Happy birthday Jess!
Jess brings party to NT
THE Territory’s pride and joy Jessica Mauboy arrived in Darwin this week, in time to celebrate her 30th birthday today.
It’s the first time the singer has come home since last Christmas and she intends to enjoy the sun, sand and saltwater with family and boyfriend Themeli Magripilis.
“I’m looking forward to going out bush a bit, looking forward to going for a fish and crabbing a few days around my birthday,” she said.
Mauboy planned to celebrate her birthday with a backyard bash.
“Dad will go to the farm and get one of the pigs and clean it up and put it on the spit,” she laughed. “I’m looking forward to aunties and uncles bringing their traditional culture dishes, just everyone getting involved and being in each other’s company and everyone playing the DJ.”
Mauboy is also in town for the National Indigenous Music Awards this Saturday, in which she’s nominated for Artist of the Year.
“I’ve missed a few of the awards previously so this is quite honouring for me,” she said. “In a way I grew up with the awards.
“It’s so nice to be able to come back, have that breather, head back home, see family, see community and have such talented people in one space.
“I’m looking forward to connecting, seeing all the wonderful music being played.”
Turning 30 isn’t Mauboy’s only milestone this year.
In October she will release her fourth studio album, Hilda, which she’s crafted for the last six years.
Mauboy said the album, named after her late grandmother Hilda Mills, was born from the family’s fond memories of the matriarch.
“(It was) purely an honest, authentic kind of emotional experience … I was purely storytelling in the way that (I was) kind of discovering myself,” she said.
“This record is dedicated to Nanna, who was a strong woman who I never got to meet but also holding those memories that my mum remembers and uncles and aunties around, other nannas and grandparents who remember Nanna, who are passing down those stories.
“I’ve really been able to take them and infuse that into this record and be able to be the woman I am today.”