Since her successful appearance on Australian Idol in 2006, Jessica Mauboy has gone on to capture Australian hearts with her dance orientated R&B sound. She will perform at this year’s Mundi Mundi Festival, near Broken Hill in Western NSW. We chatted to her about the influences in her life, and how her musical journey started.
I was looking at your Instagram, and I saw you met Michelle Obama and got to perform for her. How was that?
Yeah, it was nuts. Like now I can reflect back and just go, wow, that’s pretty awesome. I met her husband back in 2008 or nine when he first came to open up the US space in Darwin, and I got to perform for him. Back then I thought, wow, I’m getting to meet you, who I’ve always wanted to meet, the lady herself. Just to hear her, she spoke so confidently about her parents trusting her when she was starting out. Really young, they let her walk to school by herself and then catch the bus two hours to her high school. It just resonated with me, like how my parents are, and how hard working they were, and still are. Also, just the bond, you know – I’m one of five girls, so each of us feels very much like we did all the hard work and activities at home. No-one was better than the other, but we were also trusted to be ourselves and make the right choices and the right decisions for our future life. That really resonated with me. I feel lucky to have music allow me to travel and meet all kinds of people around the world,
I was looking at some of the people you’ve met along the way, people like Bernard Fanning.
Bernard is another iconic inspiration for me, just as a human. I think when I first was introduced through music to him, it was as a singer songwriter. That’s where I got a lot of my inspirations from, artists who were writers and were able to share their life experience. Then it became songs that people sing and apply to their life. It’s wonderful to be able to meet so many incredible, talented people, and especially Australian artists.
I grew up listening and dedicated my years to listening to Johnny Farnham. He was definitely someone vocally that just blew my mind. I just thought, and still to this day, think he’s the best vocalist my ears have ever crossed. I’m so grateful that I get to listen and be able to be re-inspired and then create my own on top of that. Like, what would that feel like if I was to be able to write my own.
You’ve taken on a bit of a mentor role, particularly with female First Nation artists. How does it feel being on the other side, having people looking up to you and using you as inspiration?
Yeah, it feels deadly. I mean, it’s the most powerful thing you could hold, and for me it’s more nurturing. To the point where it feels safe for that person to be able to explore. For me it’s about getting it prepared that it feels like a safe space for anyone coming into this wild entertainment world. It could be on today and off tomorrow, and it happens so quickly. It’s also just establishing that artist is not just staying in the game, but staying true, because that’s what carries.
If you are telling your own experience, then you will go far, in the sense of people will connect. You might get one, you might get 10, you might get 3000 or you might get more than that, but if you are you and you are coming from a place of your own experience, then it won’t be as challenging, because you know your own story. When I come into that role of mentoring, (and I still feel humble that I even get to do that), I still kind of doubt myself, but I think if I come from a place of where I’ve been then you know you’re going to be okay.
I mean, even Kylie has doubts about herself, apparently.
Exactly! I have not yet watched her beautiful show, but I think I resonate with the idea of every artist who has to go to the depths of their emotion, and then turn that into words, and then turn that into something physical, and stand up there and show up; it’s so daunting.
Just thinking of those layers makes my hair stand up, and then instantly my stomach starts to turn. I think you care about your values and who you are and why you came into the business in the first place, or into the creative. You’re always going to feel like that, because you care. I always tend to allow these feelings to be real and be heard and be acknowledged and teach those people coming up into the music space to also listen to their instincts and their heart and soul.
I was also looking back at when you started on Australian Idol. There have been a couple of flashbacks, and it looks really brutal at the start.
It was brutal, it was so cut-throat. You don’t get a second chance. Even behind the scenes, which was never really recorded, so no one ever actually got to see the realness of that, how badly cut-throat it was. Even the language that was spoken was just so harsh and hard, you know. Cussing was definitely a thing backstage. Adults, and I had just turned 16. I just had to jump, and it did feel like I was jumping out into the ocean and I just had to swim and learn how to paddle and stay afloat.
That was okay, I think, because of my parents kind of gearing me up with wisdom. Wisdom in the sense of like, you know, Bubba, you know who you are and you just remember where you come from, because all of those things are your padding, your shield, your armour. We can’t prepare you for what you’re about to experience, because we don’t know, but what we do know is that you’re really good at what you do. If you stay really close to that, then you know that you can’t veer, you can’t be swayed, you just keep on that.
I really applied that every day when I woke up, and I looked at myself in the mirror. I looked, not at myself, I looked into my eyes, because that was the only thing that gave me the sense of truth and realness. I never looked at anything else on my body, it was just looking into my eyes, going, you got this girl, and if you show up, that’s all that matters.
So, how old were you when you first had this desire to sing and entertain?
My mom always told me every time she would put music on, I would just try and dance, and then I would try and make up the lyrics. One song that really got me going, and I guess had me learning the actual lyrics was “Black or White” by Michael Jackson. That was definitely a song that stayed with me, and I guess had me starting to talk and actually singing before I could talk, which wasn’t until maybe I hit like six or seven. Prior to that I was singing in an Indonesian Uniting Church with my family, who played all the instruments, and then that kind of led to me joining the primary school choir.
I was always involved with music and theatre and drama, but it really didn’t hit me until I did my first competition at 11. So, my first ever competition was against, like, 30-year-olds. I was 11 years old; my auntie and my mum took me to the Adelaide River singing competition. It was a country music singing competition, so they dressed me in a cowboy or cowgirl attire that we got from a fancy-dress shop. I think it’s called Patty Patsy’s or Patty’s fancy dress shop. I was actually meant to go to school that day. My auntie and my mom, “double trouble” whisked me away and took me to this competition, which eventually I won. I won it overall. I won the $500. I won two trophies. They didn’t actually have an underage group, so I won the competition overall. “My Heart Will Go On” by Celine Dion, mind you. There was no country in it, but I tried. I kind of gave the country music essence in it with my attire. That’s when I realised, oh, I could do this for a living and as a passion.
You’ll be playing the Mundi Mundi Bash in August. Are you excited for that?
This is so wild to be invited on this lineup of incredible, ridiculously talented people, so I’ve been having dreams. I’m going to be very honest, I’ve been having dreams, because I’ve never been to anything like this. I’ve looked up many images of the place.
I’ve been a couple of times, and it’s so much fun.
My dreams that I’ve been having is that I’m literally going to have everyone on their feet. It’s going to be electrifying. I’m going to come out, and I’m just going to celebrate the amazing energy and soul that it exudes. I’ve been thinking about what’s going to be my ritual before, just so I can calm my nerves. It’s either going to be burpees, sprints, like short sprints, or I’m just going to literally look out into this beautiful, gorgeous, crowded landscape. Exhale, and then just tell myself, you got this girl, let’s go.
It’s an amazing experience. Everyone I’ve seen on stage just looks out over the audience and goes, wow, this is amazing.
I really want to just be amongst the energy, because I know it’s going to be an electrifying, high kind of presence, and I’m just looking forward to just rocking out with everyone.
Jess Mauboy joins over twenty other Australian performers at Australia’s greatest outback music festival. Three nights of iconic Australian music under a sky full of stars — on the red dirt of the Mundi Mundi Plains.
Mundi Mundi Bash – 20–22 August 2026 · Mundi Mundi Plains · Broken Hill NSW
Check out all the details and last chance tickets on the website.
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