Biography
As the sun set on the Hooper family home in the 1970s, you would frequently find Danny, his parents and three sisters belting out their favourite tunes around the kitchen table. Music meant entertainment for the Hoopers, who lived on a remote station in the mid north of South Australia. This early and joyful introduction to music planted the seed for Danny, but it was his Dad’s old Maton guitar that sprouted a lifelong passion.
At age ten, Danny began guitar lessons with his Dad and it wasn’t long before he strummed his first song, Banks of the Ohio. As a teenager, Danny’s flair for performing came to the fore and he was often called upon to liven up a party with the song Rock n’ Robin. He later started a rock band with a few mates, called Niteshift.
It was love that inspired Danny to begin song writing at 18 years of age. When he sang his first song, You’re the one for me, to his girlfriend Lea, her teary response sparked a passion for song writing.
Together with Lea, Danny began entering country music competitions in 1987. They won awards for Best Duo and went on to record an album in 1992, entitled Talkin’ Bout Love.
In 1994, Danny got serious. He entered the Toyota Star Maker and was selected as a Top 10 Grand Finalist. In the same year he entered the Australian Songwriters Association (ASA) National Song Competition in Melbourne and won the Acoustic Section and Song of the Year with I Left You.
Despite this early success, music was placed on the back burner due to the arrival of Danny and Lea’s first son Jace, followed by siblings Courteney and Tom. Danny’s main occupation became that of House Dad, although he continued to perform at weekend gigs throughout the state. It wasn’t until ten years later that Danny Hooper once again became a name to look out for in the song-writing arena.
2004 Winner - Australian Songwriters Awards for ‘Country’ category.
Winner - Song of the Year competition in Houston Texas for ‘Country’
category
2005 Winner - Australian Songwriters Awards for ‘Spirit of Australia’ category.
2007 Finalist - Australian Songwriters Awards for ‘Country’ category,
Finalist - Gympie Muster Maton Talent Search (Top 3)
Finalist - IMA’s Independent Music Awards (US based) Country Song Of
The Year (Top 5)
Finalist - Musicoz Awards Country Artist Of The Year (Top 10)
Finalist - ACRA’s Australian Country Recording Awards for ‘New Talent’
and ‘Male Artist’
2008 Finalist - TSA Salute in the Songwriter Awards ‘New Songwriter of the Year’
Finalist - Southern Stars Country Music Independent Awards for ‘Rising
Male Star’
Finalist - TIARA Awards for ‘Male Vocalist Of The Year’.
Finalist - VIC & National CM Awards for ‘Best New Talent’.
Finalist - NT Country Songwriting Awards for ‘Best Contemporary Song’.
Semi-finalist - International Songwriting Competition for ‘Country Song Of
The Year’.
Finalist - Australian Songwriters Awards for ‘Country’ category
Winner - Australian Songwriters Awards for ‘Ballad’ category.
During a year-long family trip around Australia in 2005, Danny was inspired to reignite his dream to become a household name in Australian country music. He secured Rod McCormack as a producer and on his return recorded his debut solo album, The Legacy, released in 2007. Featuring 12 original songs, the album name and its title track are a tribute to his father and a signal to the legacy of music Danny will pass onto his own children.
Danny’s debut single, Every Reason, worked its way onto playlists throughout the country and made #37 on the Top 100 Country Hits chart. The accompanying video clip also made Top 40 on the CMC (Country Music Channel) paytv network.
His single Already Gone proved a success with #39 on the Top 100 Country Hits chart, and filmclip under the direction of Ross Wood for the track Heartache, making his second chart success on the CMC video chart, reaching #36.
Artist descriptions on Last.fm are editable by everyone. Feel free to contribute!
All user-contributed text on this page is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply.
