Lisa Shaw (born 1968) is an urban and house music singer from Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Warm, velvety and sultry are but a few choice words that accurately describe the voice of singer/songwriter & Neo-soul diva, Lisa Shaw. With a solid career spanning nearly two decades, this Toronto native has seen 2 full-length solo albums on Naked Music/Astralwerks and Salted Music as well as dozens of featured-artist singles the with some of the best producers in the genre, enchanting listeners across the globe at all hours of the day and night.
It all began in her Canadian home where her father and brother, both djs, would play styles that would wittingly influence her repertoire, namely Reggae, Funk, Soul, Jazz, Folk, Rock, Disco, and New Wave. She also remembers being enthralled by performances of Sister Sledge, Chic, and Kool & the Gang, all of whose live shows she'd seen a number of times as a child. She credits them in a recent Straight (Magazine).com profile when asked about her songwriting by stating, "When I first started writing with house producers, I approached it more from a singer-songwriter point of view. If you think about the disco era and groups like Sister Sledge or Chic, they were doing soul records, but it was dance music at the same time. That's what I wanted..."
As a young adult she took a leisure trip to New York and never looked back. With her strong ideology in hand, she dove right into singing and performing, and was quickly embraced by the city's underground electronic community. In 1995 she released her first single written by DJ Smash, “Makin’ Love Makin’ Music,” on New Breed Records. Other independent labels also featured her vocals such as Dj Wally and Swingsett’s “Dog Leg Left” on Ubiquity Records, and her first major hit in the UK was, “If I Could” on Sirkus Records. A few years later she teamed up with Jay Denes, Dave Boonshoft, and Bruno Ybarra of Naked Music Recordings, the New York-based record label credited as defining a musical era by breaking some of the greatest Deep House & soulful sounds of the late 90's. Her writing partner and producer Dave Warrin collaborated with Jay Denes to create, “You Are Love” as well as one of her most popular songs, “Always,” which earned her such global acclaim that even the Pop Queen Madonna mentioned the song as being, “so cool” in an interview with Rolling Stone Magazine in 2001.
Around that time, Naked merged with now mega-imprint Astralwerks Records, which propelled her to the top of the electronic music heap. In 2002, Lisa joined Warrin and Denes to form Lovetronic, scoring another legendary Naked Music Deep House hit with "You Are Love." In 2003 Naked/Astralwerks released her debut solo album Cherry with producers and co-writers Jay Denes, Dave Warrin, and Eric Stamile, and Lisa continues to perform popular songs from that album to this day.
In the years that followed, Lisa would see herself collaborating with known producers Fred Everything, Scuba, Miguel Migs, Ethan White from acclaimed electronic outfit Tortured Soul, and others. They released singles on prominent electronic labels such as OM, Wave, Large, Salted and Flower, but it wouldn't be until 2009 that she would see her second full length solo album, Free. Released on Migs' Salted Music, this album was a healthy mix of styles ranging from the soulful and vibey "Feel" & "All Night High," to the sexy downtempo gems "Honey" & "Better Days" to all out floor-fillers "Music In You" and one of her most requested songs to date, "Like I Want To."
Riding off the success of the album, Lisa toured from Rio to Jo'burg to Bali to Dubai, and just about every other major city on the planet. She’s been featured on albums with King Britt and Q-Burns the Abstract Message and the requests for collaborations continue to ensue. More recently, her exposure led to songs with producers Scott Hardkiss (RIP), Andy Caldwell, Hideo Kobayashi, Julius Papp, Nathan G, and ATFC. She's coming full force in 2014 on joint ventures with The Lovebirds for a tune on super UK powerhouse label Defected, and with Grammy Nominated Remixer Andy Caldwell forthcoming on legendary Nettwerk Records, and others to come.
From her humble beginnings and classic-genre influences, Lisa Shaw’s music has truly evolved and continues to be featured on styles ranging from Deep & Soulful House, Downtempo, Drum & Bass and Broken Beat. Her songs appear on countless compilations so much so that she's become a virtual "house-hold" name. Presently, Lisa tours solo as well as with dj/ producer Miguel Migs at many of their massive Salted events all over the USA. Many will say she's made her mark, and by many standards she certainly has, but in no uncertain terms is she done. Fortunately for her as well as her fans, she has no intention of stopping the music.