Leah McFall Biography

Leah McFall (born 1 July 1989) is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and fashion student, born and raised in Newtownabbey, Northern Ireland. She was a runner-up on the second series of The Voice UK.

Early life

Leah began her singing career at her local church, Glenabbey, at the age of six. She was a pupil at Antrim Grammar School. She now currently resides in London. During her childhood she listened to Motown, jazz, gospel, folk and pop music which was played around the family home. Leah was influenced by all she heard, and this is reflected in both her vocal and song writing style. After years of gigging around Northern Ireland, Leah uprooted to London to follow her dream. After just six months there, she was playing at the world famous Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club.

Music career

2013: The Voice UK and first chart success

In her blind audition McFall sang the Rita Ora hit "R.I.P". Coaches will.i.am and Jessie J turned round in a bid to add Leah to their teams. Jessie was the first to turn around, while Will waited until the very last moment to press his button. She chose to join Will's team. In the battle round Leah sang against fellow Team Will artist CJ Edwards. The pair duetted on the Michael Jackson classic "The Way You Make Me Feel". Will chose to take Leah through to the Knockout rounds. In the Knockout round will.i.am gave his Fast Pass to McFall and she performed Minnie Riperton's Lovin' You. In her first live show on 7 June 2013 Leah sang 'I Will Survive' by Gloria Gaynor. Her performance wowed the judges and her studio version charted at number 16 on the UK Singles Chart with just 24 hours of sales, selling 19,213 copies of the track between Friday evening and the close of the chart week on Saturday night. A week later it climbs to No.8. McFall performed the Fugees' version of Killing Me Softly in the semi-final on 15 June 2013. The result was revealed later on during the broadcast that McFall had received the most public votes and would therefore represent Team Will in the final and compete to win the recording contract prize.

During her time in the competition she received support from Cheryl Cole, Rochelle Humes, Natasha Hamilton, Dante Santiago and Holly Willoughby and was widely tipped to win after her version of Gloria Gaynor's hit 'I Will Survive' stormed the charts.

Performances

Performed	Song	Original Artist	Result
Blind Audition	"R.I.P"	Rita Ora	Joined Team Will
Battle Rounds	"The Way You Make Me Feel" (against CJ Edwards)	Michael Jackson	Winner
Knockout rounds	"Lovin' You"	Minnie Riperton	Fast pass
Quarter-Final	"I Will Survive"	Gloria Gaynor	Fast pass
Semi-Final	"Rapture" (as part of Team Will)	Blondie	Safe
	"Killing Me Softly"	Fugees
	"I Will Wait" (as part of The Voice UK Semi-finalists)	Mumford & Sons
Final	"I Will Always Love You"	Dolly Parton	Safe
	"Bang Bang" (mentor duet with will.i.am)	will.i.am
	"Lovin' You" (as favourite performance)	Minnie Riperton	Runner-up

2013-present: Debut studio album

A day after The Voice finale, McFall's coach will.i.am, confirmed that he and McFall would start work on new music a week later in New York. He reportedly wanted to avoid McFall having similar lack of success as Leanne Mitchell, series one winner. Will.i.am revealed on 1 July 2013 that he would release a new version of his single "Bang Bang" featuring new vocals from McFall. On 14 July 2013, McFall made her debut performance at the Wireless Festival alongside her mentor will.i.am.

Discography

Extended plays

Title	Details
Frills and Fur	Release date: 21 November 2010 Label: Independent Formats: digital download

Singles

As featured artist

Year	Title	Peak chart positions			Album
		UK	IRE	SCO
2013	"Bang Bang" (will.i.am featuring Leah McFall)	"?	"?	"?	Non-album single
""?" denotes single that did not chart or was not released.

Promotional singles

Year	Title	Peak chart positions			Album
		UK	IRE	SCO
2013	"I Will Survive"	8	19	13	Non-album singles
	"Killing Me Softly"	34	"?	"?
	"I Will Always Love You"	43	"?	"?
""?" denotes single that did not chart or was not released.