1. Rebecca Chirnside Barnard is an Australian singer, songwriter, producer, and musician.
38 Facts About Rebecca Barnard
1. 2.
Rebecca Barnard was the lead singer of the band Rebecca's Empire from 1993 to 2000 and has forged a solo career since her debut album, Fortified, was released in 2006.
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Rebecca Barnard released her first solo jazz album, The Night We Called It A Day, in 2023.
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Rebecca Barnard is a Melbourne-based musician with a versatile musical range, delving into rock, and pop, but is mainly a jazz singer.
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Rebecca Barnard has appeared on recordings by many Australian artists, including Paul Kelly, Tim Rogers, Renee Geyer, Deborah Conway, the Meanies, Warped, Stephen Cummings, TISM, You Am I, the Black Sorrows, the Fauves, Kutcha Edwards, the Audreys, and Guy Pearce.
6.
Rebecca Chirnside Barnard was born in Melbourne, Australia, the daughter of Australian jazz drummer Len Barnard and Jane Chirnside.
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Rebecca Barnard grew up in the outer-eastern Melbourne suburb of Mooroolbark in an estate designed by Edna Walling.
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Rebecca Barnard's uncle, Bob Barnard, was an accomplished Australian jazz trumpet and cornet stylist.
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Rebecca Barnard started playing music at 10 when her father gave her a guitar and started writing songs at 12.
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From 1982 to 1992, Rebecca Barnard refined her live performance and vocal skills and was an in-demand session singer, providing vocals and backing vocals on many Australian albums.
11.
Rebecca Barnard went on to record and tour with Stephen Cummings, where she met Shane O'Mara.
12.
Rebecca Barnard has credited the journalist Jill Singer with giving her the confidence to sing her own songs.
13.
At this height of popularity, Rebecca Barnard had her own cooking segment on Triple J called "Pot of Rock".
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Rebecca Barnard has said of her popularity at this time that she had "wasted a real good opportunity to do more with the momentum that we had".
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Rebecca's Empire formally disbanded in June 2000, when Barnard was mother to a young child and there was conflict with O'Mara.
16.
Rebecca Barnard has been credited in providing the means for singer Vika Bull in starting her musical career when one of the backing vocalists in Rebecca Barnard's band lost her voice.
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Rebecca Barnard has recorded three solo albums: Fortified ; Everlasting ; and, after a lengthy hiatus, Music for Listening and Relaxation.
18.
In 2022, it was announced that Rebecca Barnard would be releasing her first album of jazz standards entitled The Night We Called It A Day, which has been produced and arranged by Rebecca Barnard's friend Monique diMattina.
19.
Rebecca Barnard cites ageism in the music industry as a factor for the lack of exposure.
20.
Rebecca Barnard commenced writing material for the album in 2003.
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Rebecca Barnard co-produced this album with Barney McAll, which deals with issues of loss and love.
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Rebecca Barnard has indicated that the album was inspired by "the power of nature, love, the fragile beauty of planet Earth", and that this is reflected in the lyrics.
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The title Music for Listening and Relaxation was inspired by an old record cover Rebecca Barnard found in an opportunity shop in the Blue Mountains.
24.
In 1995, Rebecca Barnard's Empire contributed to a compilation jazz and blues album called Up All Night, with a song written by O'Mara and Stephen Cummings called "One Step".
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In 2002, Rebecca Barnard contributed to the album The Women at the Well, an album featuring Australian female artists covering Paul Kelly songs.
26.
In 2013, Rebecca Barnard contributed to The Boy Castaways movie soundtrack with the song "I Know Where You're Going".
27.
In 2016, Rebecca Barnard featured on the tracks "Now That Our Babies Have Grown", a duet with Paul Kelly, and "The Children" as part of the Pesky Bones project.
28.
Rebecca Barnard has appeared on RocKwiz in 2005,2006 and 2009.
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Rebecca Barnard has appeared on another music-oriented music quiz show, Spicks and Specks, in 2009 and 2024.
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Rebecca Barnard is a founding member of the Mirabel Foundation, which works to assist children who have been orphaned and abandoned due to parental drug use.
31.
Rebecca Barnard contributed with a Bob Dylan penned song called "Serve Somebody".
32.
Rebecca Barnard contributed bass on a David Hosking-penned song called "Simply Survivors" which was sung by Shelly Scown.
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Rebecca Barnard was running songwriting workshops for girls in the Melbourne western suburbs in 2007.
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Rebecca Barnard conducts songwriting workshops with intellectually disabled adults in Ballarat and at the Footscray Community Arts Centre with a Sudanese Choir.
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Rebecca Barnard was a regular performer at the annual Sacred Heart Mission of St Kilda fundraiser concert in Melbourne in the 2010s.
36.
In 2011, Rebecca Barnard released a CD and download single called "A Mother Weeps", featuring Cal McAlpine, Mark Ferrie, Billy Miller, Sean Kelly, Andrew Duffield and Jack Howard.
37.
In 2015, Rebecca Barnard submitted a piece of writing to the book From the Heart: A Collection from Women of Letters, as part of Women of Letters series curated by Marieke Hardy and Michaela McGuire.
38.
Rebecca Barnard married musician Shane O'Mara in 1989 and a son was born to them in 1996.