SuperstarS

In 2023, the universally revered, lavishly decorated Melbourne artist’s ruby anniversary finds her at the dawn of a new era. Her 30th album, My Life Is A Symphony, is a breathtaking celebration of her songwriting, featuring her most iconic songs, Brave and Pash, and personal favorites from across her four-decade recording career, reimagined with Kate at a new peak of command amid the grandeur of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. The album was a hit on arrival, reaching #1 on itunes, #2 on Australian ARIA chart and #6 ARIA album chart, also snaring an ARIA NOMINATION for BEST ADULT CONTEMPORARY ALBUM.

Unfolding on orchestral stages nationally, the epic musical setting is an apt reflection of an assured rise to the pinnacles of rock, pop, soul and jazz. Kate’s 11 platinum albums, 10 Top 10 singles and countless awards speak for themselves. But it's over 6000 performances on every concert, theatre and festival stage in the country and beyond that her unassailable distinction was forged. 

For those who came in late — with her record-breaking run with John Farnham in Jesus Christ Superstar circa ’92, perhaps; or her hit TV show of the mid ‘90s; her 2014 induction into the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame; or her Top 5 album of 2021, Sweet Inspiration — Kate was a force of nature from day one.

As a teen, she declined advances from UK pop stable Stock Aitken Waterman to cut her teeth instead in the rough and tumble of Melbourne's live scene. Her jazz ensemble the Hoagy Cats opened for local legend Vince Jones at the Arts Centre. Her pop outfit Expozay — “Saturday Night Fever meets the Breakfast Club,” she recalls — tore up the sticky carpet of the Chevron with Divinyls. So began a wide embrace of multiple musical genres that continues to this day.

First contact for many was Kate's magnetic cameo as a scene-stealing backing singer on the Models #1 smash Out Of Mind, Out of Sight circa 1985. By that time, she was already singing for ARIA’s Breakthrough Act of ‘86, I'm Talking, the band that “pioneered New York style art-pop during the Jurassic period of pub rock” (Cameron Adams/Herald Sun)

I'm Talking’s platinum debut, Bear Witness, brought Kate's jaw-dropping voice and irrepressible charisma to national attention via their three top 10 singles Trust Me, Do You Want To Be? and Holy Word. It led to stages as historic as Live Aid and Australian Made alongside INXS, Jimmy Barnes, Divinyls and the Saints. Today it’s enshrined among Rolling Stone's Top 200 Australian Albums of all time.

I'm Talking took Kate on the road, including her first 36-date tour of the UK. Her showstopping cover of Rose Royce’s Love Don't Live Here Anymore was early warning of another string to her bow: an interpreter of exceptional taste and skill. 

“I'm Talking inspired a generation of electronic artists and DJs who would make their mark in the ‘90s and beyond,” wrote the authors of The 100 Best Australian Albums in 2010. Meanwhile, Kate’s first Countdown Award for Most Popular Female Performer foreshadowed her inevitable shift to the centre spotlight.

Her first move was prescient. Recorded live, Kate Ceberano and Her Septet presaged the cool jazz crossover of the early ‘90s to sell platinum in 1987. You’ve Always Got the Blues, made with Wendy Matthews for the ABC TV series Stringer, was another hit, marking Kate’s third platinum award and her first ARIA (from 9 nominations) for Best Female Artist.

Brave, her debut solo pop album, was a landmark. A skilled consolidation of her journey through dance, pop and soul, it sold triple platinum to become one of THE smash albums of 1989. Bedroom Eyes was the highest selling Australian single of the year, one of five from the album including Kate’s first charting singles as a songwriter, That’s What I Call Love and the title hit Brave.

As if to reassert her mercurial nature, she followed Brave with a second jazz album, Like Now. In 1990, four MO Awards and two ARIAs — her second for Best Female Artist — sealed her status as a true cross-genre sensation. From Sanctuary Cove with Frank Sinatra, Whitney Houston and Peter Allen to the World Music Awards in Monaco with Prince, Sting and Grace Jones, the world would become her stage.

Nothing, however, had predicted the bona fide phenomenon of Jesus Christ Superstar. Kate’s starring role as Mary Magdalene opposite John Farnham elevated her to our highest echelon of musical performers. “Kate liquified the house,” fellow icon Paul Kelly recalls. The show played a staggering 80 arenas. The ARIA-winning cast album was our biggest-seller of 1992, sitting at #1 for 10 weeks.