Felicity Ann Urquhart (born 4 May 1976) is an Australian country music singer-songwriter, and a TV and radio presenter. Her single "Big Black Cloud", co-written with Randy Scruggs, reached No. 1 on Country Tracks National Top 30 Singles Chart in 2007. She has won numerous awards including a

Centenary Medal The Centenary Medal is an award which was created by the Australian Government in 2001. It was established to commemorate the centenary of the Federation of Australia and to recognise "people who made a contribution to Australian society or g ...

in 2001 "For service to Australian society through country music". Urquhart married musician and producer Glen Hannah in March 2009. She has been the host of country music show '' Saturday Night Country'' on

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is Australia’s principal public service broadcaster. It is funded primarily by grants from the federal government and is administered by a government-appointed board of directors. The ABC is ...

Local Radio since March 2010. Since 2015, Urquhart has been part of the group Bennett Bowtell Urquhart.

Early life

Felicity Ann Urquhart was born on 4 May 1976 to Rex, an upholsterer, and Patricia "Trish" Urquhart. She grew up in Tamworth in rural

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

. Her maternal grandfather, Ernie Walmsley, was a jockey turned horse-trainer and with her grandmother, Anne, ran a pub in Bingara. Urquhart began busking in Peel Street, Tamworth during the

Tamworth Country Music Festival The Tamworth Country Music Festival is an annual Australian music festival held for 10 days from Friday to Sunday in mid to late January each year, sometimes including Australia Day, in Tamworth, New South Wales, Tamworth, New South Wales. The f ...

at the age of 11. Aside from learning guitar, Urquhart had piano lessons and performed in musicals.

Career

In 1992 Urquhart released her debut self-titled album, ''Felicity Urquhart'' on Tamworth-based Hadley Records. Her second album, ''Follow Me'' appeared in 1995 on Radio Friendly Music. ''Nothing to Hide'' was released in 1999 on

EMI EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At t ...

with ''New Shadow'' issued in 2001. On 1 January she was awarded a

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

John Howard John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939) is an Australian former politician who served as the 25th prime minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007. He held office as leader of the Liberal Party of Australia. His eleven-year tenure as prime min ...

. Urquhart performed with

western swing Western swing, country jazz or smooth country is a subgenre of American country music that originated in the late 1920s in the West and South among the region's Western string bands. It is dance music, often with an up-tempo beat, which att ...

group Feral Swing Katz at the Gympie National Country Music Muster in August – the performance was broadcast a year later on ''Live on Stage'' by ABC Radio National with Vince Jones presenting. In 2002, she travelled to

Nashville Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

to record tracks for a future album with Hannah providing acoustic guitar, harmony vocals and song writing. Album plans fell through and Urquhart left EMI. She recorded a six-track extended play, ''Turn out the Light'' on Shock Records which was released in 2004. Shock Records distributed ''My Life'' in 2006, which was produced by Hannah (ex-

Kasey Chambers Kasey Chambers (born 4 June 1976) is an Australian country music, Australian country singer-songwriter and musician born in Mount Gambier, South Australia, Mount Gambier to musicians Diane and Bill Chambers (musician), Bill Chambers. Her older ...

touring band). Her single "Big Black Cloud", co-written with Randy Scruggs, appeared in November and reached No.1 on Country Tracks National Top 30 Singles Chart on 24 January 2007. On 5 September, Urquhart performed for John Howard, United States President George W Bush and Australian Defence Force personnel at a barbecue on Garden Island. Urquhart released ''Landing Lights'' upon return to Australia. Internationally she has opened for country music legends

Willie Nelson Willie Hugh Nelson (born April 29, 1933) is an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, actor and activist. He was one of the main figures of the outlaw country subgenre that developed in the late 1960s as a reaction to the conservative restr ...

and

Waylon Jennings Waylon Arnold Jennings (June 15, 1937 – February 13, 2002) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. He is considered one of the pioneers of the Outlaw country, outlaw movement in country music. Jennings started playing ...

. From 2005 to 2009, Urquhart was a presenter on '' Sydney Weekender'', a travel show on

Seven Network Seven Network (stylised 7Network, and commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is an Australian commercial free-to-air Television broadcasting in Australia, television network. It is owned by Seven West Media, Seven West Media Limited, ...

. She has been the host of country music show ''Saturday Night Country'' on

Local Radio across Australia since March 2010. She had previously filled-in for retiring host John Nutting who had picked her as his replacement. In 2015, Urquhart formed the group Bennett Bowtell Urquhart with Kevin Bennett and Lyn Bowtell. In 2019, ten years since her last solo album, Urquhart released ''Frozen Rabbit''. In January 2020, Urquhart and Josh Cunningham were invited to join Song Club—a creative collective that tasked members with writing a song a week. Nine of these weekly tracks were recorded and released in May 2021 on the album, ''The Song Club''. Urquhart was nominated for six awards at the 2024 Country Music Awards of Australia.

Personal life

In 2001 she met Glen Hannah (died 2019) who became her boyfriend. Urquhart and Hannah married on 10 March 2009 in

Vanuatu Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (; ), is an island country in Melanesia located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of northern Australia, northeast of New Caledonia, east o ...

. She lives in Avoca Beach on the New South Wales Central Coast.

Discography

Studio albums

Awards and nominations

AIR Awards

The Australian Independent Record Awards (commonly known informally as

AIR Awards The Australian Independent Record Awards (commonly known as AIR Awards) is an annual awards night to recognise, promote and celebrate the success of Australia's Independent Music sector. History The inaugural 2006 awards were held at Blacket Hot ...

) is an annual awards night to recognise, promote and celebrate the success of Australia's Independent Music sector. , - ,

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

, ''My Life'' , Best Independent Country Release , , - ,

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

, ''Frozen Rabbit'' , Best Independent Country Album , , - ,

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

, ''The Song Club'' (with Josh Cunningham) , Best Independent Country Album or EP ,

ARIA Music Awards

, - ,

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

, , ''Landing Lights'' , , Best Country Album , , , - ,

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

, , ''Frozen Rabbit'' , , Best Country Album , , , - ,

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

, , ''The Song Club'' (with Josh Cunningham) , , Best Country Album , , , -

Australian Club Entertainment Awards

, - , 1998 , , Felicity Urquhart , , Country Female Performer , , , - , 1999 , , Felicity Urquhart , , Country Female Performer , , , - , 2000 , , Felicity Urquhart , , Country Female Performer , , , - , 2001 , , Felicity Urquhart , , Country Female Performer , , , - , 2002 , , Felicity Urquhart , , Country Female Performer , , , - , 2003 , , Felicity Urquhart , , Country Female Performer , , , - , 2005 , , Felicity Urquhart , , Country Female Performer , , , - , 2006 , , Felicity Urquhart , , Country Female Performer , , , - , 2007 , , Felicity Urquhart , , Country Female Performer , , , - , 2008 , , Felicity Urquhart , , Country Female Performer , , , - , 2009 , , Felicity Urquhart , , Country Female Performer , , , -

Australian Independent Country Music Awards

, - , 2004 , , ''Turn out the Light'' , , Australian Independent Female Vocalist of the Year , , , - , rowspan="2", 2006 , , ''My Life'' , , Australian Independent Album of the Year , , , - , "The Flood" , , Australian Independent Female Vocalist of the Year , , , -

Australian Songwriters' Association

, - , 2005 , , Felicity Urquhart & Glen Hannah – "The Flood" , , Country Songwriter of the Year , , , -

Country Music Awards (CMAA)

The Country Music Awards of Australia (CMAA) (also known as the Golden Guitar Awards) is an annual awards night held in January during the

, celebrating recording excellence in the Australian country music industry. They have been held annually since 1973. (wins only) , - , rowspan="2", 2001 , , Felicity Urquhart, , The Australian Country Music Hands of Fame , , , - , Felicity Urquhart (with Beccy Cole, Darren Coggan & Adam Harvey) – "Do I Ever Cross Your Mind" , , Vocal Collaboration of the Year , , , - , 2006 , , Felicity Urquhart , , Independent Entertainer of the Year , , , - , rowspan="2", 2007 , , "Big Black Cloud" , , Video Clip of the Year , , , - , Felicity Urquhart , , Independent Entertainer of the Year , , , - , 2010 , , "Roller Coaster" , , Female Vocalist of the Year , , , - , rowspan="5", 2020, , ''Frozen Rabbit'' , , Traditional Country Album of the Year , , , - , ''Frozen Rabbit'' , , Female Artist of the Year, , , - , ''Frozen Rabbit'' , , Album of the Year, , , - , "Chain of Joy" , , Song of the Year, , , - , "Chain of Joy" , , Single of the Year, , , - , rowspan="3", 2024 , , ''Birdsong'' (with Josh Cunningham) , , Traditional Country Album of the Year , , , - , "Size Up" (with Josh Cunningham) , , Song of the Year, , , - , "Size Up" (with Josh Cunningham) , , Single of the Year, , , -

Mo Award

The Australian Entertainment Mo Awards (commonly known informally as the Mo Awards), were annual Australian entertainment industry awards. They recognise achievements in live entertainment in Australia from 1975 to 2016. Urquhart won two awards in that time. , - , 1995 , , Felicity Urquhart , , Female Country Performer of the Year , , , - , 1997 , , Felicity Urquhart , , Female Country Performer of the Year , , , -

References

External links

Profile on ABC Local

at Tamworth rage page {{DEFAULTSORT:Urquhart, Felicity 1976 births Living people Australian country singers Australian women country singers Australian guitarists Australian women guitarists Australian DJs Australian radio personalities People from Tamworth, New South Wales 21st-century Australian singers EMI Classics and Virgin Classics artists Australian television personalities 20th-century Australian women singers Australian women songwriters Australian women radio presenters Australian women television presenters