DAMI IM TO PLAY GOLD COAST CONCERT DURING 2018 COMMONWEALTH GAMES
DAMI Im had no idea the Gold Coast was home to a Vegas-style showroom — until she was booked for a headline live show in it.
Coast audiences will be there first to hear Im and her full band show off songs from her upcoming fourth album, I Hear A Song, live in concert when she plays The Star Gold Coast on April 5.
“I didn’t know. It’s the first time I’ve seen it. It’s impressive,” Im said when she stepped inside The Star’s theater for the first time this week.
“It will be a showcase of who I am as an artist,” Im said of her Coast show.
“I’ll be playing the piano, there will be a lot of ups and downs — real quiet moments as well as up-tempo ones.
“It’s really a showcase of songs from the new album before I go on an Australian tour as well as some of my old hits and party numbers to get people up and dancing.”
Im said fans could look forward to a more stripped-back, soulful sound on the new album, recorded in Nashville.
Available for pre-order today, I Hear A Song features 12 songs made famous by artists including Nina Simone, Ella Fitzgerald and Aretha Franklin and two original songs.
“I’ve been on such a journey since X Factor, trying to discover a sound that represents me as a person and an artist,” she said.
“With this album, I’m hoping to do that.”
Im will carry the Queen’s Baton through the streets of her hometown along the relay’s 3.5km Daisy Hill route on one of its last legs on Easter Sunday.
Her Coast show is the day after the Opening Ceremony of the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games but if Im is on the Coast that week to take part, she’s not saying.
“I can’t reveal anything as yet but I’ve performed for the medal reveal in the ballroom here,” she said.
“And I’m, carrying the baton in Daisy Hill. It’s only 200m so I’m trying to de-train myself to go slower because it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity and I want to milk it.”
Im graduated from Griffith Uni with a music degree and masters and was teaching to support her work as an aspiring vocalist before X Factor catapulted her to stardom in 2013.
Since winning the reality TV series, Im has become a household name, placing second at Eurovision in 2016.
Her Eurovision dress, by Sydney designer Steven Khalil, is now on display in prime position in the new Australian Music Vault in Melbourne alongside costumes made famous by Tina Arena, Kylie Minogue, Angus Young, Neil Finn, Judith Durham and Olivia Newton-John.
“I always hoped it would be displayed somewhere rather than being hidden away in my house,” she said.
Im has performed the national anthem at every event you can think of during the past few years.
So can we look forward to hearing a new rendition from her at the Games?
SOURCE: Suzanne Simonot, Gold Coast Bulletin, February 16, 2018
