavouring to make her tours carbon neutral. She is also the patron of One in Five, an Australian mental health charity. In 2007, following years of press speculation about her sexual orientation, she came out as bisexual, saying that she prefers interviewers to focus on her music. In 2010 she made her acting debut in feature Bran Nue Dae, and performed on the related soundtrack. - Wikipedia