Emma Donovan knocked ‘em for six at Bar Badu one night in September at the official artist club for the much praised Festival of the Dreaming.
Her a’ cappella version of Bart Willoughby’s Aboriginal Women’ together with her country version of ‘Island Home’ had all 600 of the who’s who of Indigenous arts screaming ‘MORE, MORE, MORE.’
And sitting up proud right in the middle is Mum Agnes.
So how did Emma Donovan like all this black attention?
“It was really good,’ she laughs.
Together with her uncles Merv and Michael Donovan they make up an act which you should really lock out for.
Emma is the bright young thing on the country scene and she’s planning to boot scoot her way to the very top, maybe 1998 will be the year. Here’s hoping.
So where does ever young (and the not so young), talented and aspiring country superstar head off to in January?
Tamworth of course. And that is just where 16 year old Emma is going. She will do the rounds of talent shows and public performances, mixing with other country singers.
She will get as many gigs as humanly possible in a very short period of time.
Deadly Vibe caught up with Emma Donovan earlier this year.
Deadly Vibe: How did you get into singing?
“Well I started off with my mother, she was a singer and her parents were singers too. It’s always been in the family getting the guitars out. At about the age of five or six I started singing. It’s something a lot of Koori fellas can relate to, just sitting around and singing.
Deadly Vibe: What sort of music do you sing?
Well I started out on the country stuff and I’ll always love it. But I also I’m also doing the funky stuff too. I love Christine Anu’s music, Brandy and TLC a lot of R’n B as well as some pop. But when I go back home it’s always ‘sing a Loretta Lynn song’.”
Deadly Vibe: What instruments do you play?
At Eora (Aboriginal arts school in Sydney) I’m learning the guitar but really I’d like to play all instruments. If I ever made a CD, I’d like to do all of it like Babyface does. It’s unreal, that on his albums he’s playing everything.
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