Michelle Fragar is a singer, worship leader and songwriter hailing from Sydney, Australia
Michelle was born and spent her early years living in the Blue Mountains, a beautiful area on the outskirts of Sydney. The daughter of a music teacher and a musician/producer/songwriter, the chances were high that Michelle would inherit a love for music... and indeed she did. She began recording herself singing, songs she knew and ones she had made up, on her Rainbow Bright tape recorder from the age of 3 (the tapes still exist!) and hasn't stopped singing since.
In 1988, the Fragar Family went to their first service at a church then named Hills Christian Life Centre, in a warehouse in Castle Hill. 5-year-old Michelle, who usually cried uncontrollably everytime she had to go the kid's program at a church, loved it and begged her parents to go back next week so she could see the puppet show the kid's team had planned. So they did. Michelle became a Christian that week at Hills in the kid's program and they Fragar's decided they had found their home church. This church eventually became known as Hillsong Church. After initially joining the worship team as a bass player, her father, Russell Fragar, soon began to music-direct the bands before going on to produce the first ten Hillsong Live albums, write many praise and worship songs that are still sung in churches around the world today, and as the Music Pastor was a major part in creating the phenomena that is Hillsong today.
At the age of 10, Michelle became a student at the Australian College Of Entertainment and auditioned successfully to become a member of Robin Dixon's esteemed 'Danceworks' team. During this season, she trained heavily in all areas of performance arts including a broad range of dance styles, drama and singing. Her first major singing performance was early in these days, where she found herself on stage with 40 backup dancers singing 'Straight Up' by Paula Abdul in front of a large crowd, wearing a embarrassingly orange, sparkly jacket. Fairly daunting for a shy kid up until that point, but gradually she found her confidence and spent many years performing with the team at major sporting events, concerts and TV specials. Her high school job was as a bit part regular on the Australian TV show, Home & Away.
Meanwhile, she was becoming very involved in the youth music team at Hillsong. She began singing with the team when she was 11 (she snuck in a little early!) and discovered her love for worship and leading young people in passionate praise of their God. The young team, including Marty Sampson, Joel Houston, Michael Guy Chislett, Luke Munns and others, started to expand and begin to write their own songs. In 1999, when Michelle was 15, the first Hillsong United album, Everyday, was recorded and released. Since that time, Hillsong United has gone on to release 9 passionate worship albums, tour extensively and became an internationally top-selling worship band. In 2008, they were nominated for Group Of The Year and Praise & Worship Album Of The Year at the Dove Awards. They also released the first part of the the 3-part project 'The I Heart Revolution' in 2008. In amongst all this, their passion and focus has and will always remain on the local church and raising up new generations of worshippers.
At 16, Michelle wrote the worship song 'Saving Grace', which was recorded on the Hillsong United's album 'Best Friend'. Two years later, her song 'Unify' appeared on the album 'To The Ends Of The Earth'. She has also been the lead vocalist on songs such as 'Always', 'I Adore', 'Amazing Love', 'Holy Holy Holy' and most recently, 'Forever' on the album 'The I Heart Revolution: With Hearts As One'. In September 2007, she recorded a small acoustic EP of self-penned tracks with guitarist Nigel Hendroff.
In the past few years she has toured with Hillsong United and as part of Darlene Zschech's team through North and South America, Asia, UK, Europe and home in Australia. In 2008, she joined forces with her father to train worship teams as part of the highly successful 'True Worship Seminars' he hosts.
She also spends time ministering to churches and festivals by herself, leading worship and sharing her own songs and story. She says, 'My heart is to always share honestly, both through my music and through my stories and speaking, that I may reach right into people's realities and tell them first-hand how great our God is.'
In 2009, Michelle has made a big move to live in the United States, where her family resides. Now based in Washington D.C., she is excited about ministering alongside her father and being a part of the staff and worship team at Washington Christian Life Centre. As she explains, 'I truly believe that God had been speaking to me for some time about a new season of ministry and bringing what I have learned and been a part of to the United States and beyond. That time is now and I am so excited to start working with church teams and sharing my heart for worship and God's love.'
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO BOOK MICHELLE FOR YOUR EVENT PLEASE CONTACT BY EMAIL: [email protected]
