With 11 platinum and 8 gold albums,15 Top 40 singles, 4 ARIA Awards from 19 nominations and over 8,000 live performances, Kate Ceberano is one of the most celebrated Australian artists of all time.
Within the last month, Kate Ceberano has brought us together for celebrations of humanity.
She raised money singing her hits with the Channel Seven team for the Good Friday Appeal contributing to the record-breaking $23,061,320 donation to The Royal Children’s Hospital cause.
Days prior she highlighted the life and voice of fellow jazz juggernaut and friend, the late Renée Geyer, during her public memorial service, closing out a star-studded event of performances from Paul Kelly, Marcia Hines, Russell Morris, Daryl Braithwaite, Ross Wilson and Deborah Conway.
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It’s what Kate Ceberano does – a constant presence that unites the nation through the power of music and her big effervescent smile.
The loss of friends in the industry and retrospective career reflections have been prominent over the last two years. In addition to the shock departure of Geyer, Ceberano and the nation said goodbye to Australian music and acting darling, Olivia Newton-John.
“I lost a lot of friends during Covid and I continue to lose them,” Ceberano candidly explains.
“These are women that shaped who I am. You know, Marcia Hines who is still with us, Chrissy Amphlett, Renée and Olivia Newton-John; these were the women of my era. Each of them were so profoundly different from each other which was beautiful.
“The fact that at the time the way of the artists was built entirely on a place of independence and originality, there was no sense that anyone would ever dream of trying to be anyone else. You just wanted to be you. It was the screaming kind of revolution of you.
“And these women went out there and crusaded for the rights of all women to be themselves, be their own voices, and control their own minds and independent thoughts. They were a revolution, and long may they reign.”
These life celebrations and career reflections run parallel to her own story, circulating the industry at the same time and being a strong, empowering female front. It comes at a time when Ceberano was deep diving into her own career catalogue to form her 30th album.
The ruby-anniversary album, My Life Is A Symphony, sees Ceberano rework and re-imagine her classic hits and most personal pieces with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.
The album, which was originally intended for a 2020 release, was mixed by Grammy-nominated Justin Stanley and Lachlan Carrick, and produced by Stanley and Roscoe James Irwin. Irwin also wrote the MSO arrangements and orchestrations. The time machine experience took her back to the place where it all began.
“One of the most moving experiences was being in the studio and singing and recording ‘Brave’. We went back into the studio where I recorded it 30 years ago and my daughter was singing backing for the new version. It was like what the fuck! Recording these songs as a teenager never planning or imagining being a mother or what it would look like, and there you are with your one child, in this space as a full-grown woman – OH MY GOD! Never thought it would happen.”
Accompanying the My Life Is A Symphony release, Ceberano will be embarking on a national tour. With the first round of shows selling out, Ceberano has added a round of additional dates adding to her 4000 live performances throughout her illustrious career – an average of 200 shows performed per year since her 1983 global genesis.
“It’s that amount of hours that makes someone comfortable to be in the driver’s seat of whatever their career or craft is like in business or on the stage,” Ceberano explains.
She continues, “The stage has been very familiar to me since I was a child. I can probably count many different parts of me that would not be as comfortable in other environments but being on a stage, it’s like I come alive. I feel the stage, I feel confident on the stage but I also feel like I can take people on some kind of Magical Mystery Tour and consequently when I get on stage my whole body wakes up and I ease into that space. I feel like I’m engineered for it.”
No time to think about purchasing tickets. The second Melbourne show on Thursday 28 September 2023 at Melbourne Town Hall is selling fast with My Life Is A Symphony arriving for a 12 May release!
These performances are certain to be a stunning live reflection of Ceberano’s rise to the pinnacles of rock, pop, soul and jazz. This new album release and accompanying tour brings Kate Ceberano back to her essence as a musical force, an electrifying live performer and one of the greatest voices of her generation.
Tickets are via the MSO website.
