Lisa Maffia is an English singer-songwriter, musician, fashion designer, model and presenter, who originally came to the public's attention as the main female member of So Solid Crew. As part of the group, the singer notched up five top 20 hits, including a platinum-selling single "21 Seconds" and a platinum selling album "They Don't Know". As a solo artist, she has released two top 10 singles and an award-winning album including the platinum selling single "All Over".
Maffia was born in Brixton, London, the daughter of a Jamaican father and Anglo-Italian mother, and raised by the latter, Shirley Maffia. She trained in Latino, ballroom, tap and modern dancing and practised gymnastics as a child. She attended Norwood School in West Norwood. Maffia then went on to Brixton College to complete a diploma in Photography and Art & Design. In 2000, Maffia got her career debut when she added her vocals to the So Solid Crew track, "Oh No".
On 21 April 2003, departing from the So Solid Crew, Maffia made her debut at number 2 with "All Over". It spent three weeks in the top 10. She then released "In Love" which reached number 13. This led to the singer releasing her debut solo album, "First Lady". Promo for the album included support slots for artists such as Christina Aguilera, Ashanti, Ja Rule, Daniel Bedingfield and Blue. She worked on a string of releases in the years that followed.
In January 2010, Maffia released and toured with So Solid Crew on their single "Since You Went Away". The track reached the top 10 in the independent singles chart, leading to various performances on Big Brother's Big Mouth, Channel 5's Five Live and Radio One's Live Lounge. With the success of the track, it was announced on Maffia's official Twitter that there would be one final album from So Solid Crew, and to also expect more albums from Maffia herself. She also launched her fashion boutique House of Maffia.
In July 2017, Maffia premiered the first single from her new album on BBC's 1Xtra. The track, titled Wah Gwarn, featured production from FooR. The song entered at number 7 on the UK singles chart. Maffia announced the album would be released in the fourth quarter of 2018.
