Subjected to hate comments, cyber bullying and hurtful private messages across social media platforms, local singer Kirrah Amosa has channelled the experience into new material.
Dropped on Friday 5 July, Nothing On Me is Amosa’s “thank-you to the people that stuck by me through the whole process”.
That “whole process” stemmed from her appearance during the blind auditions on The Voice Australia reality TV show earlier this year.
Prior to her appearance, Amosa says she was contacted by the show informing her of the audition air date and, at the time, thought it was “a bit funny” they also offered access to a psychologist. It was only after the audition aired that she realised why.
Amosa says repercussions of the show’s editing resulted in social media comments saying she was “a terrible singer”, “had a terrible attitude”, “no humility” and was “just an arrogant millennial”.
“I think it was lucky I’d just moved home to Canberra … if I was alone in Sydney I think it would’ve been a lot harder,” Amosa says. “I think I just wasn’t expecting it. Every time I was getting a message, I would read it and it would just shock me … that people would go out of their way to type in my name, write me a private message saying something hurtful because of something they thought they saw.”
This experience helped to inspire her new single Nothing On Me. Featuring an urban hip-hop vibe, the track offers a little bit of sass and a show of gratitude about the experience.
“It is just a fun way of addressing how I got through the process and it comes down to me realising … it doesn’t matter if you try to do the right thing, it doesn’t matter if you like to cause any drama or not, they are always going to come for you. People will go out of their way to twist the story or to see what they want to see to make you the person they think you are.”
Amosa says the reality TV show had contacted her the past three years to audition and she decided this year she was in “the best place mentally” to give it a go. However, she admits “I was very close to pulling out of the process the whole time actually just because it wasn’t something I felt I needed to do”.
While unsuccessful in the blind auditions, Amosa says she didn’t think she “deserved to go through” as there were people more invested in the process and that the result “was probably fair”.
Despite her experience, Amosa says reality shows can provide valuable experience, as long as you don’t invest too much of your heart.
“Invest your time and energy but not your heart because when they take the opportunity away from you, you can’t let it destroy your ambition.”
It certainly hasn’t dented Amosa’s ambition with the talented performer currently in Los Angeles, USA where she is collaborating with international artists, as well as approaching a few labels and producers to write and release some more songs.
“Over there, everything seems bigger and better and I want to be the best version that I can be.”
Amosa will be in LA for two months, except for a short sojourn back to Australia to shoot a music video and perform at the Brainstorm for a Cure fundraiser, before returning in time to perform at Sweet Dreams, a new music festival to be held at the Truffle Farm in Majura, in September.
“One of the reasons that I moved back is because Canberra is changing so much. There’s so much more culture and art and music … being celebrated here and it’s actually something I’m really excited to be a part of.”
Nothing On Me is available for free download via kirrah.com.au
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