Q FM Africa's Modern Radio
“I’ve already been looking up a lot of the contestants and seeing who I’m competing against,” Jessica Mauboy conspiratorially admits.
The effusive Australian sensation is the first to agree she’s a touch competitive and she’s going into Eurovision with her characteristic energy and determination.
Her name may still be relatively unknown in the UK, but in Australia she’s kind of a big deal.
The 28-year-old has been referred to as “Australia’s answer to Beyonce” – and she even supported the superstar on her I Am.. world tour.
The pop princess burst onto the scene in 2006, when she sang a sweet, soulful a cappella rendition of Whitney’s I Have Nothing at an audition in the outback for the fourth series of Australian Idol.
After coming runner-up in the series, she had a brief stint in a girl group, before going solo. Her debut album went on to become Australia’s second highest-selling album of 2009.
Two more albums, a few collaborations with the likes of Flo Rida and Jay Sean and a string of top 10 hits then ensued for the clean cut, girl-next-door with the mega-watt smile.
In between records, she’s had the honour of serenading Barack Obama, appearing on Oprah Winfrey and performing at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games closing ceremony, to mark the official handover to the Gold Coast.
Oh, and she sang as a guest performer at Eurovision in 2014, helping to convince the organisers to give Australia permanent entry to the contest.
Not content with a simple singing career, Mauboy has also ventured into acting. In 2013, she won an AACTA award (the Australian equivalent to the Baftas) for best supporting actress for her role in film The Sapphires.
She also starred as the main character in TV series, The Secret Daughter, in a role that was written especially for her.
Sneaking out of bed
So, with such an illustrious career, why did she decide to enter the Eurovision song contest?
Speaking to Mauboy, she has nothing but love and praise for Eurovision. It turns out the kitsch singing contest has something of a cult following over in Oz.
“We have a lot of love for it,” she tells me. “In our country, we get a lot of people from all over the world staying and living there, so initially it was broadcast to embrace the multicultural place we live in. For the people who moved away from Australia, it helped them feel like a part of home.”
The singer admits to sneaking out of bed as a seven-year-old to watch the show: “I remember pleading with my dad to let me stay up and watch it. He said ‘OK, but we’ll have to wait until your mum goes to sleep and then we can watch it.’
“So, I snuck out of bed and watched it – I remember the glitter and the glamour of the whole thing. It was Gina G competing that year and I still remember that song.”
We ALL remember that song from the UK’s 1996 entrant.
Ooh Aah… Just A Little Bit is one of only a handful of Eurovision songs to make it to number one in the UK singles chart – and the last one to do so.
Jessica says she hadn’t realised until later that Gina G was a fellow northern Australian: “I didn’t know at the time, but I remember looking up later and finding out that she was from Queensland. I was like whaaaat – this is incredible!!
“Watching her and the other competitors taught me a lot about myself: that there are lots of different types of people and that it’s OK to be who you are.”
BBC