Amali Ward is a young lady who has every reason to have high hopes for a very successful career. In fact her name Amali means hope in Swahili.
I spoke to Amali last week when she returned from a late night gig in Canberra to Sydney and, even though she must have been tired, she was charming, gracious and cheerfully chatted to me.
Amali is a Tasmanian success story and tells me Tassie is a great supporter and always has been. She is a young woman who has forged ahead in the career of rhythm and blues singer, confident and witty, having written lyrics since she was about 14 years old and backs that talent up with a degree in internet communications. Amali is soon to release her first album ‘Back in Time’ with one of the singles ‘Knock you out’ already gaining attention.
The former New Town girl was a contestant on Australian Idol when she was only 16. At 17 she had moved to Sydney, when things started happening quickly, working in the US, and a surprise one morning receiving an email at 2am that she had won the John Lennon song contest.
Amali tells me that lots of singers enter these competitions not expecting to hear back from them and sometimes due to the protracted judging process it comes as a pleasant surprise when out of the blue you to find you are a winner. Amali won in her genre of rhythm and blues and was especially honoured that one of her Motown heroes Lamont Dozier was one of the judges.
Amali has lots of plans for the future including another hope, to spend some time performing her music in Europe, as her dad is British and she holds a British passport.
In the meantime you can see Amali make a triumphant return to Tassie with her band that she is excited to showing her home state. Amali performs at Irish Murphys in Launceston on March 21 and the Republic Bar in Hobart on March 22.
Paula Xiberras
