A purveyor of tuneful, synth-buoyed adult-alternative pop, Washington is the mononym of singer/songwriter Megan Washington. A onetime jazz vocalist, she issued a pair of EPs in the mid-2000s before making her pop debut with the EP Clementine in 2008. Her first album, 2010's I Believe You Liar was a Top Five hit in Australia. She returned to the Top Five with her second album, the more personal There There, in 2014. Born and partly raised in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, Washington grew up with a father who worked part-time as an events DJ. The family relocated to Brisbane, Australia, when she was ten. She went on to study music at the Australian School of the Arts at Sheldon College before continuing her education at the Queensland University of Technology and the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, with a focus on jazz vocal performance. Recorded with a four-piece backing band that included co-billed pianist Sean Foran, her debut EP, Nightlight, appeared on Newmarket Music in 2006. She and Paul Grabowsky issued the EP Bennetts Lane a year later. Around that time, Washington began playing keyboards on tours for alternative artists including Old Man River and Ben Lee, and she switched to a version of alternative pop herself with her Washington debut, an EP called Clementine. It arrived on Mercury in 2008. Meanwhile, her cover of Ross Wilson's song "Bed of Nails" was used as the theme song for the ABC1 drama Bed of Roses from 2008-2011. Another EP, How to Tame Lions, followed in September 2009 and received national radio play. Later that year, Washington appeared on the music-themed TV quiz show Spicks and Specks, resulting in further exposure before the release May 2010's Rich Kids EP and Washington's full-length debut, I Believe You Liar, in mid-2010. Consisting partly of songs culled from her prior EPs, it debuted at number three on ARIA album chart. She followed the hit album with the EP Insomnia in late 2011, which peaked at number 24. The following year, Washington appeared as a mentor on the first season of the Australian version of TV talent competition The Voice and became known for a TEDx Talk where she discussed stuttering, which for her goes away when she sings. In 2013, Washington headed to London to work on her next album with producer Samuel Dixon (Adele, Christina Aguilera), whom she had met while touring in support of Sia. He was member of Sia's backing band. The resulting There There saw release in September 2014 and launched Washington back into the Australian Top Five. It was issued by Mercury under her full name. A year later, she reached the Top 40 of the singles chart as a featured singer on country artist Lee Kernaghan's "Spirit of the Anzacs." Washington returned with the single "Saint Lo" in advance of her third album in late 2016 and performed at the Sydney Opera House with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in 2017. A series of further singles followed over the next three years, including her Island Records debut, 2020's "Dark Parts" (as Washington). It was produced by Dixon and Konstantin Kersting (Tones and I, Mallrat).