Lisa Lois

Born on June 22, 1987, in Wageningen, Netherlands, under the name Lisa Hordijk, Dutch pop singer Lisa Lois first captured national attention as a contestant on the second season of X Factor. She claimed the top prize in May 2009, then promptly issued her debut recording—a cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”—which remained at number one on the Dutch singles chart for ten consecutive weeks. After initially releasing material under the shortened name Lisa, she adopted the professional surname Lois following that breakthrough and prepared her first album with London-based producers TMS, whose members are Tom Barnes, Peter Kelleher, and Ben Kohn. A collection of original English-language songs was written for her by several industry figures, among them English singer-songwriter Pixie Lott and songwriter-producer Phil Thornalley. Issued late in 2009, her ten-track debut album Smoke reached number six on the Dutch albums chart, while its lead single, “No Good for Me,” penned by Lott and Thornalley, entered the Top Five.