Horse McDonald (born Sheena Mary McDonald, 22 November 1958) is a
Scottish singer-songwriter. She is noted mainly for her rich, sonorous voice, and ''
The Scotsman
''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its pare ...
'' referred to her as "One of Scotland's all-time great vocalists, also possessed of a keen songwriting intelligence".
Career
McDonald was born on 22 November 1958 in
Newport on Tay
Newport-on-Tay is a small town in the north-east of Fife in Scotland, acting as a commuter suburb for Dundee. The Fife Coastal Path passes through Newport-on-Tay. The area itself is surrounded by views of the two bridges that cross the River Tay ...
,
Fife,
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
.
In the 1980s, she
toured with
Tina Turner
Tina Turner (born Anna Mae Bullock; November 26, 1939) is an American-born Swiss retired singer and actress. Widely referred to as the " Queen of Rock 'n' Roll", she rose to prominence as the lead singer of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue before ...
and BB King.
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of her debut album ''The Same Sky'', Horse and her band played the entire album on a tour of the United Kingdom in October and November 2010.
McDonald toured in March 2011, playing an
acoustic set with the full band. These concerts featured "exclusive previews of several new songs from the upcoming ninth album, as well as Horse standards and rare B sides".
McDonald appeared on the 2012 charity single 'It Does Get Better' created by The L Project. The single benefitted
LGBT
' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity.
The LGBT term ...
charities and was written in response to the suicide of LGBT teenagers.
She performed a one-off show at the Barrowland, Glasgow 2 March 2013 with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of God's Home Movie and the release of her ninth studio album HOME.
In January 2013 she married her long-term partner, Alanna, in the town of
Lanark
Lanark (; gd, Lannraig ; sco, Lanrik) is a town in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, located 20 kilometres to the south-east of Hamilton. The town lies on the River Clyde, at its confluence with Mouse Water. In 2016, the town had a population of 9 ...
, Scotland, where she lived as a teenager.
They divorced in December 2021.
In 2017, she was inducted into the Saltire Society Outstanding Women of Scotland.
Her portrait was painted by
Roxana Halls in 2019. It was acquired for the
Scottish National Portrait Gallery
The Scottish National Portrait Gallery is an art museum on Queen Street, Edinburgh. The gallery holds the national collections of portraits, all of which are of, but not necessarily by, Scots. It also holds the Scottish National Photography Co ...
, where it now hangs.
Discography
Albums
*''The Same Sky'' (Capitol, 1990) –
UK Number 44
*''God's Home Movie'' (MCA, 1993) – UK Number 42
*''Both Sides'' (Randan, 2000) (with the
Scottish Chamber Orchestra
The Scottish Chamber Orchestra (SCO) is an Edinburgh-based UK chamber orchestra. One of Scotland's five National Performing Arts Companies, the SCO performs throughout Scotland, including annual tours of the Scottish Highlands and Islands and S ...
)
*''Hindsight ... It's a Wonderful Thing'' (Randan, 2001)
*''Only All of Me'' (Randan, 2003)
*''Coveted'' (Randan, 2004)
*''Red Haired Girl'' (Kosmic Music, 2007)
*''Coming Up For Air'' (Randan, 2009)
*''Home'' (Randan, 5 August 2013)
[ Allmusic.com – Discography – accessed March 2009/ref>
*''Odds & Sods'' (Randan, 2015)
]
Singles
Solo:
*"Sometimes I..." (1999)
*"Same Old, Same Old" (2006)
*"Something Wicked This Way Comes" (2010)
References
External links
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:McDonald, Horse
1958 births
Living people
Lesbian singers
Lesbian songwriters
People from Newport-on-Tay
Scottish lesbian musicians
Scottish LGBT singers
Scottish LGBT songwriters
Scottish women guitarists
20th-century Scottish women singers
Scottish women songwriters
Scottish soul musicians
20th-century Scottish LGBT people
21st-century Scottish LGBT people
21st-century Scottish women singers