Vanessa Amorosi Talks New Music, 2023 AWMA and ‘Amazing’ Journey With Vicki Gordon
When Vanessa Amorosi touches down for the 2023 Australian Women In Music Awards (AWMA) later this month, the occasion will mark a very special type of homecoming.
The powerhouse Australian singer has a decades-long connection with AWMA founding executive producer and program director Vicki Gordon, dating back to the very start.
It was Gordon who signed Amorosi to Transistor Music, the independent record label that launched the kid with the kick-arse voice right up there in the stars.
In those intoxicating early days, Amorosi enjoyed a global hit with her signature song from 1999, “Absolutely Everybody,” an enduring dancefloor filler which became a major hit at home and across Europe.
In the U.K., the single crashed the top 10, peaking at No. 7 on Official U.K. Singles Chart.
Its parent album, The Power, powered its way to No. 4 on the ARIA Chart. Just months later, while still a teen, Amorosi performed her hit on stage at the 2000 Sydney Olympics closing ceremony.
“It was amazing. We tackled Australia and we did really well together,” Amorosi recounts in a chat with The Music Network from Los Angeles, her home for the past 13 years. “So it’s kind of nice to get back and see all the old team and relive those moments. And yeah, it’s a big journey.”
Vicki Gordon
Amorosi worked alongside an “all-girl” team back in the day, she remembers. Today, her support cast, including management, record label, booking agent and branding agencies, is entirely run by women.
Gordon was a constant through “all through my success when I first started,” she continues, and those memories are “nothing but influential and hardworking.”
Amorosi will lend her voice to the Australian Women in Music Awards and Conference Program, for an intimate “In Conversation” during the daytime sessions, set for Sept. 26-27 in Meanjin/Brisbane, capped by a performance on the final night at the AWMA Awards at The Tivoli.
The return home is sweetly timed for the 41-year-old artist, whose eighth and latest studio album, Memphis Love, is set to drop Nov. 17 through Dave Stewart’s Bay Street Records.
The first track off it, “Wolf,” arrived last Friday (Sept. 1) baring its teeth.
“Wolf” is a bluesy, sassy co-write with Stewart, the polymathic Eurythmics co-founder.
The Rock And Roll Hall of Famer co-produced the LP with Amorosi in Memphis, Tennessee, and features gospel feels delivered by the Tennessee Mass Choir.
“I constantly learn from him. He is fearless,” she tells TMN.
With Stewart, “there are no rules to music. And, and he is super-intellectual. It’s not just about music and art. He understands technology. And he’s always looking for ways for artists to be able to generate income to make more art.”
Australian concert dates follow in October, with Amorosi booked for the Grapevine Gathering run through October.
Can we expect to see a performance of “Wolf” at the AWMAs? “I have something special in mind,” she says with a smile.
The awards ceremony and concert will be broadcast nationally on ABC TV and streamed on ABC iView from Friday, Sept. 29.
Other performers on the night include Sarah McLeod, Vika & Linda, Beccy Cole, Dami Im, Hot Brown Honey, Samira El Koussa, Candice Bankovacki and Véronique Serret.
Highlighting the enormous contribution of Australian women in the music industry, the 2023 AWMA awards and conference is supported by the Queensland Government, with extensive support from industry and community partners.
The full conference schedule is available here. Finalists for the awards are here. Visit Oztix for tickets.