Lana Cantrell

Impassioned Australian singer Lana Cantrell, who found international success in the 1960s and 1970s, did not do things the easy way. A self-taught singer with no formal training, the tall, trim, shaggy-haired beauty entered the music industry and, for the duration of her career, remained true to her own vision and uniqueness every step of the way. She was born on August 7, 1943, in Sydney, Australia, and grew up in a home filled with music. Her father, a jazz musician, was a tremendous influence and she displayed prodigious musical gifts from a very early age. Singing and playing the piano at the Sydney Town Hall by age 10, she became a viable entertainment name on the concert stage and TV by her late teens. Lana had ambitions, however, that extended far outside of her native Australia. At age 19, long before phenom Helen Reddy put Australia on the Billboard singing map in America with her #1 "I Am Woman" feminism, Lana was chartering American waters seeking her fame and fortune. Her