Jess’s nerves were palpable, as she was ushered down an unknown corridor and up to the stage, where the lights were waiting for her.
“Oh. It’s just like The Voice,” she thought, dazed, right before she was staring Leo Sayer down over her microphone.
Afterwards, while caught in the backstage huddle over phone screens – trying to hear the livestream with the rest of listeners at home – she almost missed the last contestant leaving the stage, and the words that came after only seconds of deliberation: ‘And the winner is …’
“It didn’t feel real,” said Jess. “They called my name, and I was like ‘What? No. What?’”
This was a huge and much-needed win.
Growing up, music was an important part of her household. Two musician parents pushed each of their daughters to be trained vocalists and pianists. Jess fell in love at a young age.
“There’s a tape of me somewhere, I must have been eight or nine, a video message for Marcia Hines,” her eyes smiled at the memory. “I was like, ‘I know I’m not old enough for Australian Idol yet, but if you can just listen to my song and tell me what you think?’ It’s still in house, somewhere …”
Few would understand how music was a family affair for Jess. In 2007, her entire family would star in a professional production of High School Musical.
“My mum played Ms Darbus, my dad played Coach Bolton, and I was Kelsey, with my two sisters in the ensemble. All of us together, playing two weeks of shows in a giant circus tent in Woden Park.
“It was one of the weirdest but also most amazing experiences of my life. Probably the closest thing to a professional production that I’ve been in, and I was 12,” she laughed.
Jess would go on to obtain her Advanced Diploma in Music Performance from CIT, and her Undergrad in Music from ANU. She was handpicked to compose music for the 2020 Australian of the Year Award ceremony and was able to watch the nominees grace the stage to her music.
Her father couldn’t have been prouder. “Music was a really big passion of his. I think he was always glad that I decided to go down this path too.”
Unfortunately, just as Jess’ talent was starting to be recognised, her life was thrown off-key by a devastating decline in her father’s health.
“My dad, he’d been unwell for a long time, but the last eight years were particularly bad.
“It’s been a rough several years. Hard to get my feet grounded for any length of time. Things will kind of start to happen, then my personal life would be derailed, and my music went on the back burner.
“I’m 26 now. It feels like it’s been that way for a long time.”
She began vocal coaching in 2016, teaching music to children as she searched for her own rhythm.
Her father passed away in March.
“He’d been so unwell … so we all spent a lot of time at the hospital. The staff there were amazing, really supportive.”
When she heard about a competition raising money for the Canberra Hospital Foundation, Jess saw an opportunity close to her heart and her family’s.
She sang a self-composed pop ballad, Holes in the canvas, with lyrics drawn from a poem her partner wrote 10 years ago.
“It’s set in the snow, and this person who has lost someone is trying to find meaning in their own life, trying to just get back to normal. The stages that you go through when you’re grieving,” she smiled, misty-eyed.
“The holes in the canvas are them walking in the snow, writing messages and hoping they’ll see them from heaven.”
The judges were in awe of her powerful voice, and raw emotion.
Her main prize, a spot in 2022’s Canberra Hospital Foundation concert, will be a first for Jess. Despite having sung at cafés, pubs, bars, and even one time at the Governor-General’s house, “this will be my first spot in a line-up that I got on my own”.
The $2,000 cash prize will go towards recording her first EP, with a bit saved for fixing up her old keyboard.
Finally, she will be moving forward under Leo Sayer’s mentorship.
She imagines what her dad would think of getting her rhythm back. “It sucks, so much, that he isn’t here, but I think he would be very proud.
“I’m hopeful that this is a turning stone, for the last however many years.”
Her message to others on a shared path is to keep going. “If it makes you happy, keep going. It doesn’t matter if your music isn’t technically perfect, if you feel what you’re performing. Someone wants to listen, someone wants to hear.”
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