Mae McKenna

Mae McKenna signed her first recording contract with Transatlantic Records when she was just 17 years old. By the time she was 21 she had made one album with "Contraband", 3 solo albums and had toured all over Britain and Europe. A two year stint in the original West-end production of "Jesus Christ Superstar" followed and by 1983 Mae was established as one of London's session elite. She has sung and arranged vocals on literally hundreds of top 20 singles (including over 20 no. ones) with such artistes as Blur, Dead or Alive, Sting, Kylie Minogue, Pete Townsend, Bjork, Annie Lennox, Westlife, Ronan Keating, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Michael Jackson, ABC, Ian Dury, Tunde Baiyewu, The Cult, Manic Street Preachers, Donna Summer, Tears for Fears, Steps, Chris Rea, Katherine Jenkins, Scritti Politti and Climie Fisher.
In 1989 Mae recorded her first self produced Album for Virgin's Venture label. Like all of Mae's albums, "Nightfallers" received tremendous reviews - this time for the production and innovation as well as the quality of singing. Virgin Japan signed her directly for her 1991 release,"Mirage and Reality"and commissioned her to write and produce 2 songs for Japanese singing star -Emiko Shiratori.
In 1999 Mae released Shore to Shore - a self produced album of original songs using celtic, bluegrass and Old Timey musicians. It was recorded partly in Nashville and partly in Scotland.
As a session singer Mae has worked extensively in television, commercials and movies. TV Credits include 14 years of "Stars in their eyes", Pop Idol, Reborn in the USA, Top of the Pops, The Tube, No.73, X-Factor, Popstars the rivals and Soapstar Superstars. Her voice has been featured on several made for TV dramas. eg. The second Coming, Andromeda and Diana, The final Days.
Movie credits include: Willow, Land before time, The Mummy returns, A Muppet Christmas Carol, Muppets in Space. Beloved and Harry Potter. Mae's solo voice is featured throughout the score of New Zealand epic "River Queen" - she is the singing voice of the dead mother in Nanny McPhee and she sang and co-wrote the theme tune to "The Rocket Post".
Commercial credits include: Organics, Dove Soap (USA) Clover, an award winning campaign for peace in Northern Ireland and the Blood Donor Campaign which can be heard at blood.co.uk
Mae has worked as a vocal coach on Nanny McPhee and Harry Potter. She continues to work as a session singer, performer and recording artiste as well as teaching workshops and masterclasses. She is also Director of the One Taste choir.