Jessica Mauboy - The Story of Me: A Musical Journey Through My Career

I confess that other than seeing Jessica Mauboy in Idol and The Sapphires movie and occasionally hearing some of her songs, I knew very little about this amazing woman.

I left Her Majesty’s Theatre a new convert, immediately downloading songs and delving further into her music history. Jessica is a powerhouse! An inspiration to all to follow their dreams and their gut, this young woman positively dominated the stage and had the audience revelling in every note and story.

This cabaret performance is a one off and we were privileged to be there to hear how she has come from being a ‘girl in trouble’ in the corridor of her school (for singing in class hilariously) to an icon of Australian music.

Jessica takes us on her life journey so far. At age 35 she has just become a mother to Mia, over whom she gushes and genuinely shows us the magical joy of parenthood. This is one lucky baby! Who wouldn’t want to be sung to all the time by this stunning voice?

Jessica is joined on stage by musical director Darryl Beaton on keys, backing vocals and guitar, Daniel March on guitar and two of the most perfectly synced backing vocalists - Kalena Haireka and Ashleigh Leef - talents in their own right. The VFX and lighting also created atmosphere and guided us beautifully on the journey. Kudos also needs to go to Jessica’s costumer- three gorgeous outfits progressively becoming more ‘free’ in their style, highlighted Jessica’s journey to being her own person.

We start with Jessica as a student, encouraged by the school choir teacher to sing in the choir. Her reflections of the impact of this ‘stylish’ woman are beautiful. She speaks of being guided and mentored in something that she didn’t know could exist.

Jessica’s humble beginnings found her singing Karaoke in Darwin at 11 years old. She shares a song she would perform – “Neon Things” - and how this led to the suggestion she enter a competition for a $1000 prize at the Casuarina Shopping Centre in Darwin. Of course, she won! She beautifully describes her parents ‘quiet proudness’.

From here she was invited to perform in Sydney at The Basement, her parents doing everything in her power to get her there. As part of this memory, she sings the beautiful “How do I live?” and we are transported with her to this time at 13 years old.

From here we travel with Jessica to Tamworth where she competed in the ‘Road to Tamworth’ competition. She narrates an intimate story of her family’s attempt to find accommodation there and with gentle humour and love we understand how far her parents went to buoy her and make her dreams a reality. She of course won again and gained a recording contract with Sony.

Her next song “Girls just want to have fun” leads us to her first auditions for Australian Idol where she sang the stunning Whitney Houston hit “I Have Nothing”. Marcia Hines said she was one of the most naturally blessed singers she had ever come across. This song raised the roof in Her Majesty’s Theatre- what a voice!

Jessica didn’t win Idol, coming in second to Damian Leith, but her career skyrocketed anyway. She learned a lot about herself in this process, particularly how to advocate for herself and take criticism. She jokes with us about being able to take it from Kyle Sandilands because she ‘had siblings’!!

A crowd favourite that had everyone clapping and singing was “Together again”. Her words inspired and showed us her determination to believe in herself and how much she appreciates those who have supported her- her community and family.

Jessica’s storytelling in the latter part of the show is punctuated by stunning songs from her albums. A particularly brilliant performance was her hit single “Burn” and the gorgeous “Been Waiting” and “Butterfly” also thrilled the crowd. We were privileged with so many beautiful, powerful songs it is difficult to highlight all.

We then share in her stories of being in The Sapphires movie. where she exclaims she was ‘an actor’ (to her surprise). Her humility is real. We hear some songs from the movie belted out with class. My favourite was “Can’t help myself”. She talks of this as being one of her proudest moments- representing ‘mob’ on stage.

She then talks of her experience in placing Australia on the global stage in the Eurovision Song contest with pride, reaching the Grand Final with the stunning “We Got Love”, performed with joy for us.

A change came over Jessica after Eurovision. She decided she was losing purpose and wanted to go back to her roots. Separating herself from her label, she released the album Hilda (after her middle name). She was creating music SHE wanted to under her own terms, no longer taking ‘sh?#’ from anyone. My personal favourite of the night is from this album “Little Things” - superb!

This evening was an incredible journey and we felt included and loved by this humble, positive role model of a woman. Her comment that, the most important things in life are family, being kind, thoughtful and empathic resonated with us all. As a new mum she dedicated the poignant song “Quite like you” to all of the parents and caregivers in the audience - ‘lump in the throat’ stuff.

One of her final songs was a recent one “Give you love”, which spontaneously caused some in the audience to approach her at the edge of the stage and present her with flowers and receive a real hug from a beautiful soul.

The encore song of the evening was the joyful, belty “Inescapable” - the audience on their feet lapping up every second.

This was a stunning night of cabaret that went nearly 45 minutes longer than the advertised time - and thank goodness it did! In Jessica’s own words “I could go on all night”, and we wished she did.

The epitome of humility and passion is Jessica Mauboy!

Shelley Hampton

Photographer: Naomi Jellicoe