Gina Jeffreys

Career[edit]

In 1991, Jeffreys competed in the Toyota Star Maker Quest at the Tamworth Country Music Festival. After releasing her first single, "Slipping Away" (a cover of the 1975 song by Max Merritt), through BMG Music and "Radio Santa" in 1992, she signed a record deal with ABC Music and released "Two Stars Fell" in 1993. The song went straight to No. 1 on the Australian country charts.^[2]


"Two Stars Fell" won Jeffreys her first Golden Guitar award at the 1994 Tamworth Country Music Awards of Australia for Best Female Vocal Award. Later that year, she supported Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson on their Australian tours and positive reviews had her the subject of a Sixty Minutes story and an A Current Affair', segment. Her debut album, The Flame, was released in August 1994 and went platinum in 1997. Further hits followed, including "Girls' Night Out" which won Jeffreys her second Golden Guitar award for Best Female Vocal in 1995.


In July 1996, Jeffreys released her second album, Up Close. This was to be the album that broke the crossover barrier between country and mainstream. The album debuted straight into the national ARIA Charts at No. 9 while taking the No. 1 position of the national country charts. Up Close achieved Gold status during the same year as its release. Jeffreys toured nationally throughout 1996, appeared as a guest host of Sale of the Century and co-hosted the 1997 ARIA Music Awards. In 1997, she was inducted into the Tamworth Hands of Fame.


In June 1998, Jeffreys released her third album Somebody's Daughter, which peaked at No. 13 on the ARIA Charts. The album was certified Gold in 1999 and produced the hit song "Dancin' With Elvis" which won the Country Music Television's Video of the Year award in 1999. Jeffreys released a Christmas album in 1999, titled Christmas Wish.


In December 1999, Jeffrey's performed at the Tour of Duty – Concert for the Troops in Dili.^[3]


Throughout 2000, Jeffreys relocated to Nashville to record her next album, Angel, which was released in April 2001. The title track, "Angel", won numerous awards; including the 2002 Golden Guitar Award for Video Clip of the Year, the 2002 APRA Award for Most Performed Country Work and was named a finalist in the Australian Animation Awards in 2001. It charted at No. 57 on the ARIA singles chart.^[4]


In 2002, the Best of Gina Jeffreys... So Far was released. It includes her version of Radiohead's "Creep", which she had performed on Andrew Denton's Musical Challenge. This concluded her contract with ABC Music.


Jeffreys gave birth to her son Jackson in January 2003 and took some time out of the spotlight.


In 2006, Jeffreys signed a deal with Ocean Road Music and returned with the release of her album Walks of Life. In 2007, she was awarded Best Independent Country Release at the Australian Independent Record (AIR) Awards,^[5] for her album Walks of Life. At the Tamworth Country Music Festival of 2007, Jeffreys initiated a now annual "Walk of Life" where country music artists and fans walk around the streets of Tamworth to help create awareness and raise money for the Leukaemia Foundation.^[6] In April 2007, Jeffreys joined Beccy Cole and Sara Storer to form Songbirds; a successful multi-artist show in Australia that continued for some years. A live DVD was released of the Songbirds in 2009.^[7]


In 2009, Jeffreys performed a sell-out concert at Tamworth with Guy Sebastian and Wendy Matthews, followed by the release of Old Paint in 2010, a laid-back acoustic album of her all- time favourite songs.


In August 2019, Jeffreys released her eighth studio album, Beautiful Tangle. The first single, "Cash", was released in June 2019. It is her first new album in nine years.^[8]


From January 2022, Jeffreys replaced Sarah Forster as the co-host of the breakfast show on Star 104.5 on the New South Wales Central Coast, alongside Dave Rabbetts.^[9]