Lisa Kelly was born in Dublin, into a musical family, with both her parents and sisters being singers. Lisa herself has been singing since the age of seven, when she starred in the musical version of Bugsy Malone. Her parents are both heavily involved in amateur theatre, influencing Lisa toward studying drama, as well as being classically trained in both piano and singing.
She has played several principal roles, such as "Velma Kelly" in Chicago, "Florence" in Chess, "Laurey" in Oklahoma!, "Maria" in West Side Story and "Sandy" in Grease.
She has also performed in a number of concerts in Dublin's National Concert Hall, including The Magic of Gershwin, The Music of Cole Porter and From Romberg to Rodgers, and has won numerous national awards for singing and drama.
After deciding to take a break from her day job in the computer industry to return to theatre, she played the lead role in the Christmas pantomime Jack and the Beanstalk at Dublin's Gaiety Theatre. This led to her being cast in the American production of Riverdance - The Show as lead female vocalist in 2000, a position she held for five years while touring. While touring with Riverdance, Lisa met Australian dancer Scott Porter, who later became her husband.
In 2002, Lisa was asked to record a solo album with director David Downes on the Celtic Collections label. The resulting debut album, Lisa, was released in 2003. Songs featured on this CD are "Carrickfergus", "Siúil A Rún", "The Deer's Cry", "Lift the Wings", "The Soft Goodbye", "Home and the Heartland", "Homecoming", "Now We Are Free", "Dubhdarra", "May It Be", and "Send Me a Song".
Lisa was again approached by Downes in 2004, and asked to be part of Celtic Woman, originally planned as a one-night event at Dublin's Helix Theatre. The group has since released five albums and DVD performances of their concerts and embarked on several world tours.
She says she accepted a spot in Celtic Woman because "I wasn't doing anything else that day." She didn't know any of the artists she would be performing with when they first got together but Kelly stated that "the show is blessed with the girls [the show's creators] picked."[1] She has toured with Celtic Woman throughout most of their tours and appears in every CD and DVD to date.
Lisa performs several songs with Celtic Woman. She sings "Send Me a Song" and "The Blessing", both originals that have been featured on the original and A New Journey CDs, DVDs, and tours respectively. They were written by David Downes and feature him on the piano. Another song written by David Downes is "Green the Whole Year Round", which has been featured on the Christmas Celebration DVD and Greatest Journey CD and DVD, but not any tour. Lisa performs "The Voice" in A New Journey, which was originally supposed to be sung by Méav Ní Mhaolchatha, and also features fiddler Máiréad Nesbitt. "The Voice" was written by Irish novelist and composer Brendan Graham. Another song that Lisa performs in the original performance is "May It Be", originally from the movie The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Lisa sings "Caledonia" in A New Journey, and sung Sting's "Fields of Gold" during the Isle of Hope tour. In Songs From the Heart, she also sings "The Moon's a Harsh Mistress," accompanied by Máiréad Nesbitt on the violin and David Downes on the piano.
During the A New Journey tour, Lisa took a break for the birth of her third child, Ellie. She was replaced by Alex Sharpe who later became a full-time member of Celtic Woman when Orla Fallon left.
