Neil Mullane Finn, OBE (born 27 May 1958, in Te Awamutu, New Zealand) is a singer and songwriter and one of New Zealand's foremost popular musicians. He was the co-frontman, along with his brother Tim Finn, for Split Enz and is now frontman for Crowded House as well as recoding several successful solo albums and assembling diverse musicians for the 7 Worlds Collide projects. He was born Cornelius Mullane Finn, but stated later, "I was christened Cornelius, and dropped it at an early age thinking it was a bit corny", in an interview with Australian television host Andrew Denton in 1995.
Finn rose to prominence in the late 1970s after replacing singer songwriter Phil Judd in his brother Tim Finn's band Split Enz. With the group, Finn wrote the hits "One Step Ahead", "History Never Repeats", "I Got You" and "Message to My Girl", among others. Finn rose from prominence to international fame after Split Enz broke up in 1984. While Tim Finn left for England, his brother Neil Finn was the founder of Crowded House with Split Enz's final drummer Paul Hester in 1985. The group achieved international success in 1987 when they released the single "Don't Dream It's Over" written by Neil. He ended Crowded House in 1996 primarily to embark upon what was to become a moderately successful solo career, and has released two albums with his brother Tim under the title the Finn Brothers. In 2007, following the death of Hester, Finn reunited Crowded House (adding Beck's former drummer Matt Sherrod) and released a new album, Time on Earth, and the band began a world tour.
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