Budjerah reveals career advice from Kylie Minogue and Ed Sheeran

From touring with Ed Sheeran, performing at the ARIA Awards, and working with Baz Luhrmann to create the theme song for his new TV series Faraway Downs, Budjerah has had a very busy year carving out a spot for himself in the Australian music industry.

The 21-year-old singer-songwriter, who has just teamed up with Amazon Australia and Starlight Children’s Foundation to release his first Christmas music video, tells Yahoo Lifestyle that 2023 has definitely been the craziest year of his life.

“In the last month, I've only been home for two days,” he remarks. “One day I landed in the afternoon and then I had to fly out the next morning. I just had to wash my clothes as fast as I could, sleep, and then get back on the plane.

“It's been a really wild ride this year, but very positive.”

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With his career going from strength to strength in the past 12 months and his profile continuing to grow, the Therapy hitmaker says he’s thankful to have received advice from several high-profile artists.

“I’ve gotten so much good advice,” he shares. “I got this one from two great singers, Miss Kylie Minogue and Miss Tina Arena. When we were rehearsing together, they both said the exact same thing.

“I got nervous singing with them because I love both of their voices and their technique and how they sing, I learned a lot from them. And I was picking at the arrangement and questioning choices I was making about notes and how I was singing, and at different points they were both like, ‘You’re a singer, you've been singing forever, just do it. Once the mic turns on in front of people, you just have to get up and sing’.

Budjerah adds that he received some songwriting advice from Ed Sheeran when they toured around Australia together earlier this year.

“He said that someone asked him what was the best song that he wrote in his opinion, and he said he hadn't written it yet,” he recalled.

“So he's got a lot of really big hit songs, but there's still more to come and you can keep writing songs. If you have a bad one, you can write a new one, and if you have a good one, you can still write a better one. So those are the two key things that I keep in my mind.”

Budjerah's Christmas music video

As 2023 comes to a close, Budjerah and Amazon Australia have released a festive music video reimagining the holiday classic ‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)’ in partnership with Starlight Children’s Foundation.

The video stars the Amazon Playmakers, seven Starlight children, alongside longtime campaign ambassador Johnny Ruffo, who sadly passed away last month after a lengthy battle with brain cancer.

“That was very special [to have Johnny in the video],” Budjerah says. “The day we all filmed was actually one of the happiest days of my life. When those kids walked in, the joy lit up the room. They all had so much fun and they were all little superstars themselves too.

“There was one girl that was really singing and she had her own choreo. She was really going for it and it just made everyone so happy and it was so much fun.

“I'm a family person myself, and especially at Christmas time there are a lot of families in need and children in need. So any way that I can lend a hand to people, this is one way to do it. That's really important to me.”

For every view of the music video across Amazon Australia’s channels this holiday season, Amazon Australia will donate $1 to Starlight up to $100,000. You can watch the video below:

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