By Loretta de Haan
May 06, 2019
This year marks 15 years since Ricki-Lee won the hearts of Aussies all around the country – so to celebrate, she will be performing a very special 2 hour show! RICKI-LEE: LIVE IN CONCERT A STAR IS BORN + HER GREATEST HITS AUSTRALIAN TOUR.
Included in the Tour is show at Anita’s Theatre in Thirroul on Friday 11th October. Ricki-Lee visited Wollongong where we had a chat about her upcoming show and more.
Hi Ricki-Lee, welcome to the ‘Gong’. We are looking forward to your show at Anita’s Theatre on the 11th October. Can you give us an insight as to what the audience can expect on the night?
I’m so excited! It’s going to be a really fun show! It is just over 2 hours long with an interval in the middle. The first 50 minutes is going to be all songs from ‘A Star Is Born’ with all of the great music from the film that was written by Lady Ga Ga, Bradley Cooper & all the other amazing songwriters. They are such classics, I call them new classics and everyone just loves them and I am so looking forward to performing them. There will be a short break and then the second hour is all the songs I have released in the last 15 years, all the biggest hits & fan favourites. So I am going all the way back to Australian Idol, doing all the big songs I sang on the show including my audition song. Songs like Proud Mary, I Have Nothing by Whitney Houston, Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough by Michael Jackson. Then it will be all fun party stuff like songs I did with The Young Divas, the fun disco tunes. So it’s just going to be like a big party night vibe, with lots of sing a longs. I will have my 5 piece band & it’s all live. There will be new arrangements of songs, all the songs my fans know & love but I have flipped them a bit. I will have dancers & it will be a choreographed, with costume changes, turning into a big pop show! I can’t wait!
What made you want to perform the music from ‘A Star Is Born’
Well from the start when I first saw the movie I was instantly hooked on the songs. The first thing that got me was at the start of the movie when Lady Ga Ga is putting out the trash and walks up the alley way singing this song, a part of a song that is an ode to Judy Garland, from one of the earlier remakes of the movie. That song is the start of Somewhere Over The Rainbow and the only reason I know that is because in 2005 I recorded that song with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra as the B side to my first ever single. So when she sang that it was like “omg that’s my song” and it really pulled me in as I used to sing & skip to that song as a little girl and at karaoke and at old people’s homes. So that song has a lot of special meaning to me and I watched the movie through the lens of the young me. I dreamt of becoming a big star, so could relate to her journey and draw parallels to my life how someone heard me and gave me a shot. As I watched the movie I thought wow this is so like my life and that’s what really drew me in and made me want to do this show. Also the fact that everyone including me loves the songs and it really has a personal connection for me. They are such great songs & I love everything about them like the structure of the songs & the arrangements. All the songs on A Star Is Born are fully live & I love that we are doing it that way too as it makes the musicians really shine and they are such great musicians and I feel so proud to be standing on stage with them.
Were you surprised at the response to the show that made it go from a one off performance to a full blown tour?
Yes and no but looking back now it seems silly to have just done one show. It was like why didn’t I think of doing that in the first place! The response to the first show was just incredible and we sold out in the first three weeks when tickets went on sale. My agent called and said “we need to do a tour!” and I was like yeah ok I am all for it! I am so excited now as I haven’t done a full tour for 5 years & I was overseas for 2 of those years so now I can’t wait to perform again!
So who will be your ‘Bradley Cooper’ in the show?
I have an incredible musician that will be taking over the Bradley Cooper parts. It was interesting when I was thinking who could do that as those parts are so strong. It’s funny, Bradley Cooper is now one of my favourite singers, his voice is just amazing and so are the songs he sings. So I kind of put my feelers out to give someone the chance to come up on stage and really shine in that part. It is actually someone I have met before, someone I mentored on Team Seal on The Voice. His name is Michael Duchesne and he is just a beautiful soulful singer and he is also a guitarist. It is great singing with him because as a solo artist you don’t get to sing with other people so it’s nice to sing in harmony. That’s how I grew up singing with others in my family, around a guitar with everyone singing in harmony. I am always singing a melody so it’s a nice change to sing in harmony. So I am really enjoying it, even in rehearsals it’s so good.
Are you a fan of the older version of ‘A Star Is Born’ with Barbara Streisand or this modern remake?
You know what I haven’t actually seen it yet! I know that’s terrible and there is actually another one before that with Judy Garland and even another one before that. My best friend is obsessed with all the versions of A Star Is Born and said before you do the shows you have to sit down and watch all of the movies in a row. I can’t wait to see them all.
I loved your little impromptu performance of ‘Shallow’ in a Melbourne laneway. What is your favourite song from the musical to perform?
My favourite would be either ‘Always Remember Us This Way’ or I’ll Never Love Again’ that last song she sings. I can’t get through a rehearsal singing that song without crying. It’s very emotional that song. That song gives me that Bodyguard “I Will Always Love You” kinda vibe. Again I grew up in the nineties listening to that soundtrack and these songs remind me of that. I also like the Bradley Cooper song ‘Maybe It’s Time’ so every time Michael sings that in rehearsals I’m loving it.
What about ‘La Vie En Rose’ How do you learn those lyrics?
Can I tell you I can’t speak French! I was married in Paris but I can’t speak French! So learning it is really funny. I have to write it out in phonetic spelling because when it’s in French you think what is that word so I have to write it out in phonetics, I call it writing it in Australian so I can pronounce it correctly. My lyric sheet for that is hilarious. It was the song I was most scared of so have spent the last few months working on it. My dad speaks French & one of my friends is French so I have sung it for them and made sure my pronunciation was correct. My friend said there were a couple of ones that Lady Ga Ga didn’t pronounce correctly so as long as I get them right it will be ok. He will be in the audience at The State Theatre judging the shit out of me! It is so hard you have to really listen to the sounds of the words. I felt like a baby learning to talk. It’s not just that, even the style of the song is a challenge as it has a Jazz feel. I think I am going to open with that song so that will be fun.
I would like to congratulate you on 15 years in the music industry. What are some of the highlights?
One of them would be releasing my first single and hearing it on the radio for the first time. I remember where I was – in my girlfriends bedroom when we heard it on the radio. I screamed and we went around the house turning on all the radios. I will never forget that, it is so vivid in my mind. Another one would be having my song being used in the Sex In The City movie as I was a massive fan of the series. The irony of that is I actually wrote that song in New York when I was there with my girlfriends! Another highlight is singing at the opening & closing ceremonies of the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, my hometown! There have been so many great moments! Every time I step on stage and look out at the audience and see their faces and that connection. Or after the show when a fan will tell me this song meant so much to me because of a personal experience of theirs. I have been so lucky and have had many great memories in my career and am looking forward to another 15 years.
So the second part of the show consists of a trip down memory lane to your time on Australian Idol plus all your hits. Are you looking forward to revisiting and performing these songs again?
I am, I really am! You know it’s funny some of my songs I haven’t performed live in such a long time! Music is changing and when you go on tour they want you to focus on the newer albums instead of the older stuff. So to go back to 2005, oh my god it is nice to revisit those songs and I am doing different versions of them just to freshen them up and give them a bit of a facelift. There are some great new arrangements and they sound so good with the full band. I have found myself falling in love with those songs all over again as you kind of forget about them and they sit on the back burner. So I wanted to bring them to the forefront again. It has been really nice to go through all those songs again. I am very active on social media and I have been asking my fans what songs they want to hear and have been really surprised with the responses! They want to hear songs from like 10 years ago and songs from albums that were never released as singles – real fan songs. They are yelling at me to do them!
How much time goes into a show like this with rehearsals and music arrangements. Will there be lots of costume changes?
Yes lots of rehearsals, we started a few weeks ago and working out arrangements & what key to do a song in and working out the set list is really important. So much time goes into where a song sits in the show, what you do at the start and end. Lots of work is involved! I also do vocal exercises everyday as it’s a 2 hour show and they aren’t the softest of songs, they are ones you have to really belt out! So lots of vocal fitness as well as rehearsing with the band but it is all happening and I had costume fittings last night. We have the lighting and production worked out. It is very exciting to see it all come together! So putting on a show is the best part of what I get to do. Like I love recording, I love writing songs and the travelling but the best part is getting on stage and watching the audience. I get to watch the audience enjoying it and their faces to see what’s working and what isn’t so I can tweak it if needed, making mental notes like ooh we are going to change that. So it’s going to be really cool and by the time we get to Wollongong with 3 shows under our belt it will be perfect!
Thank you so much for chatting with me today Ricki-Lee. Really appreciate you taking the time to talk to us at Gongscene. We look forward to welcoming you back on the 11th October at Anita’s Theatre and seeing you perform your show!
Thank you so much! We are actually off to check out the venue now. Can’t wait to see it and stand on the stage!
TICKETS TO ANITA’S THEATRE HERE
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