Lucy Woodward (born 27 October 1977) is an English-American singer-songwriter. She has released records on Atlantic, Verve, and GroundUP and has sung with many artists including Rod Stewart, Barbra Streisand, Snarky Puppy, Celine Dion, Pink Martini, Gavin DeGraw, Joe Cocker, Chaka Khan, Nikka Costa, and Randy Jackson. She co-wrote Stacie Orrico's Top 40 hit "(There's Gotta Be) More to Life".
Contents
Early life
A native of London, England, she is the daughter of British conductor Kerry Woodward, who conducted the BBC Singers, and his American wife Julie Woodward, who was an editor of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Woodward's parents mounted the first performances of Viktor Ullmann's opera Der Kaiser von Atlantis, which Ullmann composed while interned in a Nazi concentration camp. Woodward's family moved to Amsterdam when her father was appointed musical director of the Netherlands Chamber Choir. Two years later her parents separated, and she moved with her mother and brother to New York City to live with her grandparents.
Raised on classical and Middle Eastern music, Woodward studied piano and flute before receiving singing lessons at age 12. She attended high school in The Bronx and sang house music in her friends' basements. During summers she attended music camp and visited her father in the Netherlands, where she frequently locked herself in her father's studio and listened to jazz and R&B records. At the age of 16, Woodward was accepted to the Manhattan School of Music to study jazz, but after a year she decided to drop out to focus on songwriting and performing. She spent the next few years in swing organ trios, including The Sugarman 3, working as a session singer, a waitress, and singing jazz standards in restaurants in Greenwich Village.
Career
In 2003 Woodward signed with Atlantic Records and recorded her debut album While You Can, which entered the Top 150 on the Billboard 200. The album included Woodward's Top 40 hit "Dumb Girls", which she had written with producer Kevin Kadish before signing with Atlantic. Other songs on While You Can were produced at Jim Henson Studios by John Shanks. She toured internationally and appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
During the following year, Woodward was asked by producer Jaime Houston to record the big-band tune "It's Oh So Quiet" for the Disney film Ice Princess; the song was later used in various TV shows, commercials, and the Birds of Prey trailer. The song was first recorded by Betty Hutton in 1948 and later covered by Björk on her 1995 album Post. Woodward considers it a turning point in her career and the inspiration for much of her second album, Lucy Woodward Is...Hot and Bothered. The album was released in 2008 and distributed exclusively by Barnes & Noble as part of its Discover Great New Music program. It was produced by Itaal Shur and Tim K. The song "Hot and Bothered" takes its melody from a Yiddish lullaby that Woodward's grandmother sang to her as a baby. Woodward appeared on Randy Jackson's 2008 album Randy Jackson's Music Club, Vol. 1, singing the duet "Willing to Try" with Richie Sambora and Travis Tritt.
Woodward also contributed songs to the soundtracks for Last Vegas, The Blind Side, Ice Princess, Music and Lyrics, What a Girl Wants, First Daughter, and Accepted. Her version of "It's Oh So Quiet" appeared in the Disney film Ice Princess. She co-wrote the Stacie Orrico Top 40 worldwide hit "There's Gotta Be More to Life", which earned her a BMI Christian Music Award in 2003 and a BMI Songwriter's Pop Award in 2004. Originally called "More to Life", the song was written with Kevin Kadish and Sabelle Breer for Woodward's 2003 Atlantic debut but was released instead on the Japanese import version of the album as a bonus track. In 2010, Woodward co-wrote and recorded "Daylight as Sunset" for Earthrise Soundsystem's debut The Yoga Sessions.
Woodward's third album Hooked! (Verve, 2010) was recorded at Stratosphere Sound in New York City and Jim Henson Studios in Hollywood. It was produced by Tony Visconti and included contributions by Tim K, Justin Stanley, and Itaal Shur. Woodward wrote much of the album with Dan Petty and Michelle Lewis, saying that she had been inspired by the music of Peggy Lee and Django Reinhardt. The album also received comparisons to Dusty Springfield and Brill Building. The song "Another Woman" was written for her by longtime inspiration Nellie McKay, who sang background vocals. Woodward toured throughout the US, including with jazz fusion band Snarky Puppy, which played on her cover version of "Be My Husband" by Nina Simone. In 2011, she was asked by Armed Forces Entertainment to perform at American military bases in Italy, Turkey, and Spain.
Volunteering
A frequent visitor to Kenya and Rwanda, Woodward organizes an annual benefit concert for the Cura Orphanage outside Nairobi at Jim Henson Studios. She has performed for the UN Mine Action Service and at the Millennium Development Goals Awards. Woodward sang for Desmond Tutu at a benefit for the Desmond Tutu Peace Foundation. She also served with World Central Kitchen in Przemyśl, Poland in April 2022 to cook for Ukrainian refugees during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Awards and honors
BMI Christian Music Award, "There's Gotta Be More to Life", 2003
BMI Songwriter's Pop Award, "There's Gotta Be More to Life", 2004
Discography
Albums
While You Can (Atlantic, 2003)
Lucy Woodward Is...Hot & Bothered (Barnes & Noble, 2007)
Hooked! (Verve, 2010)
The Goods EP (2013)
Get Your Holiday Goods with The Goods (2015)
Til They Bang On the Door (GroundUP, 2016)
Music!Music!Music! with Charlie Hunter (Mocloud, 2019)
I'm a Stranger Here with Charlie Hunter (2020)
Stories From The Dust (2024)
Lucy Woodward & The Rocketeers (GroundUP, 2024)
As guest
Groove Collective, "Up All Night" (1999)
The Scumfrog, "Bacon" (2004)
Home & Garden, "Domesticated" (2008)
Randy Jackson, Randy Jackson Music Club Vol. 1, "Willing To Try" (2008)
Earthrise Soundsystem, "Daylight as Sunset" (2009)
Charles Walker & the Dynamites, "Love Is Only Everything" (2012)
The Joshua Shneider Lovespeaks Orchestra, The Joshua Shneider Lovespeaks Orchestra (2013)
Snarky Puppy, Family Dinner - Volume 1, "Too Hot To Last" (2013)
David Ricard Big Band, Holiday Swingin (2015)
Guilt by Association Vol. 4 (Compilation), "Shapes of Things" (2016)
Phat Cat Swinger, The Phat Cat Swinger Christmas Album, "Frosty" (2018)
Chris Grey & The BlueSpand, "Feed The Monkey" (2018)
Broken Brass Ensemble, "Piece Of Your Heaven" (2019)
Drifter, "True Love" (2021)
Steve Shapiro, "Extremely Moderate" (2022)
Dennis van Aarssen, "Stay For Christmas" (2022)
Singles
"Dumb Girls" – 2003 (#112)
"Blindsided" – 2003
"Trouble With Me" – 2004
"Slow Recovery" – 2007/2010
"Ragdoll" – 2010
"Be My Husband" – 2012
"Happy That It's You!" – 2013
"Kiss Me Mister Histrionics" – 2016
"Live Live Live" – 2016
"Can't Let Go" – 2019
"Soul of a Man" – 2019
"Stranger Blues" – 2020
"My Love Will Never Die" – 2020
"Big Bones" – 2023
"Fray" – 2023
"Clenched Fists" – 2023
"Lady in Waiting" – 2023
"When You Wish Upon a Star" – 2023
"Plain Gold Ring" – 2024
"Love Me Tender" – 2024
"Tryin' Times" – 2024
Film & TV
What a Girl Wants "What's Good for Me" (2003)
First Daughter "Free" (2004)
Desperate Housewives "Damsel In Distress" (2005)
Ice Princess "It's Oh So Quiet" (2005)
The Barbie Diaries (Movie Soundtrack) "Real Life" (2006)
Accepted "Don't You Forget About Me" (2006)
Music and Lyrics (2007)
The Blind Side "Trouble with Me" (2009)
New Year's Eve (2011)
Footloose "Footloose Theme Song" (2011)
The Possession "Maybe We Deserve Each Other" (2012)
Last Vegas "Drunken Stars" (2013)
State of Bacon "World Like This" (2014)
Manhattan Night "If I Never Met You" (2016)
Birds of Prey "It's Oh So Quiet" (2020)