Killing Heidi star Ella Hooper reveals the very surprising story behind the band’s name – as she embarks of 25th anniversary tour

By JIMMY BRIGGS FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA

Published: 10:55 GMT, 28 March 2025 | Updated: 11:07 GMT, 28 March 2025

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Killing Heidi singer Ella Hooper has finally revealed the surprising origin behind her band’s unconventional name.

The singer, 42, appeared on The Project on Friday night with her bandmate brother Jesse and opened up about how they chose their band’s name.

’25 years on, who is Heidi and how is she still alive?’ co-host Rove McManus asked.

‘We don’t talk about her!’ Ella joked and then Jesse jumped in with: ‘There was no particular Heidi we had in mind. We just loved that juxtaposition of words.’

‘But poor old Heidi’s out there. Nothing personal to Heidi, we love you all!’ 

Ella added the band name had caused some conflict when she was at high school. 

Killing Heidi singer Ella Hooper has finally revealed the surprising origin behind her band’s unconventional name. The singer appeared on The Project on Friday night with her bandmate brother Jesse

‘There were some Heidi’s who were like, “Are you talking about me?” No, no, no, it’s just a name!’ she said. 

The siblings added they would be embarking on an upcoming Australian tour in celebration of the 25th anniversary of their number one album Reflector.

‘We are hitting the road to play the whole album and a few other fan favourites,’ Jesse said.

Ella added the tour would be very exciting because they would be performing the entire album in its track list order: ‘We have never done that before!’ 

The siblings will kick off their anniversary tour on Friday, June 20 at The Gov in Adelaide. 

They will then head to Perth, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.

In 1999, Killing Heidi – made up of Ella, her brother Jesse and their friends Aaron Hart on drums and Rowen Murphy on bass – stormed the Australian music charts with their hit song Mascara from their debut album.

The band continued to rack up more hits with their follow up songs Superman/Supergirl and Weir, and won four ARIA Awards in 2000, including Album of the Year and Best Group.

Ella finally opened up about how they chose their band’s name

The siblings added they would be embarking on an upcoming Australian tour in celebration of the 25th anniversary of their number one album Reflector

The band went on to release three albums: Reflector (2000), Present (2002) and Killing Heidi (2004).

The band from Violet Town, Victoria, split in 2006, before reforming in 2016 after a 10-year hiatus. 

Ella has gone on to solo work with her music and competed against nine other acts to represent Australia as a solo artist at the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest with her song Data Dust.

Unfortunately for Ella, Kate Miller-Heidke ended up winning the competition.

 

She is now the host of 90s music theme podcast called Front & Centre available on Triple M 90’s station and the LiSTNR app.

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Killing Heidi star Ella Hooper reveals the very surprising story behind the band’s name – as she embarks of 25th anniversary tour

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