‘The first and the last time I’ll ever do this show’: Jessica Mauboy opens up for Cabaret Festival
Jessica Mauboy was just 16 years old when Australian Idol thrust her into the national spotlight. Nearly two decades later, the pop star and actor will look back on her childhood, career and life as a first-time mum in a one-night-only show at Adelaide Cabaret Festival.
2025 is shaping up to be a year of new frontiers for Jessica Mauboy. The 35-year-old’s passion for music is as strong as ever, but the last few months have seen her tune in to a different kind of sound: her first child, Mia, born in January.
“I got to hear her dreaming the other night, she was dreaming and giggling,” Mauboy tells InReview. “It was the early hours of the morning, and I got up and was just looking at her. I should have been sleeping but I was witnessing her laugh for the first time.
“I toured last year and all through my pregnancy she was bouncing around in the belly. Now, she is so little and peaceful and loves eating and sleeping.”
As she navigates on this new stage of life, Mauboy is also preparing to look back with her new show, The Story of Me – A Musical Journey Through My Career, set to premiere at Adelaide Cabaret Festival on June 14.
It’s Mauboy’s first time at the festival, and she hopes the cabaret format will allow audiences to peer behind the façade of fame and get to know the real her.
“Bringing the show and naming it The Story of Me, I just wanted to bring something that was quite raw, very ‘storytelling’, but really thread[ed] with music that particularly inspired me,” Mauboy explains.
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She says creating the show has been an “emotional, overwhelming and exciting” experience.
“One of the many levels of getting to know music was through choir, and I learnt about collaborating with different personalities and how to harmonise and sing different songs,” she says of her early choir days, which exposed her to jazz and even opera influences.
“So, I wanted to infuse stages like that throughout my life, and my experiences and relationship with music, into this show.”
Mauboy says her new show is “raw” and “emotional”. Photo: Jason Henley / Supplied
Mauboy grew up in Darwin, before first finding fame as the runner-up on season four of Australian Idol in 2006. She says The Story of Me will be more intimate than her usual concerts, with a smaller band and more storytelling, along with visuals from her past including raw footage from Mauboy’s childhood.
“Being filmed so young, I look back and see how passionate I look in these home videos, so [in the show] I’m going way back to the beginning and then I’ll have a present moment, and look back, being grateful to all the people and applauding the amazing people who have supported me in my life, and kind of gift back to them,” she says.
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Mauboy cites her first music teacher Judy Weepers, known to her as “Mamma Judy”, as one of her most important musical influences.
“Mamma Judy was the first person who gave me a backing tape and sourced a lot of music to go out and experience and learn how to perform in front of people,” Mauboy says. “So, I guess it’s these two worlds, of how it really started and how that affected me to go into the world and communicate and form a relationship, to create music with other people.”
Post-Australian Idol, Mauboy joined the supergroup Young Divas in 2007 before releasing her debut studio album Been Waiting in 2008. It included her number-one hit Burn, became the second-highest selling Australian album of 2009, and earned Mauboy three ARIA nominations. Her second album Get ‘Em Girls (2010) produced four platinum singles and her third, Beautiful in 2013, included top-10 hits Pop a Bottle (Fill Me Up), Never Be The Same and Can I Get a Moment. She also found time for the big screen, starring in two home-grown musicals, Bran Nue Dae in 2009 and The Sapphires in 2012.
The Story of Me will include insights into Mauboy’s ups and downs in the music business, from those early Idol days to leaving her long-time record label to take creative control.
“I want to bring a bit of theatre and drama to the songs,” she says of the setlist, which will include her own hits alongside influential favourites from ABBA, Charlie Pride and The Bee Gees. “So, for example you might hear Pop A Bottle but I might break it down and bring a bit of jazz to it, and bring that drama to it.”
Mauboy says she jumped at the opportunity to perform at the festival, and particularly at the iconic Her Majesty’s Theatre, even if it meant juggling the demands of rehearsals with first-time motherhood.
“I haven’t performed since last year, and I really love her Majesty’s Theatre, I really love the space, and I wanted to really bring something that was heartfelt… this is probably the first and the last time I’ll ever do this show,” she says.
Following her cabaret retrospective Mauboy plans to look to the future with new music inspired in part by her experience of motherhood.
“Having Mia has definitely inspired me,” she says. “I’m currently writing a whole new record now, you know, I’ve just been in my home studio kind of gathering different little things here and there that come up. But I’m sure motherhood will definitely continue to inspire me… I’m just in awe that I’ve got to experience it.”
Like the rest of Mauboy’s story to date, there will probably be plenty of singing.
“When Mia is talking, making noises, I hear quite a deep tone in her voice and I feel like maybe, if she wanted to go down that path I’d support her. She’s a potential vocalist already for sure.”
The Story of Me – A Musical Journey Through My Career premieres at Her Majesty’s Theatre on Saturday June 14