Kate Miller-Heidke

Kate Melina Miller-Heidke ( ; born 16 November 1981) is an Australian singer and songwriter. Although classically trained, she has generally followed a career in alternative pop music. She signed to Sony Australia, Epic in the US and RCA in the UK, but since 2014 has been an independent artist. Four of her solo studio albums have peaked in the top 10 of the ARIA Albums Chart, Curiouser (October 2008), Nightflight (April 2012), O Vertigo! (March 2014) and Child in Reverse (October 2020). Her most popular single, "The Last Day on Earth" (July 2009), reached No. 3 on the ARIA Singles Chart after being used in promos for TV soap, Neighbours, earlier in that year. At the ARIA Music Awards, Miller-Heidke has been nominated 17 times.

She represented Australia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 in Tel Aviv, Israel, with her song, "Zero Gravity" (January 2019). Miller-Heidke is the only person to have sung at Coachella, the New York Metropolitan Opera, and Eurovision. She has won five Helpmann Awards.

Early life

Kate Melina Miller-Heidke was born on 16 November 1981 in Gladstone, Queensland. Her mother, Jenny Miller, was a ballet dancer and then a dance teacher and her father, Greg Heidke, is a high school principal. She completed a Bachelor of Music degree in Classical Voice from the Queensland Conservatorium of Music at Griffith University on full scholarship, followed by a Master of Music degree at Queensland University of Technology.

Career

2000–2005: Career beginnings, Elsewhere, and solo EPs

As a classical singer, she has won awards: Elizabeth Muir Prize (2000), Donald Penman Prize (2001), Linda Edith Allen Memorial Prize (2002) and Horace Keats Prize (2002). Her conservatorium performances were in Orpheus in the Underworld (2000), Venus and Adonis (2002) and The Pilgrim's Progress (2002). As an Opera Queensland Developing Artist, Miller-Heidke has performed as an understudy in productions, Sweeney Todd, Don Pasquale and Un ballo in maschera. In July 2005 she made her solo professional operatic debut with Opera Queensland in the role of Flora in Britten's The Turn of the Screw.

Miller-Heidke was preparing to sing the role of Mabel in Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance with Opera Australia in late 2005. Radio support led to increased national attention for her music: not only did she gain thousands of fans, she signed with EMI Music Australia, obtained her first talent manager, Leanne de Souza, and her first agent, Dorry Kartabani, at the Harbour Agency. She then began touring Australia with her band. – and in Port Fairy and Blue Mountains. She was a guest panellist on TV shows, RocKwiz, Spicks and Specks and Q&A. She has performed on ABC TV's The Sideshow and Q&A, on Network Ten's Rove and Good News Week, Seven Network's Sunrise and The Morning Show, and on live broadcasts of the ARIA Music Awards.

2006–2007: Circular Breathing and Little Eve

Miller-Heidke released her third EP, Circular Breathing with six tracks, in May 2006 via Waterbear Records/Sony BMG. For the EP she provided vocals, piano and wurlitzer, with Nuttall on guitars, Emma Dean on violin and vocals, Steve Pope on drums and percussion, Scott Saunders on bass guitar, and John Turnbull provided a whistling cameo in "Jamie". Pope and Saunders are Nuttall's bandmates from Transport. Eleven Magazines reviewer rated it at four-and-a-half stars and explained, "It's very boppy and very light and carefree. The lyrics are a bit lacking, a bit like diary of a teenager kind of thing. Though, the acoustic element of the album, particularly the strong piano use holds it together." The album provided a single, "Apartment", also in 2006.

She followed with her debut album, Little Eve, on 26 May 2007. Aside from herself and members of Transport, Miller-Heidke used strings by Zhivago String Quartet and Danielle Bentley, a choir/chorus of seven singers, and additional session musicians. Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, felt it, "drew comparisons with Kate Bush and Tori Amos or 'like Nina Hagen, just with a much better voice'." At the ARIA Music Awards of 2007 she received five nominations, Best Female Artist, Best Pop Release, Breakthrough Artist – Album for Little Eve and Producer of the Year for Magoo's work on Little Eve, and Breakthrough Artist – Single for "Words". A re-recorded version of "Space They Cannot Touch" (originally on Telegram) was issued in March of the following year as her third single from Little Eve. The tracks were mostly written during a two-month period with creative collaborator and now-husband, Nuttall. The album's lead single, "Can't Shake It" debuted on the ARIA Singles Chart at No. 38 in October 2008, making it her first top 40 song.

Miller-Heidke and Nuttall co-wrote "Caught in the Crowd", which was issued as the album's second single in February 2009 and peaked at No. 33 on the ARIA singles charts in June. They were the first Australians to win the grand prize.

Her following single, "The Last Day on Earth" (July 2008), reached No. 3 in Australia, her first top 10 hit. Curiouser gained critical praise in the United States: Sasha Frere-Jones from The New Yorker, wrote "I got lucky last week and found a gem in the pile; Curiouser. If your favourite American pop star is coming across slightly washed out, you will want to hear Miller-Heidke. Curiouser is a big clutch of pantone swatches."

At the ARIA Music Awards of 2009 in November, the Miller-Heidke performed and was also nominated four more times, Single of the Year for "The Last Day on Earth", Best Video for "The Last Day on Earth" (directed by Mark Alston) and Best Female Artist and Best Pop Release for Curiouser. She toured throughout the US, United Kingdom and continental Europe as support act for Ben Folds. Folds explained, "she's one of those people that actually does deserve to be called a unique talent." She released her first music DVD, Live in San Francisco (October 2010). "The Last Day on Earth" received another nomination, for Most Popular Australian Single, in the newly installed public-voted categories at the ARIA Music Awards of 2010. Through 2010 to 2011, Miller-Heidke played at international festivals, Coachella, Lilith Fair, Rifflandia, Byron Bay Bluesfest, Southbound and Peats Ridge Festival. She also featured on UK singer Passenger's album Flight of the Crow (2010).

2011–2013: Fatty Gets a Stylist and Nightflight

On 24 June 2011 Miller-Heidke's side project, Fatty Gets a Stylist, released a self-titled album. The album was written and recorded on a lap top over several months, with Nuttall producing, in different locations in Australia, South East Asia and West London. It reached No. 90 on the ARIA Albums Chart. and in promo for the Seven Network's shows, in which actors from various shows mime to the words while walking, ending with Alf Stewart from Home and Away yelling the final line, "Let's go!". Fatty Gets a Stylist, was credited to Miller-Heidke as her third solo album, Liberty Bell, outside Australia.

When English opera director, Tom Morris, saw Miller-Heidke in the role of Baby Jane back in 2009, he had asked her to audition for his production of John Adams' opera The Death of Klinghoffer for the English National Opera (ENO) at the London Coliseum. Following two months' rehearsals, she sang the role of British Dancing Girl for a two-week run in early 2012. She performed the role again at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in October 2014.

On 13 April 2012 Miller-Heidke's third Australian studio album, Nightflight, was released. It had been recorded at two studios in Melbourne and another in London: Nuttall co-producing with Lindsay Gravina (Jebediah, the Living End, Thirsty Merc).

Nightflight peaked at No. 2 – equal highest chart position with Curiouser – and provided three singles, "I'll Change Your Mind" (April 2012), "Sarah" (February 2013) and "Ride This Feeling" (July 2013). "Ride this Feeling" was selected as the promotional theme for the "Visit Brisbane" TV ad campaign in 2013 by Brisbane Marketing as part of the Brisbane City Council's Economic Development Board.

2013–2019: O Vertigo! and Muriel's Wedding

Miller-Heidke sang the screen-role of Amber in the world premiere of Michel van der Aa's opera Sunken Garden for the ENO in April 2013. In September Miller-Heidke left Sony Records, which she described as a "corporate juggernaut". She started work on her fourth Australian studio album, O Vertigo! (14 March 2014), and sought crowd-funding via PledgeMusic to record it independently, as well as donations for the protection of the Great Barrier Reef. O Vertigo! was produced by John Castle for Cooking Vinyl Australia and reached No. 4 on the ARIA Albums Chart.

Miller-Heidke was co-commissioned by Lyndon Terracini of Opera Australia in late 2014 to write an opera, The Rabbits, based on John Marsden's children's novel of that name, to be performed in 2015. The Rabbits was premiered at the Perth Festival in February 2015, to critical acclaim. At the Helpmann Awards of 2015 she won two more categories for The Rabbits: Best New Australian Work (shared with co-writers Lally Katz and Iain Grandage) and Best Original Score (shared with co-composer Grandage).

She took on the role of "female protagonist" in van der Aa's interactive song cycle film, The Book of Sand (June 2015), based on the short story of the same name from 1975, by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges. In November 2015, she issued a non-album single, "I'm Growing a Beard Downstairs for Christmas", featuring comedy rock group, the Beards. The charity single was used to raise funds for bowel cancer research. She also debuted as a TV actress in the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) comedy opera miniseries, The Divorce (December) in the role of Caroline. She also sings on the related soundtrack album, The Divorce: Original Cast Recording. At the 2016 ARIA Music Awards she was nominated for Best Original Soundtrack, Cast or Show Album with The Rabbits: Original Live Cast Recording (April 2016) and Best Comedy Release for "I'm Growing a Beard Downstairs for Christmas" (shared with the Beards).

In August 2017 a live album, Live at the Sydney Opera House, was issued by Kate Miller-Heidke and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. She received two more ARIA nominations in 2017: Best Classical Album for the album and Engineer of the Year for Bob Scott's work. Miller-Heidke and Nuttall co-wrote new music and lyrics for the musical theatre version of Muriel's Wedding, which was directed by Simon Phillips and adapted from the 1994 comedy-drama film of the same name – both written by P. J. Hogan.

A documentary, Making Muriel, including interviews with Miller-Heidke and Nuttall, was broadcast by ABC TV in late November 2017. At the Helpmann Awards of 2018 she won Best Original Score (shared with Nuttall) and was nominated for Best New Work (shared with Nuttall and Hogan) for work on Muriel's Wedding. During 2019 the musical toured to Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. Miller-Heidke and Nuttall also co-wrote the music for Phillips' 2018 production of Twelfth Night for the Melbourne Theatre Company where they were performed by Colin Hay. At the ARIA Music Awards of 2018 Miller-Heidke sang alongside Missy Higgins and Amy Sheppard on their rendition of "Not Pretty Enough" in honour of that year's ARIA Hall of Fame inductee, Kasey Chambers.

2019–2024: Eurovision Song Contest and Child in Reverse

Miller-Heidke appeared in episode 2 of the 2021 ABC TV comedy show Preppers as herself and a fantasy character, the Penrith panther, singing her song, "I Am My Own Panther Now". She and Nuttall collaborated again in 2021 with the Melbourne Theatre Company and Simon Phillips, writing music for their production of Shakespeare's As You Like It. The couple composed in collaboration with Connor D'Netto the monodrama The Call for Opera Queensland and Brisbane Festival 2022, featuring soprano Ali McGregor. Miller-Heidke and Nuttall composed the music for the 2022 television series Darby and Joan. They wrote the musical comedy Bananaland, directed by Phillips, for the 2023 Brisbane Festival. Miller-Heidke sang the national anthem before the 2023 AFL Grand Final and appeared in the half-time show.

In February 2024, Seven Network announced that Miller-Heidke would be joining the thirteenth season of the singing competition show The Voice Australia as a coach, replacing Jessica Mauboy. The season premiered in August 2024, and she features alongside returning coach Guy Sebastian and fellow new coaches Adam Lambert and LeAnn Rimes. She returned as a coach in 2025 for the fourteenth season with Melanie C, Ronan Keating, and Richard Marx. Miller-Heidke ultimately coached the winner of the season, Alyssa Delpopolo. Miller-Heidke performed along tenor Rosario La Spina and soprano Rachelle Durkin at Opera Queensland's 2024 Festival of Outback Opera in Winton, singing Vivaldi's motet , arias from her opera The Rabbits, and her "Zero Gravity".

2025–present: The Kiss and The Abyss In June 2026, Miller-Heidke announced the release of The Kiss and the Abyss for August 2026. According to a press release, the album finds Miller-Heidke "returning to her folk influences while also embracing darker textures and playing with theatrical storytelling".

Band

On stage and in the studio Miller-Heidke was backed by members of Brisbane-based rock band Transport from 2003: Nuttall on lead guitar and backing vocals, Scott Saunders on bass guitar and Steve Pope on drums. Her backing band initially also included multi-instrumentalist and singer, Emma Dean, who left in 2006 to pursue a solo career. Dean was replaced by Sallie Campbell on keyboard and vocals. Early in 2008 Campbell left to focus on her own band, Speed of Purple, and Nicole Brophy joined on guitar and vocals.

From April to June 2007 while Transport were working in the US and UK, Miller-Heidke's touring band was Campbell joined by Mark Angel on guitar, Ben McCarthy on bass guitar and backing vocals and Joachim Alfheim on drums. Both Angel and Alfheim went on to play for Kristy London & the Other Halves. McCarthy stayed with Miller-Heidke until 2008. On the 2010 US tour she was supported by Nuttall only. The 2011 line-up was Nuttall, Brophy, Pope joined by Nathan Moore on bass guitar and backing vocals. Brophy and Moore both left in the following year and were replaced by Madeleine Page and James O'Brien, respectively. Her 2012 tour of the US and Canada for the North American release of Nightflight included only Dan Parsons and Madeleine Paige. Dates in support of Ben Folds included only Nuttall.

Personal life

Miller-Heidke, as a member of a group, took part in an unplugged band competition at Toowong's Regatta Hotel, which lost against a fellow Brisbane-based group. Nuttall and his group, Transport, became part of her backing band by 2003. Nuttall has also collaborated in songwriting, side projects and as a record producer. The couple married in November 2007, and in 2016 they had their first child.

Discography

Albums Little Eve (2007) Curiouser (2008) Nightflight (2012) O Vertigo! (2014) Child in Reverse (2020) The Kiss and the Abyss (2026)

Filmography

Film Year Title Role Notes 2015 The Book of Sand Woman Interactive film 2018 Ladies in Black Nightclub Singer Cameo

Television Year Title Role Notes 2015 The Divorce Caroline Miniseries, main role 2016 Play School Herself Guest presenter, 1 episode 2019 Australian Story Herself Documentary series, 1 episode 2020 The Masked Singer Queen Celebrity singing contest 2021 Preppers Herself/Penrith Panther 2 episodes 2023BlueyChili's Mum Episode: "Dragon" 2024–present The Voice Herself: Main judge Season 13–present

Stage credits

Year Title Role Notes 2009 Jerry Springer: The Opera Baby JaneSydney Opera House 2012–14 The Death of Klinghoffer British Dancing Girl English National Opera, Metropolitan Opera 2013 Sunken Garden AmberEnglish National Opera 2015–16 The Rabbits Songbird Also composer; Helpmann Award for Best New Australian Work (with Lally Katz and Iain Grandage)Helpmann Award for Best Original Score (with Iain Grandage) 2017–19 Muriel's Wedding Composer, Helpmann Award for Best Original Score (with Keir Nuttall) 2023–24 Bananaland Composer (with Keir Nuttall)

Awards and nominations

AIR Awards The Australian Independent Record Awards (commonly known informally as AIR Awards) is an annual awards night to recognise, promote and celebrate the success of Australia's Independent Music sector. 2018 Live at the Sydney Opera House Best Independent Classical Album

APRA Music Awards The APRA Awards are held in Australia and New Zealand by the Australasian Performing Right Association to recognise songwriting skills, sales and airplay performance by its members annually. 2009 "Can't Shake It" (with Keir Nuttall) Rowspan="4" | Song of the Year

"The Last Day on Earth" (with Keir Nuttall) "Caught in the Crowd" (with Keir Nuttall) 2020 "Zero Gravity" (Kate Miller-Heidke, Julian Hamilton, Keir Nuttal) 2021 "The Worst Block in Town" (with Keir Nuttall) Best Music for an Advertisement 2022 "I Am My Own Panther Now" (from Preppers) (with Keir Nuttall) Best Original Song Composed for the Screen 2023 "The Call" (Connor D'Netto [composer], Miller-Heidke and Nuttall [librettists]) Art Music Awards Work of the Year: Dramatic ARIA Music Awards The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of Australian music. Miller-Heidke has been nominated 18 times.

Best Female Artist Best Pop Release Breakthrough Artist – Album Magoo for Little Eve Producer of the Year "Words" Breakthrough Artist – Single

"The Last Day on Earth" Single of the Year Mark Alston for "The Last Day on Earth" Best Video

Best Female Artist Best Pop Release 2010 "The Last Day on Earth" Most Popular Australian Single

Nightflight tour Best Australian Live Act Miller-Heidke, Darcy Prendergast for "I'll Change Your Mind" Best Video 2014 O Vertigo! Best Adult Contemporary Album

The Rabbits Best Original Soundtrack, Cast or Show Album "I'm Growing a Beard Downstairs for Christmas" Best Comedy Release

Live at the Sydney Opera House Best Classical Album Bob Scott for Live at the Sydney Opera House Rowspan="2" | Engineer of the Year 2021 Tony Espie for Child in Reverse

Australian Women in Music Awards The Australian Women in Music Awards is an annual event that celebrates outstanding women in the Australian Music Industry who have made significant and lasting contributions in their chosen field. They commenced in 2018. 2025 Kate Miller-Heidke Artistic Excellence Award EG Awards/Music Victoria Awards The Music Victoria Awards (previously known as The Age EG Awards and The Age Music Victoria Awards) are an annual awards night celebrating Victorian music. 2009 herself Best Female Artist 2012 Kate Miller-Heidke Best Female

Helpmann Awards The Helpmann Awards are accolades for live entertainment and performing arts in Australia, presented by industry group Live Performance Australia. Established in 2001, the annual awards recognise achievements in the disciplines of musical theatre, contemporary music, comedy, opera, classical music, theatre, dance and physical theatre.

herself Double J Artist of the Year Queensland Music Awards The Queensland Music Awards (previously known as Q Song Awards) are annual awards celebrating Queensland, Australia's brightest emerging artists and established legends. They commenced in 2006.

(wins only) 2006 "Apartment" Pop Song of the Year

Rowspan="3" | herself Export Achievement Award Rowspan="2" | The Courier-Mail People's Choice Award Most Popular Female 2012

Other awards Year Event Award Result2009 International Songwriting Competition Grand Prize (with Keir Nuttall) ("Caught in the Crowd")