Dannielle Gaha

Career

DeAndrea was a backing vocalist for Glenn Shorrock (ex-Little River Band) during his solo tours in the late 1980s and together they released a duet single, "One Million Minutes of Peace" for the International Year of Peace (1986). She first came to national prominence in August 1989 on a duet with John Farnham (ex-Little River Band) called "Communication", which reached number 13 on the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Singles Chart. She toured with Jason Donovan as a backing vocalist in 1990 and on-stage she sang Kylie Minogue's part in the duet, "Especially for You" with Donovan. DeAndrea released her debut solo single, "I Like It" in 1991 and followed with "Secret Love" in 1992, neither had chart success in Australia. Late that year she signed to Epic Records and travelled to the UK. Her first UK single "Stuck in the Middle" peaked in the top 75—the radio version is much slower and lighter than the accompanying club remixes by the likes of Roger Sanchez, E-Smoove and Maurice Joshua. The same was true of the next two pop singles. Despite the club success of "Stuck in the Middle", it did not achieve a high chart placing. Epic released "Do It for Love" in February 1993, which peaked just outside the UK Top 50. Again, the track came with a batch of reputable club remixes from such luminaries as Creative Thieves, Dave Seaman (of Brothers in Rhythm) and Phil Kelsey. One exception is the ambient reworking of the track, in the 'Filet-O-Gang Mix', which really transforms the track.

In June 1993, DeAndrea's remixed version of "Secret Love" was released, it became a UK club hit and peaked at No. 41. There was an album recorded around this time, featuring the three aforesaid singles, but Epic chose not to release it, disappointingly. Some of the tracks from these sessions, such as Show Some Mercy, Waiting for the Rain To Fall, Never Said Goodbye have been previewed on YouTube. On Soundcloud, there is more of Gaha's music, including one more from this unreleased album, Show A Little Love, which was subsequently covered by boyband Ultimate Kaos, giving them a moderate hit. All of Gaha's singles were big UK club hits, but testament to the particular popularity of 'Secret Love' amongst clubbers, was affirmed in 1998, when Danny J Lewis sampled heavily the 'Wanna spend the night with you' vocal from the track, on his single, Spend The Night, which was a UK Top 30 hit. Additionally, In 2002, an unofficial remix was issued due to demand from clubbers and distributed to various radio stations and clubs. The remixes came mostly from Dave Lee under his "Joey Negro" guise. The radio version – as was the case for her previous singles – was different from the club mixes. DeAndrea was the first Australian artist to hit the dance/soul charts in the UK with her singles.

As Sheets Afyre, she was part of a singing duo, The Nissan Cedrics, with Louise Anton (as Muff Merkin) on ABC-TV comedy show, Club Buggery from 1995, which was hosted by Roy and HG. The Nissan Cedrics released, Going for a Song in 1997.

She toured Australia with Farnham in 2002–2003 on his The Last Time Tour. Her debut album You Don't Know Me, released in 2003, was an entirely different musical direction for DeAndrea. It comprised covers of jazz and blues standards by artists like Ella Fitzgerald, and included, "Moon River", "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" and "The Masquerade Is Over". You Don't Know Me was well received by critics and sold respectably in Australia but did not chart.

In early 2007, DeAndrea recorded an album with French composer Christophe Jacquelin, who found her on MySpace and flew her over for 2 weeks to record the album Lovers and Tears by Leaving the Ozone—a project with DeAndrea, Jacquelin and songwriter Claudia Phillips—with a French and Bulgarian orchestra. One of their songs was used for the closing credits on 3D IMAX movie Dolphins and Whales 3D: Tribes of the Ocean (2008). Also in 2007, DeAndrea married Kyle DeAndrea, they live in Los Angeles, California. She released a CD, Chocolate for Holly, which includes a reworked version of "Do It for Love". DeAndrea won a California State University, Northridge (CSUN) jazz competition in late 2007 and from that recorded her next original EP Be with Me.

In 2008 DeAndrea joined up with Scooter Pietsch and Jessica New to record a dance, pop album Supabeat. Songs from this album have been used on television series including, Degrassi High, The Bold and the Beautiful, MTV's Real World, The Greek and Burn Notice.

In March 2009, DeAndrea returned to Australia for the launch of Chocolate for Holly and Be with Me at The Vanguard, the performance was sold out. DeAndrea joined Farnham on his Back By Demand Tour in September–October 2009 throughout Australia. She also performed solo concerts of her own material and jazz standards into November.

In 2010, DeAndrea toured Europe and North America as part of Jackson Browne's band. She returned to Australia in October to join Farnham on his national tour. She also performed side shows to promote the release of her new single "Blue Skies".

In 2012 she performed backing vocals for Ariana Grande and combined with Erica Canales (back up singer for Brandon Flowers) and Latin Grammy Award winner Gaby Moreno to form the vocal group The SongBirds. The SongBirds' 2012 EP was launched at the Sunset Marquis Hotel by Modern Family actress Sarah Hyland and Elle (magazine). In 2014 The SongBirds toured Australia performing shows in Perth, Melbourne, Brisbane finishing with a sold out show at club 505 in Sydney. The SongBirds ended the year with 2 tracks featured on the nationwide Australian compilation The Spirit of Christmas 2014. In 2015 she recorded the track "High Dreams" together with David Batteau and Larry Goldings that won the UK Songwriting Competition.

Albums

] – Unreleased debut album1993 Epic Records, UK.