Dami Im is a child of music.
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Her mother, a trained opera singer, met Im’s father in a “recreational research” club at their Korean university, a sort of glee community whose mission was to spread a love of singing.
It is her parents the 28-year-old Eurovision runner-up has to thank for introducing her to The Carpenters, the brother-sister duo to whom Im’s Bendigo show on Friday is dedicated.
The central Victorian date, the 29th in a national tour that began in July, follows Im’s release of tribute album Classic Carpenters.
But even though she became familiar with hits like Close to You and We’ve Only Just Begun on car rides with her family, she did not know to whom the songs belonged until well into adulthood.
“A lot of people, they don't think they know the songs until they hear them,” she said.
“But beautiful, well-written songs always do the job.”
Her first public performance of The Carpenters’ songbook was not the stuff of a national tour: their hits formed part of the setlist a young Im sung from behind an upright piano in a Brisbane Chinese restaurant.
“There was a lot of great, sizzling beef smell coming to me, making me super hungry,” Im said.
“After the gig, I'd just pig out.”
It is these sorts of low-key dates Im said all singing show contestants had done, even if television audiences thought they were being discovered for the first time.
Years of playing classical piano and singing in churches preceded her victory on The X Factor in 2013.
She still calls the win a surprise, saying many had written off her chances because of her Korean background.
But her victory began a run of multicultural The X Factor victors.
Fifteen-year-old Marlisa Punzalan, whose parents were from the Philippines, took the title in 2014, and half-Filipino Cyrus Villanueva won the following season of the show.
In 2016, indigenous Echuca teen Isaiah Firebrace is the bookies’ favourite to win.
The same goes for the Eurovision Song Contest. Before Im’s second place performance in 2015, Australia sent Indonesian-Indigenous Australian artist Jessica Mauboy and Sri Lankan-Malay Australian Guy Sebastian to compete for their country.
“It shows you that people in Australia aren't as racist as sometimes the world paints us to be,” she said.
“There's people that will vote for you and support you for talent, and other things, and not be prejudiced by the colour of your skin.”
Im was excited by Australia’s inclusion in next year’s edition of Eurovision, but believed Australia would have to send something “really different” to take top prize.
She said a male artist, or a duo, would be a departure from her power ballad Sound of Silence, with a choice like sister act The Veronicas making the most sense.
“It’s 46 acts, performing back to back, so to do well it's got to stand out,” Im said.
“You can't always pinpoint what that will be but it has to penetrate through the performance, whether it be your vocals or something super quirky.”
The Superlove singer won over a new fan base after her performance in Stockholm, some of whom even travelled from as far away as Spain, France and America to see her tour Down Under.
“I was blown away by that dedication,” she said.
“I still feel the love that's coming from there.”
Dami Im’s performance at the Capital Theatre on Friday is sold out. Her new single, Fighting for Love, is out now.