After more than four decades on stage and screen, singer Kate Ceberano has few regrets.
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Ceberano → have → regrets
She’s crafted 31 albums (11 platinum, eight gold), won five ARIA awards and been inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame for her performances, which span rock, soul, jazz, pop and classical.
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which → craft → rock
In the 1980s, she won three Countdown awards, in the 1990s she played Mary in a record-breaking run of Jesus Christ Superstar and won a Logie for the video clip for the song Everything’s Alright.
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Everything → win → song
She was the first woman inducted into the Australian Songwriters Association Hall of Fame in 2014.
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She → induct → 2014
On top of that, in 2007 she won Dancing with the Stars, and portraits of her have been chosen as finalists in the Archibald three times, with two winning the Packing Room Prize (in 1994 and 2021).
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two → win → 1994
From fronting the band I’m Talking in 1984 to her successful solo career, for which she was made a member of the Order of Australia in 2016, Ceberano is one of the best-known voices and faces of the Australian entertainment industry.
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Ceberano → front → industry
“I’ve come to an age where I can’t be ‘un-Kate Ceberano’,” she says.
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she → come → age
“Like Chrissy [Amphlett], Renee [Geyer], Kylie [Minogue] and Delta [Goodrem], we’re all on a one-name basis with our audiences.
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we → ’re → audiences
That’s quite a rare and privileged place to get to in Australia
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That → ’ → Australia
you only get there by being yourself.”
But there is one missed opportunity that hounds her still.
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that → get → her
It was during her serious flamenco phase, a dance form she took up at the age of 12 to understand more of her Filipina/Spanish origins.
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she → take → origins
Her Filipino/Hawaiian father Tino was known as “the father of Australian karate” after his 1970s morning-TV appearances teaching self-defence.
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father → know → defence
“My dad is the highest-ranked of his style in the world.
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dad → rank → world
He’s not just a karate master, he’s like Kung Fu Panda,” she jokes.
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she → ’ → Panda
Her mother Cherie, whose ethnicity is Swedish and Welsh, was also one of the first women to hold a black belt in karate in Australia.
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ethnicity → hold → Australia
The only reason I didn’t do it was because I didn’t love the sound of women sparring.
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women → do → sound
I found it very unfeminine.”
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it → find → ?
Instead of karate, the youngest of three, and only girl in her family, took up singing and dancing.
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youngest → take → singing
At about the age of 12 she joined a dance group with the Filipino Association – “flamenco without the frilly dresses” as she calls it – and became obsessed.
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she → join → it
So much so that a young filmmaker called Baz Luhrmann approached her in the early 1990s to become involved in a film he was making about ballroom dancing.
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he → call → dancing
“To my absolute shame, I declined the offer to be part of Strictly Ballroom because I didn’t know what the film was about.
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film → decline → what
I didn’t understand that it was actually going to be exactly about the very thing that I was being a purist about,” she says.
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she → understand → that
“I found ballroom’s version of flamenco to be kind of like an aberrant version of flamenco because it wasn’t the true ethnic flamenco that I was into.
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I → find → that
But as it turns out, that was a lost opportunity of the highest degree.
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that → turn → degree
When the film came out I just wanted to bite my arm off.”
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I → come → arm
So since then she’s said ‘yes’ to everything, which is one of the main reasons she’s headed back on tour for the Australian Made encore tour.
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she → say → tour
It began in London on August 8 and will end in Shepparton, Victoria, on November 20.
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It → begin → November
It will take her to venues throughout regional Australia, as well as the Sydney Opera House (October 11) and Melbourne’s Hamer Hall (October 23), on the back of her 2025 21-date Australian Made tour, 2024’s Superstars Live with Jon Stevens, and the 2023 orchestral collaboration with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, My Life Is a Symphony.
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Life → take → Orchestra
The Australian Made tour of 1986-87 was a watershed moment in Australian music, showcasing local talent in major stadiums and acting as a precursor to festivals like the Big Day Out.
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tour → showcase → Out
Ceberano was barely 20 that summer when, as lead singer of I’m Talking, she joined the stellar line-up of INXS, Jimmy Barnes, Divinyls, Models, The Saints and The Triffids.
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she → talk → INXS
The idea for a 2025 tour and live album came after a discussion with her husband and manager Lee Rogers after the 2016 re-release of Richard Lowenstein’s film Australian Made: The Movie.
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idea → come → film
“We bemoaned the fact that almost all of the performers are now dead,” she says, listing the tally of fallen fellow musos, from INXS’ Michael Hutchence to Divinyls’ Chrissy Amphlett, The Saints’ Chris Bailey, Models’ James Freud and now James Valentine.
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she → bemoan → Amphlett
She felt it was time to tell her old friends’ stories to new audiences (or old ones keen for a dose of nostalgia).
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it → feel → nostalgia
Looking back, she remembers she was slightly terrified by the Australian Made cohort, especially Amphlett.
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she → look → cohort
“What she taught me was you need to be bold enough to be yourself,” Ceberano says.
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Ceberano → teach → me
“I wasn’t sidling up to any of my peers, like Renee Geyer or Chrissy Amphlett, for any badge of approval.
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I → sidle → approval
But what they did teach me is that if you come too close to imitating or trying to become your idol, you have to pay the price …
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you → teach → price
No one wants a poor imitation of another person.”
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one → want → person
For a girl who left school at 15, whose band won the Victorian Battle of the Bands at 16 and who not long after opened for Vince Jones, jazz was a focus of her early career – thanks in part to Melbourne restaurateur Mietta O’Donnell.
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jazz → leave → O’Donnell
“She saw me as a sort of Josephine Baker singer and put me on her menu at [the restaurant] Mietta’s as a dessert – a warm chocolate tart.”
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She → see → dessert
…and 23 more, not listed.
The Aporia
