Alexa Ray Joel

Alexa Ray Joel is a singer/songwriter/multi-dimensional performer and is the daughter of singer Billy Joel and supermodel/actress Christie Brinkley. As an independent artist, Joel is known for creating music in a variety of genres. Her most recent single, “Notice Me”, released on May 24, 2010, was listed as a “Hit-Bound song” on the Sirius XM Hits 1 satellite radio channel in August 2010. Newsday described the single as having a “carefree braininess” and “bouncy guitar riffs and an instantly hummable chorus” that made Joel’s work “sound like Regina Spektor crossed with Katy Perry .” Joel also appears in the acclaimed Billy Joel documentary, The Last Play At Shea, which opened October 21, 2010 nationwide.

Alexa is working on honing her acting chops and is currently enrolled in the famed Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute studying acting and musical theatre under the direction of Anna Strasberg. She is making her voiceover debut in an episode for hit comedy,” Family Guy” this winter. Alexa will perform at The American Christmas Carol at Carnegie Hall, December 2nd. This performance will include Alexa’s own recordings and a Christmas song backed by a 100-piece orchestra plus large student choir organized and conducted by Tim Janis. This past winter, Alexa completed a residency at The Plaza Hotel’s famed Oak Room. “Alexa Ray Joel’s residency at the Oak Room is becoming one of our favorite fixtures on the city’s music scene.” said The New York Daily News. Newsday says “There’s something infectious about Alexa Ray Joel’s sense of fun and flirtiness that can loosen up even a traditional, storied venue like The Oak Room.” During one show, Bravo’s ‘Real Housewives Of New Jersey” taped a performance as the Manzo Family celebrated the holiday’s by attending the concert. Alexa’s song ‘All I Can Do” was the featured song that aired in August, 2011.

In addition to her music and new endeavor as an actress, writing is another natural outlet for this multi-talented artist. Most recently, Alexa interviewed her mother, Christie Brinkley, for the cover story in Hampton’s Magazine. Alexa was profiled for celebrity makeup artist, Bobbi Brown’s new book, “Pretty Powerful.” The book will focus on empowerment, confidence, and self-esteem, and Pretty Powerful will build on that message. The new book will profile an impressive group of women who look great and are amazing role models. “Pretty Powerful” is slated to release early 2012. In 2010, Joel was chosen the new spokeswoman for Prell Shampoo, with Joel’s songs to serve as background for the commercial. ABC News ‘ 20/20′ interviewed Joel about “moving out of (the) shadows” of her “two megastar parents,” and about recovery from her December 2009 crisis with depression. Describing her overcoming the relationship dependence that triggered her December 2009 Traumeel incident, Joel said “I’ve got to get a whole new career plan. Everything changed after that incident.”

When she was two years old, Joel’s father Billy Joel sang and played nursery rhymes for her on the piano. At the urging of her mother Christie Brinkley, beginning from age 11 through 16, Joel pursued classical piano training. She later said that “piano playing was more of a skill that I had to hone,… not as easy for me as singing and songwriting.” However, Joel expressed gratitude for her classical piano training, saying she considers classical music to be “the foundation of all music as well as the most ‘musical’ type of music.” Noting that her musical upbringing with her father gave her a “unique inside-peek into the songwriting process,” Joel remarked that “It’s no wonder I write music in the same way (my father) does: melody first, and lyrics second.” Joel said that by age 15 she was finishing complete songs and complementing those songs with piano accompaniment, describing her lyrics as taking on more depth during the ensuing two years because she was also writing poetry. At 17, Joel attended the Berklee College of Music’s five week Music-Fest workshop, Joel says “encouraged her to explore her gifts as a singer and performer” and “helped her gain confidence” as she had been a shy teenager. Joel attended New York University (NYU) as a freshman in the musical theater program, which she said was “great” and influenced her as a songwriter since “some of my songs in their structure are sort of like theater songs.” At age 19, in 2005 Joel assembled a band and performed her debut live show at Maxwell’s in Hoboken, New Jersey, also performing at The Stone Pony in Asbury Park, New Jersey. Since 2006, Joel has performed nearly 200 shows. In 2006, Joel released Sketches which was characterized as including a “coiled rebellious streak that seems greatly at odds with the rich melodicism of the music,…. (Displaying) anxious outsider tendencies throughout the EP. The West Valley View compared Joel to aspects of Norah Jones , Aretha Franklin , and Nelly Furtado, and described Sketches as having “six delicately crafted rock-infused soul songs that dance openly with pop aesthetics – catchy hooks, superb piano arrangements, full choruses, guitar-teasing melodies.”

Joel performed onstage with her father Billy Joel during the 2008 Rainforest Foundation Fund Benefit Concert at Carnegie Hall on May 8, 2008. And again, father and daughter performed “Baby Grand “at the Barack Obama election fundraiser at Hammerstein Ballroom on October 16, 2008. Other charity events at which Joel has performed include the “Save Sag Harbor” benefit concert (2008), the “Stage For The Cure” benefit for pediatric cancer in 2008, a benefit for The Art of Elysium (artists for seriously ill children; The Hamptons , 2009), a benefit for Habitat for Humanity , the “Right To Play Day” benefit (Sag Harbor, New York, 2010), and the Eric Trump Foundation benefit for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (New York City, 2010). Joel performed at Manhattan’s “Fashion’s Night Out” in 2009, DreamBall to support “Look Good…Feel Better” and the American Cancer Society and in 2010, Bloomingdale’s Fashion Night Out. Joel has appeared and performed on national TV since 2006 including “The Today Show,” Ron and Fez Show on XM Satellite Radio, Ron and Fez Show on XM Satellite Radio, Good Day New York, Jimmy Kimmel Live , The Wendy Williams Show , ABC’s 20/20 , Good Morning America, Rosie Radio, LX New York, The Real Housewives Of New Jersey, Access Hollywood, E.T.and Extra.

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