''I couldn’t leave the house’': ''The X Factor Australia'' winner Samantha Jade tells of traumatic ordeal.
''Talking about it, weirdly, made me feel less anxious, because you realise you’re not alone.''
It’s coming up to 10 years since Samantha Jade won ''The X Factor Australia'', the competition that launched her music career.
There have been many highs and lows since then, from the chart-topping success of the hit song ''Bounce'' to the devastating loss of her mum Jacqueline to cancer.
To mark the decade since she hit the spotlight, Samantha has a new EP called ''Love Sick'', which she describes as an album of light and shade and from which the single ''Let’s Hear It For The Boy'' has just been released:
''Love Sick'' is a blend of love songs and growth songs”, she told ''7News.com.au'' of the recording, which will be out on friday november 25th 2022, ''The thing i love most about music is it makes me feel the happiest and the saddest. Love songs are beautiful and bring nostalgia and happiness to your heart in the same way sad songs do. You can’t have light without having been in the dark.”
And Samantha Jade knows a little bit about the light and the dark.
''Love Sick'' was mostly written during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic - a time of intense anxiety for the artist (and millions of other people around the world.)
But COVID-19 wasn’t her first experience of anxiety, and her struggles have made her a passionate advocate of talking openly about mental health:
“Anxiety was something i knew about because it had been in my family, my mother and my grandmother had it, but i had never experienced it myself until just before COVID-19”, she explained, ''I was about to go on my first ever headlining tour, which for an artist is a really big deal, something you dream about your whole life. It was exciting, booking the dates and doing the band rehearsals. It was just so overwhelming, exciting, scary, but there were a few other emotions in there as well.''
'‘I couldn’t leave the house’'
''My mum had passed away a few years before, which was traumatic and i was thinking: ''Oh, i’m doing this and she’s not going to be there. There were just so many thoughts and i just got hit with such strong anxiety that i couldn’t leave the house.''
For a time, she didn’t talk about it with anyone.
When the time came to tour, Samantha went into ''robot mode'' just to get through it:
''I would go on stage, just do my show and come off and then, i couldn’t tell you one thing about it'', she said.
“I couldn’t remember it''
''One of my dancers was giving me massages and i was having to do these little meditation rituals before going on stage, just to be able to get through it.”
'‘You’re not alone’'
Somehow she did manage to get through the tour - and then realised she needed to reach out to others and talk about it:
“I started just talking to people in my team, found that others had gone through the same thing and i was like: ''Oh my God! Talking about it, weirdly, made me feel less anxious, because you realise you’re not alone.”
Then came the coronavirus - and the anxiety took on a different shade:
''COVID-19 was a very reflective, interesting time, because we were left with our own thoughts a lot'', she said, ''For many people, that was actually really terrifying. So many things i should have put time and effort into dealing with, I hadn’t and suddenly i was forced to sit in those feelings and process them, ''Sometimes it was really hard, but sometimes it was probably the best thing for me - so the record is really a reflection of that.''
Since then, she has maintained an ongoing conversation with her fans on Instagram too, discussing anxiety and how to cope with it.
So how does she find the balance between the highs and the lows?:
''Therapy!'', she laughed, ''I would never, ever think that’s a thing people shouldn’t do, because it’s helped me enormously. If you’re going to the gym, you should be going to therapy - you need to work on your mind, not just your body. I also have a great team around me who have been there since the beginning, since i won ''The X Factor Australia'' - my band, my dancers, my hair and makeup artist. My best friend is from school. My other best friends i’ve known since i was 19 and 21 and they’re my ''people''. They know, they get it, they understand my life and i am so grateful, because i wouldn’t get through anything without my people.''
Samantha will be in her hometown of Perth on friday november 25th 2022, the day ''Love Sick'' is released, to perform at the ''Pride Parade':
''This is going to be pretty next level, because i’ve felt pretty proud, as a Perth girl, to have won ''The X Factor Australia'', she said, ''The support i had from my hometown was absolutely crazy, so it just feels so full circle for me to be back there.''
Fan favourite
As for the new single ''Let’s Hear It For The Boy'', why did Samantha decide on a cover of the 1984 Deniece Williams pop hit?
Once again, it comes back to COVID-19.
During lockdown, like a lot of other artists, Samantha stayed connected to her fans by streaming at-home performances on her social media platforms:
“Literally every week, this song would come up (as a request)”, she said, ''I knew the chorus, but i didn’t really know the song that well, but i kept getting these messages on Instagram: ''We’d love for you to do this song’, that sort of thing and i thought: ''Okay, i really need to get around to doing this!''
''Let’s Hear It For The Boy'' is out now. ''Love Sick'' is released on friday november 25th 2022.
Credit: [X]
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