In some ways, Kate Ceberano is like a bridge between two musical generations.
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In her youth, she was mentored by the likes of Renee Geyer and Chrissy Amphlett..As an established star, she helped usher in the new generation of divas. Vanessa Amorosi, Vicka and Linda Bull, and then, there was Sia.
"Sia used to jump up on my stage when she was a little girl in Adelaide; her father always would text me as I was coming to town and say, is it OK if Sia comes on stage again? I'm like, yeah, of course, of course."
"When Sia became Sia years later, it didn't surprise me."
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In addition to being a protege and mentor to some of Aussie music's finest, Ceberano has also shared a stage with some of the business's biggest names in a career that has spanned more than 40 years.
She broke into the music scene in her early teens and was just 20 years old when she took to the stage with her former band I'm Talking for the inaugural Australian Made tour in 1986/87.
A precursor to future Aussie music festivals like Homebake and the Big Day Out, the show featured the likes of INXS, Jimmy Barnes, Models and Divinyls.
Ceberano will channel all of these artists and more when she hits the road for her 2025 Australian Made tour in June.
In addition to featuring the biggest hits from her own career, the show will see her performing songs by all the aforementioned names. She will also perform hits by Aussie music legends such as Paul Kelly, John Farnham, Mental As Anything, Australian Crawl, The Church, Silverchair and many more. Ceberano will also share some ripping backstage stories during the show.
The tour will see Kate drawing heavily on Aussie pub rock, a genre she previously explored on The Dangerous Age, a 2020 album she co-wrote and recorded with former vocalist and bassist of The Church Steve Kilbey.
"It [the album] was where this whole idea for Australian Made started for me. It was like, this is my story, and I want to tell my story as an Australian musician," she said.
"It's like a karaoke time machine for me. Every single part of it is so intimate to me. Every little part of it is a playlist. It's like the playlist of my memories."
Ceberano said she felt a personal connection to every artist featured on the tour's setlist, even more modern artists, for whom the parallels might seem less obvious.
"Silverchair and [frontman] Daniel [Johns]'s story, it's actually really familiar to me because [like the band] I started at 14 myself."
"[I] had to almost transcend a kind of popular understanding of me that was going to go through to my 20s and then go through to my 30s as a mother and a parent and transform into my 40s, 50s, and now, you know, I'm nearly 60. So It's actually a universal story."
When asked about her recollections of that initial Australian Made tour in the 80s, Ceberano said it was a formative tour for many reasons.
It was the first major event that allowed Aussie audiences to witness a wide spectrum of musical styles under one umbrella.
Getting the opportunity to provide a new experience for punters by performing dance music for large arena audiences was a huge honour for Ceberano and her bandmates.
She was also honoured to share the bill with a who's who of Australian music but described the atmosphere behind the scenes as "punchy, punchy" and a bit "feral".
"It was sort of like being in a rugby match in amongst the All Blacks," she said.
"You were comrades [with the other performers]. You couldn't necessarily say you were friends, because each of you were vying for your own spot on the stage."
I'm talking disbanded in late 1987 and Ceberano went on to release her debut solo album Brave in 1989. The album went triple platinum and spawned the hit single Bedroom Eyes, the highest-selling single by an Australian for the year.
Over the course of her career, Ceberano has released 30 studio albums, winning five ARIA Awards and 20 nominations.
She will perform 22 shows across mostly regional venues in NSW, the ACT, Victoria, Western Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory on the tour. She will also perform at Broken Hill's Mundi Mundi Bash from August 21-23. She will be joined on the tour by Harts and Kathleen Halloran.
Kate Ceberano's Australia Made Tour, June 6 to August 23. For more information visit www.kateceberano.com.
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