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JESS MAUBOY THE REAL MCCOY

I f you’re one of the unfortunate few who have never seen Jessica Mauboy speak on camera – and there must be very few, considering the Wakaman and KuKu Yalanji artist hit the zeitgeist back in 2006 when the then 22-year-old came runner-up on Australian Idol ’s fourth season, and has since built a highly respected catalogue, served as coach on The Voice Australia for the last three seasons, repped Australia at Eurovision, and won multiple ARIA, CMA, Deadly, and APRA awards – you’re missing out. The word ’charismatic’ gets flung around daily, but Mauboy’s personality radiates a genuine dynamism which instantly marks her as the real deal. Her fans have known this for 17 years, of course. Late last year Mauboy posted a collection of adorable throwback photos and footage to her Instagram, all submitted by her enormous base of supporters. The montage was accompanied by a snippet from her track Flashback , the second single from upcoming fifth studio album Yours Forever. ”The lights were dimmed, and on the other side of the booth I could just see the engineering screen,” Mauboy says of the day she recorded the gorgeous dance-pop track with Empire of the Sun’s Nick Littlemore. ”I remember [Nick] coming into the room, and he said: ’Take me back to the first time you met your partner. What was that moment like?’” Littlemore’s prompt immediately hit its bullseye; Mauboy was swept back to the Darwin nightclub in which she first laid eyes on Themeli Magripilis, the man who would become her long-term sweetheart, and – as of 2022 – her husband. ”It was like, ’whoosh!’” Mauboy laughs delightedly. ”[Nick] vanished, and I could see them hit ’record’. There was this bedding track with little bells going. I was like, ’This feels almost like magic. It feels like I’m floating, like I’m rollerblading or something.’ It felt When we sat down to speak with multi-talent and national icon Jessica Mauboy, it took two seconds flat to confirm that the Wakaman and KuKuYalanji musician possesses a personality as magnetic as her voice. Read on to discover the secrets behind the singer-songwriter-actress’s irresistible new album, Yours Forever. Words Zoë Radas

32 FEBRUARY 2024

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