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Fiona Maude McDonald (born 1965) is a New Zealand pop singer and television personality.

Singer

McDonald's first involvement with music came through singing jingles for Auckland student radio station bFM. From that work she was asked to join Auckland band Diatribe which also included musician Greg Johnson. In the early '90s she teamed up with former bFM producers Mark Tierney and Paul Casserly who were looking for a singer for their new studio-only group, Strawpeople.

McDonald also briefly sang live with NRA, and provided guest vocals on the Headless Chickens on "Cruise Control". Reaching #6 in the charts, "Cruise Control" proved to be so popular that she was asked to join the band full-time. Three successful years of recording and touring followed, including number one single "George", but McDonald eventually left the band in 1995.

In the mid-'90s, McDonald continued to work with the Strawpeople and at the same time worked on songs for her solo album. A Different Hunger was released in 1999 with the first single "Sin Again" making it to #7 in the New Zealand charts.

Television

McDonald's first television work was in 1997 presenting @Xtra, a TV2 series about the internet. In 2005 McDonald was also one of the three judges in the first series of NZ Idol and presented the New Zealand version of 10 Years Younger. She also presented the second series of arts show The Big Art Trip. In October 2012, she began work as a presenter on the new Shopping Channel.

Discography

Strawpeople

• Hemisphere (1991) Pagan Records
• Worldservice (1992) Pagan Records
• Broadcast (1994) Epic Records
• Vicarious (1996) Columbia Records
• Knucklebones (2023) Bigpop

Headless Chickens

• Body Blow (1991) Flying Nun Records
• Greedy (1997) Flying Nun Records

Album

• A Different Hunger (1999)

Singles

References

1. "ASCAP - ACE search engine results". American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). Retrieved 21 September 2020.
2. "Fiona McDonald". Muzic.net.nz. Retrieved 2 October 2012.
3. "10 Years Younger". TVNZ. Retrieved 2 October 2012.
4. "The Big Art Trip". NZ On Screen. Retrieved 2 October 2012.
5. "Presenters". The Shopping Channel. Archived from the original on 5 October 2012. Retrieved 4 October 2012.

External links

• Biography at Flying Nun
• Headless Chickens at Homebake
• Biography from her agent Archived 14 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine

• 1965 births
• Living people
• New Zealand Idol
• 20th-century New Zealand women singers
• New Zealand television personalities
• Flying Nun Records artists
• People from Huntly, New Zealand
• People educated at Carmel College, Auckland