Ella Keighery Hooper is an Australian rock musicsinger-songwriter, radio presenter and TV personality. Hooper is the lead singer of Killing Heidi. The band formed in 1996 and also featured her older brother Jesse Hooper. Their biggest hits were "Mascara", "Live Without It" and "Weir". Killing Heidi broke up in 2006. Ella and Jesse have performed small scale venues as an acoustic band, The Verses. Ella is now a radio presenter on 2DayFM and was one of the two captains in the short-lived revival of the ABCtelevision showSpicks and Specks that commenced in February 2014.
Early history
Born in Melbourne, Victoriato Helen Keighery and Jeremy Hooper. Hooper grew up in Violet Town, a small rural township 175 km north of Melbourne. After finishing Violet Town Primary School, Hooper travelled 27 km by bus to Benalla High School until Year 11. Her parents worked as English and drama teachers, and encouraged Hooper to develop her songwriting skills while Jesse became a guitarist very early on. The Hooper siblings wrote and performed songs for a 1996 Triple J competition and won with "Kettle". Hooper moved to Melbourne after Killing Heidi were signed to a recording deal with Wah Wah Music's Paul Kosky and Chris Robinson. They released "Weir" as their first single in August 1999, Hooper left secondary schooling to concentrate on touring Killing Heidi.
Killing Heidi
As a member of Killing Heidi, Hooper won four ARIA Awards in 2000: "Album of the Year" for Reflector, "Best Group", "Breakthrough Artist – Album" and "Best Rock Group". With Jesse, Hooper was awarded APRA 2001 Songwriter of the Year. Hooper underwent surgery on her vocal cords to remove a cyst.
Solo
After Killing Heidi broke up in 2006, Hooper then began playing acoustic gigs at smaller venues in Australia alongside Jesse as The Verses. In mid-2006 she toured Australia with the all-female musical line-up of Broad, alongside Australian pop musician Deborah Conway, among others. Hooper was a regular guest on the ABC's musical quiz show Spicks and Specks; she has also appeared on the SBS programme RocKwiz and made an appearance on the premiere of David Tench Tonight. In March 2011, she released her version of "On the Inside", the theme song to Prisoner. In 2012, Ella became the host, mentor and MC for The Telstra Road to Discovery, a respected talent development program that scours the country for the next generation of singing and songwriting talent. Ella decided to embark on a solo career after a conversation with Stevie Nicks. She released her first solo single "Low High" on 9 November 2012. The single was produced and recorded by Jan Skubizewski in his Collingwood studio. The song featured a guest performance by horror-country act, Graveyard Train. "Häxan", her second single, was released on 26 April 2013, and launched at The Workers Club on 9 May 2013. A third single, "The Red Shoes", followed over a year later, in June 2014. All three singles feature on Ella's debut album In Tongues, which was released on 21 November 2014 via Pledge Music. Hooper returned to television on 5 February 2014, as one of two team captains in the comeback of the ABC's musical quiz show Spicks and Specks. In 2016, Ella made a surprise appearance in the seventh episode of an Australian documentary web series called How To Be A Fan With Hex. Ella released a new single, "To the Bone" on 27 July 2018. She later announced in an interview that she is planning to release a mini-album in 2019. On 18 January 2019, Hooper was named as an entry in Eurovision - Australia Decides, a competition to represent Australia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2019. Her song "Data Dust" finished 10th out of 10. In February 2019 Hooper confirmed the upcoming release of an EP saying "I've been working on a new EP or mini album over the last few months and playing the new tracks live before they're released is a great way to see what's really connecting with my audience before I put the final touches on the songs." In 2019, Hooper joined seven celebrities including Lisa Curry, Georgie Parker, Casey Donovan and Lynne McGranger for The All New Monty: Ladies Night - a one night only special event choreographed by Todd McKenney, where they bared all for women's health awareness, in particular breast cancer. Hooper shared publicly for the first time that her mum was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer.
