Kate Ceberano is from a magical time in Australian music that can never be replicated.
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She burst onto the scene in the 1980s as a backup vocalist for the Models before finding fame as the lead singer of Melbourne funk band I’m Talking.
In 1989 she released her first solo album Brave the hit “Bedroom Eyes”, going on to forge a successful career in pop, soul and jazz.
“The music industry was electric because Australia was really starting to establish itself on the map with INXS and Kylie [Minogue] and Nick Cave,” the 50-year-old said.
“What I really loved about the time is the public really put the artist on the map … they made you who they needed you to be for them, you were the soundtrack of their teenage lives.”
Ceberano called the era “halcyon times” where music fans were committed to buying whole albums and supporting their favourite artists at live shows.
In 1992 Ceberano starred alongside two other stars of the time in one of the the country’s most celebrated arena shows, Jesus Christ Superstar.
“Every night we had 18,000 people going crazy and rightly so, because I don’t know any greater singers than John Farnham and Jon Stevens really,” she said.
Ceberano is currently touring with Stevens and will play to a sell-out crowd at Anita’s Theatre in Thirroul this Friday, her brother Phil Ceberano to open the festivities with his band.
“It’s actually like a family affair or as I’ve been lovingly calling it ‘brown people the musical’ – and we literally sing the living s**t [out of the venue],” she laughed.
Ceberano said she felt honoured to be on tour with her “unofficial brother” Stevens who’s promoting a new album, Starlight.
Original musicians now have to be more creative in getting their music out to the masses because she said a shift in the industry has made it much more difficult – but there were positives.
“I think we’re coming into something very exciting,” Ceberano said.
“The artists that are being built are more self-governing, they’re able to record with less expense and able to reach a broader international public.”
The perfect piece of advice for aspiring musicians was that her daughter Gypsy, 13, came to realise watching British performer Rag’n’Bone Man in Melbourne last week.
“This was such an a ha moment for her and she said ‘I realised you don’t need money or looks to do what it is that you love’,” Ceberano said.
“I thought that’s an amazing moment for a child to have when they realise they don’t need other props, they just need to be really good at what they do.”