Karen O’Shea a regular at the Blue Water Country Music Festival

Karen O’Shea has been mesmerising her audiences with her amazing vocal talents since an early age. She has been working professionally in her home town Darwin since leaving school.

The first group was a show band called ‘The Sublimes’. Their repetoire consisted mainly 50’s 60’s rock and roll (which at the time was having a huge resurgence) and included costume changes. From there she joined a trio called ‘Thin Arthur’ covering songs from Chakka Khan to Patti Labelle to Heart to Tina Turner and John Farnham and Roxette (to name a few).                                                          

Karen then went Sydney (for 3 years) and worked with an original band called ‘Sydney Sound Machine’ and then ‘The Temple Of Groove’. An 8 piece funk cover band doing James Brown, Earth Wind & Fire, The Brand New Heavies and Prince among others. Then came the touring with Richard Clapton as backing vocalist before returning back to Darwin.

On returning home Karen took to singing jazz as part of the ‘Phil Stacey Trio’ before meeting ‘Cat In The Hat’ duo partner Janet Hay. This duo covered almost all styles and genres from the old to the new. With Janet on piano Karen tried her hand at percussion (tamborine, shakers etc.) The duo received an invitation from the Australian High Commissioner in Brunei to go over and perform. Whilst there, they were asked to play for the Sultan’s (second) wife’s birthday.

In the last couple of years Karen has also had some success on the country scene playing in Tamworth during the festival and few others (festivals).

In the 12 years (or so) she has been singing professionally Karen has supported numerous artists including Randy Crawford, Wilson Pickett, James Morrison, Christine Anu, Jimmy Barnes, CBD and some of Australia’s rising country stars.        

Karen has appeared as a guest artist on both Bert Newton’s GMA show and the Denise Drysdale midday show, catching the attention of both audiences.  Karen was also awarded the coveted Frank Ifield International Spur Award for Best New Female Performer 2001.

Having had so many opportunities to sing a diverse range of songs, there is no doubt that Karen could sing almost anything and she just loves to sing.