Deborah Ann Conway AM (born 8 August 1959) is an Australian rock singer-songwriter and guitarist, and had a career as a model and actress.

[8][9] They performed mostly in Melbourne pubs playing original material—mostly written by Conway and Thomas as well as Blondie and Devo cover versions.

[14][15] In the early 1980s, Conway was the domestic partner of Paul Hester—drummer for Deckchairs Overboard and then Split Enz—before he left for Los Angeles in 1985 and formed Crowded House there.

[1][16] Conway played the lead role of "Julie" in an Australian teenage road movie called Running on Empty, which was released in 1982.

[6][10] In 1986 Conway performed with The Rock Party, a charity project initiated by The National Campaign Against Drug Abuse, which included many Australasian musicians: Neil Finn, Eddie Rayner, Tim Finn, Nick Seymour and Hester (all from Crowded House); Geoff Stapleton, Robbie James and Mark Callaghan (all from GANGgajang); Reg Mombassa and Martin Plaza (both from Mental As Anything); Andrew Barnum and Lissa Barnum (Vitabeats); Mary Azzopardi (Rockmelons), Michael Barclay, Peter Blakeley, Jenny Morris, Danny De Costa, Greg Herbert (The Promise), Spencer P Jones, Sean Kelly (Models), John Kennedy, Paul Kelly, Robert Susz (Dynamic Hepnotics) and Rick Swinn (The Venetians).

[6][7] Shortly afterwards she recorded an album of dance music in Los Angeles which was not released except for a solo single, a cover of Bad Company's "Feel Like Makin' Love" (1990), produced by Scott Cutler.

[6][8] In 1990, Conway formed Drawcards as a semi-acoustic band with Vika and Linda, Stephen Cummings, Dror Erez, Tim Finn, Ross Hannaford, Peter Jones, Shane O'Mara and Chris Wilson.

[8][21] In 1991, Conway played Juno in Peter Greenaway's Prospero's Books, singing a setting of William Shakespeare's masque from The Tempest to music by Michael Nyman.

[7][24] Conway, Paul Kelly, Vika Bull and Renée Geyer provided vocals and song writing for the related soundtrack.

[21] Her backing band, Deborah Conway and the City of Women, was Zygier, Cameron Reynolds (samples), Edmond Amendola (bass guitar) and Dave Williams (drums)—the latter two are members of Augie March.

[8][21] This was much more of a rock record than previous releases, it "was a mature album featuring a wide variety of styles, from acoustic love song ("You Come to Earth") and Radiohead-styled epics ("Interzone") to full tilt rockers ("I Lay Down on My Pillow and Cried All Night")".

[8] She supported the release by touring as Deborah Conway and the Patsy Clones which contained Zygier and Reynolds, and Gerry Hale.

[citation needed] Conway performed Dreaming Transportation: Voice Portraits of the First Women of White Settlement at Port Jackson which was scripted and directed by Andrée Greenwell.

Performing with Conway were Susan Prior, Christine Douglas, Amie McKenna and Jeannie Van de Velde and musicians, Hope Csuturos (violin), James Nightingale (clarinet, saxophone), Jane Williams (cello), Kim Poole (guitar/mandolin), Denise Papaluca (piano), Mardi Chillingworth (double bass) and Jared Underwood (percussion).

In 2005, Conway provided vocals for Man Bites God's single "Bride of the Dragon" from their album The Popular Alternative.

[citation needed] From 2005 to 2008, Conway collaborated with different female artists to tour Australia as part of the Broad Festival project.

[32][7][33] In 2008, Conway was appointed artistic director of the Queensland Music Festival, which runs biennially in late July in odd-numbered years.

[34] The album included a track, "Into the Blue" recorded with Conway and Zygier joined by their three daughters, Syd, Alma and Hettie on vocals.

[36] Stories of Ghosts, released in February 2013, explored Old Testament themes, and received positive reviews in the Australian music press.

[3] The pair had met in 1991 when Conway was vetting guitarists for her touring band, they formed a domestic partnership in that decade and married in 2007.

[3][35] Conway was honoured as a Member of the Order of Australia in January 2020, "For significant service to the performing arts as a singer, songwriter and producer.

[64] It was founded by the Australia Council in honour of Don Banks, Australian composer, performer and the first chair of its music board.