Sync Watch: Jess Mauboy glows on Home & Away promo

Seven Network’s promo for this season’s return of Home & Away has all its hallmarks.

Messages flash on the screen.“Hot couple”. “Dangerous”. “Forbidden”. “A murderous family secret”. One character telling the other: “If we slip up we both go to jail.”

In the soundtrack, a female voice comes in: “Welcome to my future / Reality’s a rumour / Player one this is my game…”

That is of course Jessica Mauboy’s ‘Glow’, the single she released last November, and her first since she moved over to Warner Music.

The promo is not the proud Kuku Yalanji and Wakaman woman’s first association with the show.

In late 2016, the singer made her soap debut in Summer Bay, playing herself performing at a festival organised by Evie MacGuire before it is rocked by a bushfire.

That appearance, she recalled, was more about trying not to forget the words because of stage fright and coping with being in beach weather when it was actually being filmed in the middle of a freezing winter.

But the disco-influenced ‘Glow’ came from a different part of her career, a new beginning she would say.

The move to Warner saw her work with new collaborators such as George Maple and twin brothers Cosmo and Patrick Liney of Cosmos Midnight.

She described ‘Glow’ as about embracing herself and becoming the woman she wanted to be.

It was simultaneously nostalgic and futuristic.

It was nostalgic because it reminds her of her childhood, watching her mother dancing in the kitchen to Donna Summer, Diana Ross and Cher music.

These women were powerful, loud, independent thinking, and took control of their careers.

At the same time, it was futuristic because it was about no longer dimming yourself for others.

Speaking about the song, Mauboy admitted she became tired of being a ‘yes person’.

“Mentally, it was self-destructive: my body and my mind were saying, ‘Hey, you gotta really take care of yourself.’

“‘Glow’ stems from realising it’s okay to stop, zoom out and start over fresh.”

That starting point came 15 years after she first broke into the charts.

“I really wanted to capture that sense of knowing myself.

“‘Glow’ is my confidence song. It’s my reminder that I’m where I need to be, that I’m just being. And that’s okay.”

Mauboy is also appearing on Channel 7’s revived version of The Voice Australia as a judge and mentor.

Seven Network executives have predicted it will be the “biggest show in 2022”.