Helen Shanahan

Helen’s songs ride the joys and sorrows of love and life and draw the listener into an articulate and heartfelt world of story, melody and guitar, through her eyes.

Helen graduated from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) majoring in voice.

Helen released ‘Driftwood’ in 2012. The title track was nominated in the ‘love’ category in the Western Australian Music Industry ‘Song of the Year’ competition.

In 2013 she won the songwriting award in the national competition ‘Telstra Road to Discovery’.

In 2014 she joined Clare Bowditch on stage for a duet as part of her ‘Winter Secrets’ Tour. In the same year she was nominated for ‘Best Folk Act’ in the West Australian Music Industry Awards.

Helen was signed to Mushroom Music Publishing in 2015, on the back of releasing her EP ‘Finding Gold’ produced by Pip Norman.

Her debut album ‘Every Little Sting’ was released in 2017 and was produced by Brad Jones.

Helen has provided strong support to Passenger, Matt Corby, The Basement Birds, The Paper Kites, Lewis Watson, Ian Moss, Angie McMahon and Jeff Martin.

In 2018 Helen won the WAM ‘Song of the Year’ award for her song ‘I Only Hide’.

In 2019 Helen moved to the UK where she released the single ‘Unborn’ - focusing on the sensitive issue of climate change and the effect on future generations.

In 2020, Helen used the time spent in isolation to record 3 songs with Jon Clements at ø2 Studio, titled ‘The ø2 Sessions’.

2021 saw Helen learn the ropes of motherhood with her new daughter Bonnie, while singing backing vocals for Tim Minchin and supporting Missy Higgins at the Fremantle Prison. Her sophomore album ‘Canvas’ was released in early 2022, and was described as “poetic and damn near perfect” (Jeff Jenkins, STACK Magazine).