Three well-known Queensland artists performed alongside three Mount Isa singers in a free concert on Tuesday in Mount Isa.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Deborah Conway, Clare Bowditch, and Hannah Macklin were in Mount Isa for Queensland Music Festival's (QMF) ‘Songs That Made Me’, performing a free concert at the Civic Centre.
Tickets for the two hour show are still available from MIETV or the Civic Centre box office.
The concert wraps up the mentorship program ‘Songs That Made Me’, delivered by Queensland Music Festival in Mount Isa, Gladstone, and Mackay.
Three finalists; Cath Purcell, Lenita Woodsbey and Bianca Lugo will perform on stage with the three stars.
One finalist, Bianca, has been selected to perform an original song and a ‘song that made her’.
The musicians also delivered a masterclass to our local finalists on Monday, answering questions about the music business before pairing up for songwriting.
With more than 30 years’ experience, Deborah Conway is well placed to offer insight and advice.
“Today we’ve really let the participants dictate what they want to find out from us,” Deborah said.
“I think that’s the mysterious thing for people on the outside looking in, how does it actually work, how do you make money out of that?
“Those were the things the finalists were interested in de-mystifying," she said.
This is Deborah’s second mentoring trip to Mount Isa, visiting in 2013 on the back of an album tour.
“I was touring an album, Stories of Ghosts, that we put out and I wanted to come a long way into regional Queensland.
“I guess with all the places I had visited with QMF when I was the Artistic Director, I wanted to revisit them as a musician.
“I applied for a grant with Arts Queensland, and the basis of that grant was to also offer songwriting workshops to any emerging songwriters, and we came out to Mount Isa, Charleville, Winton, and Longreach.”
This time around, the focus is on females.
Current Artistic Director Katie Noonan started the Songs That Made Me to encourage more women into the music industry.
Women represent just 20 per cent of APRA AMCOS’ royalty statistics, despite making up 51 per cent of the population.
Deborah’s opinion on why there is such a low percentage of women represented in APRA AMCOS’ royalty statistics?
“I think women are far too sensible to go into music, that’s what I think,” Deborah laughed.