Having found fame as a runner-up on Australian Idol in 2006, pop and R&B singer-songwriter Jessica Mauboy has racked up two-dozen Top 40 hits in her home country.
• As a teenager, Mauboy won a talent contest connected with a local country music festival. She earned a deal with Sony Music and recorded a country version of Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.”
• Two years later, she appeared on Australian Idol, finishing in second. Her 2007 live album The Journey went Top 5 in Australia.
• Her 2008 debut studio album, Been Waiting, yielded three Top 10 Australian hits, including “Burn,” which reached No. 1.
• By 2011’s Get ’Em Girls, Mauboy had stepped out of the teen-pop box. Featuring such guests as Snoop Dogg and Ludacris, the album spent 19 weeks on the Australian charts, peaking at No. 6.
• In 2019, Mauboy topped the Aussie charts with her fourth album, Hilda, named after a grandmother she never got to meet.
• During the mid-2010s, Mauboy starred on the Australian TV series The Secret Daughter for two seasons. Her 2016 soundtrack album The Secret Daughter: Songs from the Original TV Series topped the Australian charts. The following year’s sequel reached No 2.
• Outside of music and television, Mauboy starred alongside Oscar winner Geoffrey Rush in the 2010 film Bran Nue Dae. She later appeared in The Sapphires, starring Chris O’Dowd.