AFTER multiple cancellations and postponements, Kate Miller-Heidke is ready to celebrate live music when her six state tour kicks off next week.
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The short Child in Reverse tour consists of 11 shows through July with Miller-Heidke arriving at Bendigo's Ulumbarra Theatre on July 14.
Along the way she is also performing in Western Australia, Tasmania, NSW, South Australia and Queensland as well as Victoria.
"I'm absolutely stoked and disbelieving that it's happening," she said. "It's going to be a celebration. I just want joy out of it.
"It's been at least seven years since I performed in Bendigo.
"I'll be playing a total mixture of things and am already taking requests on social media. So there'll be some new stuff off the record, a couple of covers and a surprise or two.
"A lot of people are requesting Kate Bush, so I might have to whip that out as well."
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While the live entertainment industry seems to be returning to normal following the worst of the coronavirus pandemic, Miller-Heidke said it might never be the same.
"It's at the early days of little green shoots," she said. "It's certainly not the same and I think will it take a while. Or maybe it will never be quite the same.
"Speaking from the perspective of an audience member, there is a lot of emotion and need for live performances.
"That connection that you get can be the cure for a lot of loneliness and despair that was felt during (the pandemic).
"It's a huge industry. I feel lucky to have survived to this point."
Miller-Heidke's latest single You Can't Hurt Me Anymore - which features Jaguar Jonze - was released in March. It was part the 2022 deluxe edition of her 2020 album Child In Reverse.
She has described the song as one of the more powerful things she has written.
"It's hard to quantify what makes a song powerful. I feel it when hear it and when I sing it," Miller-Heidke said. "It feels raw and real and empowering.
"It is about something real that happened in my childhood. This song to me is the only way I know how to make lemonade from lemons, that's why it feels empowering."
The song came out of a songwriting camp Miller-Heidke went to in Queensland.
"I wrote it just before the pandemic," she said. "It was the last day and we were all feeling fragile and frayed around the edges.
"My walls were down and I ended up vomiting out that song."
Miller-Heidke, who is a classically trained vocalist, has naturally extended her songwriting efforts and performances to the theatre during her career including being nominated for an ARIA for best classical album.
"I have always liked playing around with my voice, using it as instrument and pushing boundaries," she said.
"I feel quite lucky to have started as a more traditional pop career, doing singles and videos. At that time I felt I was turning my back on classical music, that it was a page I had turned forever.
"But I found myself lured back in and it has been savoir for me in a lot of ways. It made my creative life so interesting and varied."
Kate MIller-Heidke is at Ulumbarra Theatre in Bendigo on July 14.
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