"Lucy’s whole oeuvre, by saying - Her voice … is a pleasant mix of wide-eyed charm and in-the-know playfulness, Like a piece of clove gum, she's got a good kick, and the flavor lingers pretty well afterwards."
- Jazz Weekly
“A steamy, string-kissed slice of retro British pop by a versatile singer/songwriter.”
- USA Today
“A sonic turnstile that flips through dreamy pop, jazz and bluesy bebop, [Lucy] lovingly revisits '60s Britpop, with a cool finger-snapping rhythm, stings of strings and percussive snaps, and a performance that fosters an image of the vocalist clinging to the mic stand with one hand, glass of champagne in the other and a faraway look in her eyes, toying sensuously with her audience. The album boasts staggering versatility. Lucy's a ball, equally appreciable for fans of melodic singalong baubles and highbrow aficionados of finely honed musical composition.”
- Billboard
“An effortlessly engaging, deeply expressive vocalist and an insightful, charismatic and disarmingly witty songwriter.”
- The Ventura County Star
“Lucy brings a sultry intensity and scorching sensuality to her bluesy jazz/pop performances – “a jaw-dropping listening experience.”
- Songwriter's Monthly
“Jump, jive and wail along with this swinging single-gal lament. You’ll feel the song’s retro tom-tom beat, but it’s Woodward’s brassy, ticklish vocals—and clever lyrics that rhyme `our registry’ with `couples therapy’—that’ll have you hitting Repeat.”
- Marie Claire
“…produced with an ear to re-creating the big ensemble pop of the '50s and '60s, fans of that old-school Brill Building sound should find Hooked! to be an appealing catch.”
- All Music
"Woodward ... was absolutely show-stopping behind the mic. Her vocal delivery was effortless.”
- Winnipeg's Uptown
"Woodward starts the show off with a “Hit it boys” that makes the venue feel like a New York underground speakeasy from the 1930s. As ceiling fans help reposition the beads of sweat from forehead to neck, Woodward’s sultry lyrics spill out into the crowd and cause simultaneous group vibing. She has the kind of voice that sounds good just breathing into a microphone. Her set builds up to “Hot and Bothered,” which she tells us actually came from a Yiddish lullaby her grandma used to sing to her. If only we all could be sung to sleep by such music."
- Campus Circle
Born in London, Lucy spent her childhood in New York and Holland. She is the daughter of two classical musicians - her father a conductor and composer, her mother an opera singer, musicologist, teacher and bellydancer. No matter which household she was living in, she was “always music-making and creating.”
Fresh out of school, she was singing jazz in NYC’s West Village for tips, singing in cover bands and writing songs before signing with Atlantic Records in 2003 — a time period that saw her score a Top 40 hit with “Dumb Girls” and another Top 5 hit she wrote for Stacie Orrico called “(There's Gotta Be) More to Life”, earning her 2 BMI Awards. With her debut record in tow, she toured the US and internationally and appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (and got couch time!).
But Woodward had no desire to be a pop starlet: her follow-up, the jazzier, punchier indie record Lucy Woodward is...Hot and Bothered was released in 2008 which “shed new light” on music-making again. Hot and Bothered was inspired by her days at Manhattan School of Music, lots of Etta James and the 1967 classic animated film The Jungle Book bringing her back to her bluesy roots. Billboard described how “Lucy's a ball, equally appreciable for fans of melodic sing-along baubles and highbrow aficionados of finely honed musical composition. A sonic turnstile that flips through dreamy pop, jazz and bluesy bebop”.
This, in turn, was followed by Hooked!, an album of Brill Building meets Big Band songs, released on Verve/Universal (2010) -- which was largely produced by Tony Visconti (David Bowie). The album effortlessly moves across multiple genres, including gypsy-swing, jazz and rhythm & blues. Along with her self-penned compositions, the album showcases Lucy’s stunning covers of Peggy Lee’s Cuban inspired “Sans Souci” and an Ink Spots-inspired a cappella Hoagy Carmichael classic, “Stardust.” Nellie McKay, who Lucy had always been a hardcore fan of, wrote a song for her called “Another Woman” which Lucy recorded on Hooked! as well (featuring Nellie on background vocals).
In 2012, Lucy was asked to tour as a band member filling in for the lead singer of Pink Martini learning songs in Turkish, French, Croatian, Japanese and Spanish with 6 days notice. Lucy’s dates with Pink Martini varied from Montreal Jazz Fest to singing with the San Francisco Symphony for several performances. That same year, Lucy also toured overseas sponsored by Armed Forces Entertainment, performing for American military units stationed in Spain, Italy and Turkey.
Lucy began to work with Snarky Puppy bandleader Michael League, who played bass in her NYC band at the time. She started opening for Snarky Puppy (with them as her backing band) and was featured on Snarky Puppy’s Family Dinner, Vol. 1 album singing the hauntingly bluesy “Too Hot To Last”. The album earned them their first Grammy and the song now has over 1.2 million views. League and longtime friend keyboardist/arranger Henry Hey (Forq, David Bowie) co-produced her fourth solo album Til They Bang on The Door, which was released on GroundUP/Verve/Universal in 2016. The album features the Snarky Puppy horns, Cory Henry on organ and Grammy nominees trombonist Alan Ferber and cellist Dave Eggar.
In 2017, Lucy debuted her material with Big Band arrangements from two of her albums performing at Aarhus Jazz Festival and Jam Days with TipToe Big Band in Denmark. She has continued to perform her Big band material in Holland, Miami and Los Angeles. In 2018, Lucy was invited to perform in collaboration with Germany's WDR Big Band with arrangements/conducted by Chris Walden. Together, Lucy and Walden created “Love and Other Bad Habits”, a repertoire of Big Band arrangements on vices, addictions and other odd human behaviors. Lucy was the featured guest in a 2-week residency with bandleader/trumpeter Dominick Farinacci at Jazz At Lincoln Center in Shanghai, China in December, 2018. In 2018 and 2019, Lucy teamed up with guitar virtuoso Charlie Hunter and toured extensively in the US and Europe. In 2019, they released their debut collaboration Music!Music!Music!. The album is comprised of vintage pop and blues ranging from the 1890’s-1990’s which are reconstructed into new groove-heavy and deep funk classics. All That Jazz said “Hunter and Woodward had enough chemistry between them to ignite a couple dozen Bunsen Burners”. A follow up album will be released in the spring.
In addition to her solo career, Woodward toured with Rod Stewart for many years singing background vocals. She has also sung on albums by Celine Dion, Rod Stewart, Chaka Khan, Snarky Puppy, Barbra Streisand, Nikka Costa, Carole King, Joe Cocker, Gavin DeGraw and Randy Jackson. Her songs and vocals have been heard in many movies/TV shows including What a Girl Wants, The Blind Side, Music and Lyrics, New Year’s Eve, First Daughter, Last Vegas, Footloose, Manhattan Nocturne, Accepted and Disney’s Ice Princess, with her rendition of Bjork/Betty Hutton big band cover "It's Oh So Quiet” which also recently placed in the new Birds of Prey movie trailer.