Diana Trask

Diana Roselyn Trask (born 23 June 1940) is an Australian-American singer, songwriter and author. She was considered to be one of the first Australian music artists to find success in the United States, particularly in the genres of pop and country.

Born in Camberwell, Victoria, Trask had a musical upbringing and left school in her teens to pursue music full-time. She began her career in Melbourne and Sydney during the late fifties, appearing on local television and singing at clubs. After serving as Frank Sinatra's Australian opening act, she left for the US in 1958. She settled in New York City and received a recording contract from Mitch Miller of Columbia Records in 1960. Trask then became a series regular on his television program, Sing Along with Mitch, and recorded two studio albums released by Columbia in 1961: Diana Trask and Diana Trask on TV. Trask then married American businessman Thom Ewen, who became her full-time manager. The couple moved back to Australia, where her television program, The Di Trask Show, was syndicated for one season in 1965.

Trask then resettled in the US and reinvented herself as a country music artist. Settling in Nashville, Tennessee, Trask was signed to Dot Records in 1968, and her cover of "Hold What You've Got" made the US country chart. It was included on her first country album, Miss Country Soul, which also made the US country chart. Trask's music continued making the US country charts, and she toured alongside performer Roy Clark in several Las Vegas engagements. She reached her peak commercial success in the mid-seventies with four top 20 country songs: "Say When", "It's a Man's World", "When I Get My Hands on You" and "Lean It All on Me". Her 1974 single "Oh Boy" was a top ten song in Australia. She remained popular in Australia through the 1980s with albums like the gold-certified One Day at a Time (1981).

Trask went into semi-retirement as the eighties decade progressed. Sporadically, she returned to her music career, including performing at the 1985 Australian Grand Final. For the most part, Trask and her husband sailed the Caribbean, along with operating a store in Alaska. She also returned to college and received a degree in herbal medicine. In 2009, Trask's husband died, and she returned to her career. She co-wrote a memoir in 2010 called Whatever Happened to Diana Trask and released three albums on her own label titled Trask Enterprises: Country Lovin' (2010), Daughter of Australia (2014) and Memories Are Made of This (2016).