Since launching her own band the beautiful 23 year old Lisa is being complimented everywhere she appears and is described as having "a brilliant voice", has a "good personality on and off stage" and is a natural successor to the legends of country both at home in Ireland and in Nashville. Already her music is also requested and heard regularly on radio throughout Europe and 'down under' in Australia. When Lisa approached Sean McGrade from Purple Heather Promotions they both immediately knew this was something special and without hesitation agreed to work on a musical journey together.
The litany of Credits and Awards continue for Ireland's latest rising star in country music Lisa McHugh as she recently reached #2 with her hit single "I'm A Little Bit Lonely" on the Hillcrest record label in the ECMA's (European Country Music Association) Country Music Radio Chart Top 100 most played songs of the week. Included in this chart is #9 Sugarland, #15 Toby Keith, #16 Tim McGraw & #17 Brad Paisley. This chart is put together from all European countries including where Lisa is #1 in Sweden and Netherlands, #2 in Ireland and # 3 in UK and Austria. The website address is www.europeancma.com.
This follows on when Lisa received SKY TV's Showcase Hot Country 'New Horizon Award 2011'. The presentation was made by Michael Commins (Editor of Irish Country Sound in the Irish Farmers Journal) at the Hot Country Annual Awards Show in the Carlton Shearwater Hotel, Ballinasloe, Co. Galway. It is Lisa's fifth award in as many months, all of which are listed below:
- "Best Newcomer 2010 Award" at the Entertainment and Country Music Awards
- "Best New Female Artist 2010 Award"' at the West Limerick 102fm Awards
- "Best Country Newcomer of 2011" at The Northern Ireland Country Music Awards
- "Best New Female Vocalist of the Year 2011" at the Tipp FM Radio Awards
Lisa received such a fantastic reaction at her summer festival appearances this year (including Country Fest 2011 in Letterkenny where she had an outstanding concert on the main stage in front of a 5,000 plus audience), that she has already been asked to headline several UK events in the months to come.
Having a UK tour with the great Gene Watson and the fantastic Pam Tillis under her belt, Ireland's latest rising star in country music Lisa McHugh is receiving a fantastic reception at all of her appearances. Some of the comments included "Lisa is a beautiful girl with a wonderful voice" and "Lisa will take British Country Music to a much higher level". She appeared in venues from Cumbria in the north to Somerset in the south along with Leeds, Norfolk, Merseyside etc. Lisa felt honoured to receive the invitation to share the stage with Gene who is a legend in American country music and was overwhelmed by the warm reception she received. She has also completed a very successful 10 date Irish tour, sharing the stage with Roly Daniels and Brendan Quinn who are two legends in Irish country music.
Tuesday August 16th was a very exciting day for Ireland's Multi Award Winning Singing Sensation as she celebrated her birthday in the company of over 1,100 of her facebook friends worldwide. She received birthday wishes personally sent from the four corners of the world including : USA, Canada, Australia, Europe along with the UK and Ireland. She celebrated by travelling to London's O2 Arena to be in the company of American country music superstar Brad Paisley.
The busy success story looks certain to set the pace for Lisa McHugh for the foreseeable future. She has more recently appeared on the Irish Country Sound Pavilion stage presented by the Irish Farmers Journal during the 80th Annual Ploughing Championships 2011 in Athy, Co. Kildare where almost 200,000 people attended over three days. During the course of the three days an RTE TV news crew filmed Lisa live on stage resulting in an appearance on all RTE TV news bulletins.
Due to such high demand, Lisa also filmed a video for a track from her "Old Fashioned Girl" album called "I'm A Little Bit Lonely" in the recent months. This has been viewed countless times on TV at home in Ireland and throughout Europe and the hits on YouTube are increasing massively every day.
In the short time since Lisa professionally embarked with her band, her musical highway has been filled with lots of success and surprises. She has received five awards, released five singles and two albums. All this is topped with 9 appearances on TG4 TV, two appearances on RTE TV news and many appearances on SKY TV Showcase channel 201. In the past few months Lisa was featured on two radio programmes live from Daniel O'Donnell's home in Kincasslagh and even more excitingly, recorded a fantastic Christmas Duet with her good friend Daniel entitled "I'll be Home with Bells on" which was originally written by Country Music legend Dolly Parton and has been recorded by Dolly and Kenny Rodgers.
Lisa's forthcoming album that is presently being recorded (when time allows) is due for release early New Year. Including songs that are a complete contrast to Lisa's earlier recordings, it will certainly help show another dimension to her great musical talent.
PAGE UPDATED THURSDAY12th JANUARY 2012
