Recognised as one of Australia’s finest singers, Lily Dior has shared the stage with a remarkable list of outstanding musicians from Australia and around the world and has performed at many of Australia's best venues including The Opera House Concert Hall, The State Theatre, Sydney Town Hall and The Domain. A finalist at The National Jazz Awards she is also an experienced radio personality and three time host of The Freedman Fellowship Jazz Awards.
The daughter of professional musicians who met and married in London, Lily spent her first five years touring south east Asia with her parents who later settled in Sydney Australia. Returning to her roots in 2014, Lily has spent the last decade or so in London building her reputation and establishing herself as an in demand performer appearing at iconic jazz venues such as Ronnie Scott’s, The 606 Club and Pizza Express Soho. and Holborn
Discovered by the late great Hungarian bass player/singer Jackie Orszaczky as a teenager, while performing a show she wrote and produced on the life of Billie Holiday, Lily became a seminal member of Sydney’s hottest Soul/Funk outfit, ‘The Godmothers’, wowing audiences with her electric stage presence and powerful soul voice.
“If you see only one local band this year, make sure you catch this shimmering and wonderful soul funk act” (Bruce Elder, SMH)
Her debut album ‘Invitation’ released by the ABC, received universal praise and put Lily firmly on the Australian music map. "She can belt out a song, dramatize a lyric, swing hard and earthy, flirt, sing a tender song - Lily can 'tell a story'." (Jim McLeod, ABC)
Lily has performed at major festivals including Sydney Festival, Melbourne International Arts Festival, Wellington International Jazz Festival, Adelaide Cabaret Festival, Bellingen Jazz Festival, Christchurch Jazz Festival, Thredbo Jazz Festival, Darling Harbour Jazz Festival, Jazz in The Vines, Jazz in The Gardens and the Wangaratta Festival of Jazz where she placed second at The National Jazz Awards led by a panel of international judges including Kurt Elling, Laurence Hobgood, and Sheila Jordan.
Awarded a grant in 2000, Lily traveled to New York to study with jazz legend Mark Murphy, and was invited to perform at one of his rare appearances at the time. That same year, she was singled out by legendary arranger/pianist Dave Matthews to perform with The Manhattan Jazz Quintet, which included an all star line up of Bill Evans (sax), Charnett Moffatt, Victor Lewis, and Lew Soloff, at Sydney Casino’s Lyric Theatre.
Lily was a featured artist in ‘Testimony’, an audio-visual spectacular based on the life of Charlie Parker. with music by Sandy Evans and performed by the Australian Art Orchestra, which received glowing reviews, “one of the most memorable festival shows in Sydney for a very long time” (Real Time); “a show which truly belongs on the world stage” (Patrick McDonald,The Advertiser), “Lily Dior presided like a pagan priestess over the last rites” (John Shand, SMH)
Invited to sing with Brazilian guitarist Oscar Castro Neves and his all star band for ‘Noite Brasil’ at Sydney’s 'Jazz in the Domain' in 2007, Lily performed to an audience of 100,000 with some of the world’s greatest jazz and latin artists including Airto Moriera, Alex Acuna, Abraham Laboriel, Don Grusin and Gary Meeks. “Lily Dior has never sounded better than she did joining the magic for How Insensitive and, later in the night, Dindi, a charming duet with Castro Neves’s nylon string guitar.” (John Shand, SMH)
Lily has built a solid reputation overseas with performances in New York, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, Shanghai and Hong Kong and has shared the stage with a who’s who of world-class musicians including Paul Grabowsky; Don Grusin; Dale Barlow; Mike Nock; Dave Matthews; Alister Spence; Oscar Castro Neves; The Bays (UK); and James Morrison. She’s been featured on TV and Radio programs including ABC’s ‘The Pulse’, the James O’Lochlan Show; ABC’s Arts program; as well as live performance broadcasts for the ABC and Eastside Radio.
Lily became involved in radio as a teenager and hosted a show on Sydney’s premiere jazz station ‘Eastside Radio’ for 15 years before moving to London. Her program ‘Voices’ featured interviews with leading Australian and International artists including Ron Carter, Kurt Elling, Marcos Valle, Cassandra Wilson, Theo Bleckman, Ricky Peterson, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Norma Winstone, Katie Noonan, Lulo Reinhart, The Idea Of North, Vika Bull, Abby Dobson, Lara Goodridge, Fred Wesley, James Valentine and Vince Jones amongst others.