Lori Balmer

For other persons with the name Lori see Lori (disambiguation)

Lori Balmer (born 1960 in Victoria, Australia) is an Australian pop singer. She has put out a number of records, is a session singer, model and appeared on TV in Australia, US, Japan, Europe and Britain.

Biography

Early recordings

She started singing professionally at the age of six. Her parents moved from Victoria to Sydney and she was signed by RCA Records. Her first single record (under the name of just Lori) was released in 1966. She was reputed to be Australian RCA's youngest recording star at that time. Through her family connection to the Bee Gees members: Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb and Maurice Gibb, she was offered two Barry Gibb songs to record "Who's Been Writing on the Wall Again" and "In Your World" which she recorded at EMI's Sydney Studio and became her third single at age seven. All three Gibb brothers provided vocal backing on it and Barry Gibb was involved in the production.

International career

In January 1968, following an invitation from Barry Gibb, she travelled to England with her parents. They stayed with the Gibb family and she began to work on children's TV shows & radio, such as The BBC 1 Club, regularly. The British press dubbed her the 'bush baby' and would occasionally appear on the same shows alongside the Bee Gees. At this time too she soon found herself in the recording studio putting down two new Bee Gee's composed songs "Treacle Brown" and "Four Faces West". All backing and production was provided by the Bee Gees with Bill Shepherd doing the arrangements. This was duly released on a single on Polydor, however legal problems prevented her from going any further with it. By accounts it seems this record demonstrated a voice more powerful than could be expected from an eight-year-old.

Lori Singer

Lori Singer (born November 6, 1957) is an American actress and cellist. She is perhaps best known for her role as Ariel Moore, the female lead in the 1984 feature film Footloose, and as Julie Miller in the television series Fame.

Early life and musical career

Singer was born in Corpus Christi, Texas. She grew up in a musical family: her father, Jacques Singer, was a conductor and protégé of Leopold Stokowski, and her mother, Leslie, is a concert pianist. Her brother is the actor Marc Singer, and her cousin is noted director/writer/producer Bryan Singer. As a child, she was often around such luminaries as Leonard Bernstein. Singer is Jewish.

A Juilliard-trained cellist, she was a student of Leonard Rose. Singer made her debut as soloist at age thirteen with the Oregon Symphony. Singer has performed in public on such stages as the Royal Albert Hall and Carnegie Hall. She plays the cello in Short Cuts, Fame, and also in Sarabande (1997), a short film by Atom Egoyan which is part of the Inspired by Bach series. Singer performed as soloist at Carnegie Hall in January 2008, premiering a hymn written by Karl Jenkins in memory of Martin Luther King, Jr.