South Korean-born Australian singer-songwriter Dami Im will perform in Armidale next month on her "Dreamer" tour of the country.
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She will appear at the Armidale RSL on Friday, August 16 - her first concert here. She performed at an Armidale store at the start of her musical career, in 2014.
"Armidale was so beautiful last time I came," she said. "I promised that I would come back to do a full show. It took me a while, but I'm actually coming with my band. Hopefully, we'll have a good crowd and a beautiful time together."
Dami Im shot to stardom when she won The X Factor, Seven's popular TV singing talent show, in 2013. Her debut single "Alive" and first album Dami Im (2013) both hit number one on ARIA charts. Later albums Heart Beats (2014), Classic Carpenters (2016), and I Hear a Song (2018) reached the ARIA top ten. She earned second place at the Eurovision Song Contest in Sweden in 2016 - the highest score for any Australian.
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Ms Im will perform some of her previous hits, such as "Sound of Silence" (her Eurovision hit), "Super Love", and "Gladiator". Armidale audiences will also get a sneak preview of a new single, "Crying Underwater", to be released in September.
The song, she explained, is about the difficulty of talking about feelings; people put on masks, and pretend everything's fine. "It's really good to be able to share a very personal song that I feel a connection to," she said.
Her recent songs have been written from the heart.
"I've always been a songwriter, and loved telling my story through writing songs," she said. "I think throughout the years doing X-Factor and Eurovision, sometimes things got a little bit lost... There's very much pressure to write something that will be successful, which isn't always about what I want to write about.
"When there's that much pressure, it's hard to write from an honest space. I've really tried to go back to that feeling of writing from my heart."
"Dreamer", the song from which the tour takes its name, is one of the first songs she was able to write from her heart again, with no filter.
"It connects better with the audiences, who can feel when it's quite honest from you."
2019 has been a busy year for her. Her Live Sessions EP came out in January; she toured with Australian boy band Human Nature on their 30-year celebration national tour; and she performed at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival.
"Dami Im: My Life in Songs" talked about her birth in Korea, her move to Australia, her musical career, her mentors, and the things she had learnt.
"It was a really great opportunity for me to talk about my life, and share with my own voice things I've been through," she said. "When I share my personal experiences, people relate to them in different ways through the lens of their own lives, which I find really beautiful."
Tickets on sale now via www.damiim.com.