Brooke Fraser

Brooke Gabrielle Ligertwood (née Fraser; born 15 December 1983) is a New Zealand singer and songwriter.

[1][2] After signing with Sony BMG in 2002, she gained recognition for her debut album, What to Do with Daylight (2003) and followed with Albertine (2006) and Flags (2010).

Fraser became a member of the Australian Christian music group Hillsong Worship, where she wrote and performed several songs for the collective.

She began writing for the Soul Purpose magazine at age fifteen and was later made editor in 2002.

She gave up her job as editor shortly after moving to Auckland in late 2002 in order to pursue her music career.

[9] In 2002, at the age of 18, Fraser signed a multi album deal with Sony Music, after a fierce bidding war between labels.

[citation needed] Following the release of What to Do with Daylight, Fraser toured Australia and New Zealand with American recording artist John Mayer and then toured New Zealand with veteran English rock artist David Bowie.

[16][17] In 2005, prior to writing and preparing her follow-up album, Fraser went to Rwanda before visiting her World Vision sponsor children in Tanzania.

[18] For this album, Fraser decided to enlist a new band of American session musicians who had worked with an array of notable artists, both live and recorded.

[19] In 2006, Fraser and the band went into the studio in Los Angeles to record the album with producer Marshall Altman.

[20] In 2008, Fraser undertook a major world tour, culminating the Montreal Jazz Festival and the Shepherd's Bush Empire in London, UK.

Flags was recorded at East West Studios in Hollywood in mid 2010[22] and released on 12 October 2010, in New Zealand, Australia and North America.

[26] The first single, "Something in the Water", achieved extensive radio success across the globe; notably, it received BBC Radio 2 A-list rotation in the top 10 in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Finland and Belgium and is a gold single in Germany and Italy.

From the stunning lyrical imagery throughout to the impressive guest vocalists who join her (Cary Brothers, Jon Foreman and Aqualung among them), from Fraser's ethereal and breathy performances to the wide-ranging soundscapes, this record is drenched in beauty and stands as one of the more remarkable achievements of 2010.

[32] The song marked a shift in musical direction for Fraser, as she moved from more acoustic and singer-songwriter based tunes to more electronic sounds.

On 1 October, she announced her fourth studio album, Brutal Romantic, would follow in November.

[35] In September 2015, Fraser performed a song titled "Team, Ball, Player, Thing" as a part of a charity supergroup #KiwisCureBatten.

[21] She co-wrote and sang lead vocals on the song "What a Beautiful Name" for the 2016 live album.

[46] Fraser revealed during the album's press cycle that she had stepped away again from Hillsong following several controversies and major changes within the church.

[50] On November 23, 2024, she released live version of Shadowfeet on her Brooke Fraser You Tube channel.

[56][57] Fraser's music tends to contain Christian themes and imagery while "her work with Hillsong allowed her to fully express her faith.

[59] Fraser's image as an artist is described as a "dark-haired, wide-eyed, eternally innocent Christian who sang of happy feet, being thrown a lifeline and things in the water.

She has visited Cambodia and Tanzania with World Vision, the Philippines with Opportunity International and independently travelled to Rwanda in June 2005, in June 2006 as part of charity event "Hope Rwanda", and in May 2007 when she filmed the music video for the song "Albertine" off her second studio album of the same name.

Fraser performing in 2015 on the Brutal Romantic Tour.
Fraser performing in 2010.