Jessica Mauboy

Jessica Mauboy was runner-up in Australian Idol 2007. As often happens, she wound up with more of a career than the actual winner.

“They love country. My first tastings of music was country, so you know like Patsy Cline. I was very American-influenced, so a lot of Alan Jackson, Shania Twain, all that kind of stuff. I grew up listening to a lot of storytelling from my grandparents and a lot of the Aboriginal side, my mum, nanna and grandad. That’s kind of been my upbringing, listening to a lot of music. But I have a 29-year-old sister who got me into the all the 2pac, ghetto gangsta stuff and then you’ve got my little sister listening to pop and the new techno stuff, so it’s a range of things that I’m listening to.”

Do your parents listen to your music?

“Oh yeah, they’re the first ones to hear my music and I always go to them first with ideas to tell me if it’s good or not, which is great because they never lie to me.”

And if they don’t like it, it must be easier to hear that from them.

“They’re very honest, so I’m used to them saying, ‘No, that sucks.’”