Seventeen years after Darwin-born Jessica Mauboy auditioned and won Australian Idol, Amy Reeves is following in her footsteps.
The singer from Broome in Western Australia sees lots of parallels between herself and the ARIA winner, with both coming from regional towns and auditioning for the Channel 7 singing show.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Amy Reeves performs on Australian Idol.
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After meeting Mauboy in person last week, the cherry on top was performing the star’s hit song Can I Get A Moment during the Top 10 performances.
And it sent her straight through to the Top 8.
Like Mauboy, Reeves was a favourite of the judges, Kyle Sandilands, Marcia Hines and Amy Shark, from her audition, with Sandilands telling her at the time that he would be “shocked to my core if you are not in the top five”.
Reeves, 25, tells 7NEWS.com.au she was singing before she was speaking, always having had music as part of her life.
“I first performed at age four on stage and it just came to me naturally,” she says.
After a stint on The Voice in 2018, Reeves had no intention of auditioning for Idol — until she learned that Hines would be one of the judges.
It turns out Reeves met Hines when she was 10 years old, backstage at the production of Hair, a stage musical in which Hines was starring at the time.
“My dad worked as a lighting guy of Hair and we met at a reunion in Sydney when I was 10 years old,” she says.
“It was insane.”
That connection brought her to the audition, performing Aretha Franklin’s (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman.
Her rendition was met with silence from the stunned judges after she finished the final lyric.
“I was s****** myself,” Reeves recalls.
“They were not saying anything, and I thought to myself that I’d either nailed it or cooked it.
“I blacked out and forgot the actual performance.”
However, with her natural talent and support from the three judges, Reeves has ridden the Idol wave all the way to the top 8.
“I was initially very scared of Kyle, but he has been nothing but kind to me,” she laughs of Sandilands.
“He has opinions sometimes but all three of them have been such bags of wisdom.
“I feel really championed, every performance I get something back.”
Reeves says the major piece of advice from the judges has been to hold onto her humility.
In the past week, after securing her top 8 spot, she said it was the “first time I walked away thinking I’m genuinely happy about how I went”.
“It felt really strange and beautiful,” she says.
The singer has been a longtime fan of Mauboy, saying they come from similar backgrounds.
“We are both from rural towns with big community spirits,” she says.
“There are lots of parallels.”
Australian Idol Top 8
- Drea
- Isaac
- Dylan
- Ivana
- Amy
- Trent
- Denver
- Kiani
Australian Idol returns Sunday night at 7pm on Channel 7 and 7plus.
