Daniel Merriweather

Daniel Merriweather (born Daniel Paul Merriweather, February 17, 1982, Melbourne, Australia (suburb of Sassafras in the Dandenong Ranges, near Belgrave)) is an Australian R&B singer/songwriter. After several successful collaborations with artists such as Mark Ronson, he released his official debut album, Love & War, in June 2009. It entered the UK Albums Chart at number two.

Biography

Music

Merriweather's first commercially released recording was a guest appearance on the track "All I Want" from Australian dance act Disco Montego's self-titled album in 2002. This was followed by a guest appearance on Mark Ronson's Here Comes the Fuzz album ("She's Got Me") in 2003. His debut solo single "City Rules" (produced by Ronson and featuring raps from New York MC Saigon) followed in early 2004 with the aforementioned "She's Got Me" released as its follow-up. While neither song had any huge commercial success, both songs became favourites in Australian clubs and urban music circles; and won APRA and ARIA awards (^[1][2]); with "City Rules" also getting some airplay on the major Australian commercial radio stations FOX FM (Melbourne)/2Day FM and B105. In 2005 he co-wrote and co-produced much of Phrase's debut album Talk With Force; also lending vocals to three tracks including the single "Catch Phrase". A 2006/7 collaboration with Ronson (a version of The Smiths' "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before"), had huge commercial success in the UK where it was released as the lead-off single for Ronson's album "Version" (reaching number two on the chart).

Merriweather's first commercially available album Love & War was released in June 2009, reaching #2 on the UK Albums Chart. The album was preceded by the singles "Change" and "Red", which both made the Top 10 on the UK Singles Chart.

Merriweather cites Stevie Wonder, Prince, Jeff Buckley and Herbie Hancock as his major influences.^{[citation needed]} He performed his single "Red" on T4 On The Beach 2009 in Weston-super-Mare.

Personal life

Growing up in the Dandenong Ranges area of Melbourne, Australia, Merriweather attended The Patch Primary School,^{[citation needed]} Billanook College,^{[citation needed]} Blackburn High School^[3] and Swinburne Senior Secondary College.^{[citation needed]} His musical education began with violin lessons at the age of four; after dropping out of school, he focused all his attention on music, taking vocal lessons and performing in clubs around Melbourne.^[4] In a September 2009 article, he mentioned a desire to attend university^[5].

He currently divides his time mostly between New York, and London.^[6]

Tours

Merriweather has supported Kanye West on his Australian tour, opened for Biz Markie in Brooklyn and Justin Timberlake in London; and headlined 2004's "City Rules" tour of Australia with Mark Ronson, Scribe and P-Money. He has performed live on various radio and television programs, including Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Triple J's Hip Hop show, Radio 1's Live Lounge show, and Sunrise.

He has performed at various festivals and events including the Montreux Jazz Festival (alongside Erick Sermon); the 2004 St Kilda Festival and 2004 Melbourne World AIDS Day Concert.

During 2007, he toured the UK with Mark Ronson (as well as performing several solo shows). He also performed with Ronson and the BBC Concert Orchestra at the 2007 BBC Electric Proms. He also performed at the MTV Video Music Awards on 9 September 2007 alongside Ronson who acted as the official DJ for the proceedings. On 22 February 2008, he appeared on BBC Radio One with Ronson to perform a special version of his track, "Stop Me", as part of the Chris Moyles breakfast show.

He also played at the 2008 Brit Awards alongside Ronson. Also, he sang "Stop Me" on stage during Ronson's Glastonbury 2008 set. Merriweather performed in Australia for the first time since 2006 at the Global Gathering shows in November 2008 with Mark Ronson's Version Players.

At the 2009 0₂ Wireless festival in Hyde Park London, Merriweather headlined the second stage where Ronson supported him for half a set on guitar. Merriweather is set to play at this year's Oxegen festival in Punchestown Racecourse, Co. Kildare, Ireland. He has appeared on television programmes such as The Justin Lee Collins Show and Britain's Got More Talent.

Merriweather appeared as the musical guest on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on 14 July 2009, performing "Change".

Discography

• The Fifth Season (2006) (Unreleased)
• Love & War (2009)

Awards

References

External links

• Daniel Merriweather Official website
• Daniel Merriweather Myspace page
• Daniel Merriweather Fan Site