Jessica Mauboy, 2018

Jessica Mauboy (b. 1989), Darwin-born singer, songwriter, and actor is a descendant of the KuKu Yalanji nation of Far North Queensland. As a girl, she sang with her mother and father and in a church choir with her grandmother. At the age of fourteen she won a singing competition at the Tamworth Country Music Festival. Two years later, in 2006, she captured national attention as the runner-up on the television program Australian Idol. Having signed to Sony Music Australia, she has so far achieved music sales over 2.8 million units, five top 10 albums, fifteen top 20 singles, four ARIA-accredited platinum selling albums and two ARIA Music Awards. Globally, her songs have been streamed more than 185 million times and her videos have been viewed more than 45 million times. She made her film debut in the Australian film musical Bran Nue Dae (2009); for The Sapphires (2012) she received the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Award and the Australian Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress. In 2016, Mauboy became the first Indigenous woman to achieve three consecutive weeks at number one for her album The Secret Daughter: Songs from the Original TV Series. In 2014, she became the first non-European solo artist to perform at the Eurovision Song Contest in Denmark. Frequently characterised as a role model for young Australian women, in 2015 she became an ambassador for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation and in 2018 she was named an Australian tourism ambassador.

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Commissioned with funds provided by Sony Music Entertainment Australia 2018
© David Rosetzky