"The Story So Far..."
The Story of the Coona Songbird...
Juanita Lucas, known by some as "The Coona Songbird" did not start singing until she was 16, in 2003. She was a rather late bloomer in the singing world, coming upon her talent quite by chance! In April 2003 Juanita entered a battle of the bands competition with a friend, who played the piano while Juanita sang, and they came away with 2nd place. For a first perfomance which was completely out of the norm for Juanita this was certainly a great result! As a young child and even in her early teens Juanita was never fond of singing in front of anyone, not even her family, so to suddenly go out on a limb and perform in front of a large crowd of people and come away with a placing was a great acheivement for Juanita which set her on a path towards a singing career.
Juanita did not even get a chance to take in all the excitement of coming 2nd when she came off the stage before being approached by two women who were organising Troy Cassar Daleys "Taking The Long Way Home" concert. The two women were greatly impressed by Juanita's voice that they asked her to be a supporting act for Troy's Concert, which she happily accepted, completely overwhelmed by all that was happening! font
From that day on Juanita sang at school assembly's, concerts and at the occassional wedding. In 2004 she was chosen to be the solo singer at the "NSW Secondary Principals Conference" held in Dubbo where she sang "Wind Beneath My Wings" for a crowd of around 400 principals. It was a great experience and she loved every minute of it. Juanita, being a big fan of musicals, put her name down for auditions for a school musical as soon as she knew one was going to be performed. She managed to get two parts and had an absolute ball with the songs and getting the musical ready, "I enjoy singing and I love to do as much of it as I can. It is a big part of my life and I have so much fun when I sing"...
Since she started singing Juanita has been very very busy! She has recorded the songs on her "Anthems" CD and has also recorded a single with four of her own works and an album of mostly country songs, all of which are being streamed on her website (www.juanitalucas.com.au) as 'clips'.
Juanita believes it is not important what people are racially, being a good person is what counts. However she finds it interesting and people always speculate about "what she is" exactly, so for the record she is 50% Filippina, 46% Anglo Saxon and 4% Indigenous Australia. She is also a First Fleet Australian (Twice).
Juanita has had many influences with regards to her music, but none so much as Jean Stafford. She also enjoys singing genres other than country, although country will always be number one. "I am a fan of country singer Jean Stafford as I grew up listening to her as my dad is also a big fan of hers. The first song I ever sang in public was, "Colours Of The Wind". I am a mixed genre singer but for the moment I am most interested in country. Id like to become a high profile singer of good country with a reputation for being able to digress successfully if required to do so"...
Thankyou for taking the time to get to know a little about Juanita, The Coona Singbird. If you would like to get in contact with The Coona Songbird and tell her about yourself or find out more about her visit Juanita's website www.juanitalucas.com.au and she will be sure to get back to you as soon as she can!
Message from Juanita... Thankyou so much for taking the time to look at my page, I hope you have enjoyed reading about me! Please feel free to leave a comment, message or visit my website!! Do not hesitate to contact me and let me know what you think of my music! I'd love any feedback I can get! Take care
Juanita xx