Camille waves wand as the Wizardess of Oz
Aidan Gillen will be pleased. Camille O’Sullivan jets in first class from Australia this morning. She would be entitled to enjoy a few glasses of Champagne on the long flight home. This is because her shows Down Under were nothing short of a triumph, both commercially and creatively. The half-French, half-Irish uber-chanteuse stormed the Sydney festival last week with sold-out shows and standing ovations to match.
“It is my sixth time to play the festival. People said they were blown away by the performances and the incredibly emotional shows. People travelled from Melbourne-Canberra to catch the gigs, and they all want me to make them my cat suit!” Camille told me from Sydney, referring to the DIY blue ensemble she wore at the Sunday Independent Living magazine Christmas party in the InterContinental hotel last month. Camille added, that she always “thought I was related to the Australians after watching The Sullivans growing up”. The Wizardess of Oz said that she “loves everything about the Australians — sun, swimming in sea, kangaroos, eating pies, watching footy, flat whites, barbies at the beach, fusion food, infectious people”.
And why do Australians reciprocate Camille’s love? “They love the madness, passion, theatricality, emotion and vulnerability,” said Camille, who is known as Queen of the festival in Edinburgh — and now Sydney is echoing the same sentiment.
All this, and she is returning to that part of the world, for three soldout shows in Auckland and Adelaide in March. In April, Camille then jets to London for five gigs at Wilton’s Music Hall in Whitechapel. Another artistic triumph awaits from the genius from Co Cork. “There is no one quite like Camille in popular music right now,” wrote Neil McCormick in the Telegraph in 2012. Seven years on, this still appears to be the case.