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Jessica Mauboy feels like someone you’ve known forever. Within seconds of chatting, her signature cackle erupts – a sound so familiar she could be an old friend rather than one of Australia’s most recognisable stars.
“When I go home to Darwin, everyone’s like, ‘That’s you, Jess, I can hear you down the road,’” she says with a laugh.
Mauboy’s warmth and ability to instantly connect with people have long been part of her charm. But these days, beneath the inimitable laugh and easy charisma, there is something quieter about her. More reflective. More certain.
The 36-year-old is no longer simply Australia’s golden girl of pop; she is a mother thinking deeply about identity, legacy and what it means to raise the next generation.
Perhaps that’s why her new role hosting ABC-TV’s First Nations variety program That Blackfella Show feels less like a pivot than an extension of who she already is. After two decades of being interviewed, photographed and scrutinised, she’s now the one steering the conversation.
“I shouldn’t even call it a job because it’s everything I’ve ever dreamed of,” she says of the hosting role.
“When I first got the call, I was a bit hesitant because you have nothing to hide behind. When I sing, I’m accompanied by instruments, but now I’m leaning into the openness of the people on the show.”
The show forms part of this year’s NAIDOC celebrations and leans into joy: think live late-night variety in the Jimmy Fallon mould, with comedy sketches, musical performances and guest chats celebrating Indigenous humour and storytelling. Mauboy will be the ringmaster, guiding audiences through the heart, humour and unpredictability of the show.
“I just hope people are moved,” she says. “I hope they want to have a gut-belly laugh or a teary moment and walk away feeling like they know a little bit more.”
That desire to make people feel safe and connected threads through almost everything Mauboy shares. When she first entered Australian living rooms at 16, standing in the red dirt of Alice Springs and belting out Whitney Houston’s I Have Nothing for her now-legendary Australian Idol audition, Mauboy was simply “a kid from the suburbs who badly wanted to sing”.
“But, as I got older, I started understanding the weight of what representing meant,” she explains.
Young Indigenous kids would approach her after concerts or community visits, revealing they saw themselves in her, that watching her on television made them believe they could belong there, too. “That’s when I realised it was bigger than me,” she adds. “Now we’re seeing so many Indigenous mob gracing the scene and showing up and believing in themselves. When I was growing up, I didn’t see that, so I kind of had to be that.”
And now there’s Mia. Mauboy’s voice softens instinctively when she talks about her almost 18-month-old daughter, whom she shares with husband Themeli Magripilis. “I have to pave that pathway for her to understand herself and to be as connected and close to her roots as anything, just as I am.”
Mauboy’s own childhood lives in sensory memories. Scaling freshly caught barramundi in the backyard. The salty Pacific Ocean air drifting through the house. The click of the rice cooker signalling dinner was ready. “You’d hear the rice cooker go off and know it’s time to unite around the Mauboy dining table. Everyone’s in silence because it just feels so warming and comforting and safe and home.”
Her upbringing was rich with stories, language and family history. Mauboy’s mother, Therese, a Kuku Yalanji and Wakaman woman, made sure her five daughters always understood their roots, while her father Ferdy, originally from Timor, filled the house with Bahasa Indonesian.
“When I think of those two really beautiful energies and cultures, it feels so full,” she says. “I really did have the best of both growing up.
“Mum never allowed us to forget,” she adds, laughing. “Sometimes we’d be trying to watch a movie, and she’d stop to tell stories about family members.”
As children, she and her sisters would groan dramatically. “Now we look back and think, ‘We are so freaking lucky.’”
Then there was the Darwin Airport Hotel, where the Mauboys gathered for $10 steaks, and where her Aunty and mother would invariably put her name down at karaoke.
“Every time they got together, it was trouble,” Mauboy says, laughing. “All I could hear on the speakers was: ‘Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage Jessica Mauboy.’ I’m there eating my $10 steak, and I hear my name and I’m like, ‘Can I just eat in peace?’”
By 11, she was also busking on the streets of Darwin. “That’s where I landed my first 50 bucks,” she recalls. “I’d never experienced being given money just so easily that way. I remember this fella walked past and said, ‘You’re real good, bub,’ and literally hands me $50. He says, ‘You make sure you put that away.’ And I was just like, ‘Wow.’”
Her mother’s voice was always in the background. During ordinary household chores, Therese would repeatedly say: “You girls remember who you are and where you come from.”
Recalls Mauboy: “At the time, we thought it was a threat.” Only later did she understand it was armour. “Don’t be afraid of who you are. And always protect that.”
It was this wisdom that helped her through the early days of Idol and the whirlwind of stylists, cameras, make-up artists and public attention. “I’d look around and everyone seemed so polished and ready. I don’t think I was prepared enough.”
Still, amid the uncertainty, she held tightly to herself. “I always thought, ‘At least I know my lyrics and the melody.’ If it’s the outfit and make-up, well, that’s not my department.”
Today, she speaks about that teenage version of herself with tenderness. “That little girl was so brave. She gave me a foundation.”
After giving birth in January 2025, Mauboy noticed changes in her voice, physically and emotionally. She had to rebuild her diaphragm and relearn aspects of singing, but she also discovered a softer relationship with herself. “I’ve always wanted to mother. I’ve mothered music. I’ve mothered my family. And now this precious little human who’s come into this world, I have to mother and put her into myself.”
That’s the stuff that makes me stop and breathe it all in. Like, ‘Wow, this is actually happening.’
JESSICA MAUBOYShe says it felt like being “rebirthed … It definitely changes your body and your mind. I cuddled myself with kindness. I feel more empowered now. More certain.”
Motherhood has also rewritten her relationship with her own mum. She recently apologised to Therese for being a typical know-it-all teenager.
“I was sitting down with my mum over a cup of tea and going through photos, and it was my opportunity to say, ‘Hey Mum, all those times I gave you grief, please forgive me. I now know how you felt and how you feel, and what you had to endure and the challenges and the adversity.’”
“She looked at me and said, ‘Thank you, bub,’ and we hugged it out. We then sat there sipping our tea, but there was a real quiet pride she took from that.”
Mauboy has experienced lots of full-circle moments in the past few years, notably returning to Idol as a mentor 20 years after her own audition. She also recorded a new version of Treat Me Good with Bachelor Girl, something she calls a “genuine pinch-me moment”.
“I used to busk their songs when I was a teenager,” she explains. “That’s the stuff that makes me stop and breathe it all in. Like, ‘Wow, this is actually happening.’”
For all Mauboy’s career highlights (The Sapphires film, her National Indigenous Music Awards Hall of Fame induction in 2025, that performance for Oprah), she speaks just as passionately about the quieter moments. “If it was all to end tomorrow, I’m literally satisfied with everything that I’ve done. I’ve left something I’m really proud of, whether it’s a conversation that made someone feel seen, or a little Indigenous kid saying, ‘I loved that song.’”
It’s hard not to think of Mauboy as the younger version of herself that she’s described: busking in Darwin, reluctantly being pushed onto karaoke stages by her aunties while trying to eat her steak dinner in peace.
Even now, despite everything she’s achieved, that little girl is still very present. “I know who I am and I know where I come from. That little Jess that climbs up mango trees, even if she falls down, she’s gonna get back up again.”
She hopes Mia will feel pride when she’s old enough to explore her mum’s career for herself. “I hope she’s empowered physically and vocally. I hope that she sees me standing in my power and she’s able to feel strong in the way that she carries herself.”
More than anything, she wants her daughter to understand empathy. “One person at a time can make the world feel good. This world can be scary. But you shine your light, you bring the peace.”
And then she laughs again – that huge, unmistakable laugh. The one you can hear down the road in Darwin that tells you in seconds exactly who she is.
Celebrate NAIDOC week and watch That Blackfella Show with Jessica Mauboy from July 8 on ABC-TV or ABC iView.
Fashion editor: Penny McCarthy. Hair: Keiren Street using Wella Professional. Make-up: Peter Beard. Fashion assistant: Jade Myriam.
Stockists: Dinosaur Designs; Dissh; Eyewear Index; Senso; Zara.
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