2000–2005: Career beginnings, Elsewhere, and solo EPs As a classical singer, she has won awards: Elizabeth Muir Prize (2000), Donald Penman Prize (2001), Linda Edith Allen Memorial Prize (2002) and Horace Keats Prize (2002). Her conservatorium performances were in
Orpheus in the Underworld (2000),
Venus and Adonis (2002) and ''
The Pilgrim's Progress (2002). As an Opera Queensland Developing Artist, Miller-Heidke has performed as an understudy in productions, Sweeney Todd, Don Pasquale and Un ballo in maschera''. In July 2005 she made her solo professional operatic debut with Opera Queensland in the role of Flora in
Britten's The Turn of the Screw. , December 2008. She had been named Queen of the Festival back in 2002–2003. She was lead singer and songwriter with acoustic pop/folk band Elsewhere, which formed in 2000, and released a self-titled extended play of original songs before breaking up in 2003. She briefly played keyboards in
Pete Murray's backing band, John Shand of
The Sydney Morning Herald felt, "The young [Miller-Heidke] raised the bar with a witty rendition of David Byrne's 'Psycho Killer', part Peter Sellers and part mock-opera." Nuttall is the founding mainstay lead guitarist and vocalist in Brisbane-based progressive rock band
Transport, which formed in 2001. Nuttall and fellow Transport members have also worked as part of Miller-Heidke's backing band since 2004. Miller-Heidke was preparing to sing the role of Mabel in
Gilbert and Sullivan's
Pirates of Penzance with
Opera Australia in late 2005. Radio support led to increased national attention for her music: not only did she gain thousands of fans, she signed with
EMI Music Australia, obtained her first talent manager, Leanne de Souza, and her first agent, Dorry Kartabani, at the Harbour Agency. She then began touring Australia with her band. – and in
Port Fairy and
Blue Mountains. She was a guest panellist on TV shows,
RocKwiz,
Spicks and Specks and
Q&A. She has performed on ABC TV's
The Sideshow and
Q&A, on Network Ten's
Rove and
Good News Week, Seven Network's
Sunrise and
The Morning Show, and on live broadcasts of the
ARIA Music Awards.
2006–2007: Circular Breathing and Little Eve (on acoustic guitar at left) and
Mia Dyson, Australia Day Live, January 2007. All three had performed as part of the Broad Festival in August 2006. Joining Miller-Heidke and Conway were
Melinda Schneider,
Mia Dyson and
Ella Hooper. Miller-Heidke released her third EP,
Circular Breathing with six tracks, in May 2006 via Waterbear Records/Sony BMG. For the EP she provided vocals, piano and
wurlitzer, with Nuttall on guitars,
Emma Dean on violin and vocals, Steve Pope on drums and percussion, Scott Saunders on bass guitar, and John Turnbull provided a whistling cameo in "Jamie". Pope and Saunders are Nuttall's bandmates from Transport.
Eleven Magazines reviewer rated it at four-and-a-half stars and explained, "It's very boppy and very light and carefree. The lyrics are a bit lacking, a bit like diary of a teenager kind of thing. Though, the acoustic element of the album, particularly the strong piano use holds it together." The album provided a single, "Apartment", also in 2006. She followed with her debut album,
Little Eve, on 26 May 2007. Aside from herself and members of Transport, Miller-Heidke used strings by Zhivago String Quartet and Danielle Bentley, a choir/chorus of seven singers, and additional session musicians. Australian musicologist,
Ian McFarlane, felt it, "drew comparisons with Kate Bush and Tori Amos or 'like Nina Hagen, just with a much better voice'." At the
ARIA Music Awards of 2007 she received five nominations,
Best Female Artist,
Best Pop Release,
Breakthrough Artist – Album for
Little Eve and
Producer of the Year for Magoo's work on
Little Eve, and
Breakthrough Artist – Single for "Words". A re-recorded version of "Space They Cannot Touch" (originally on
Telegram) was issued in March of the following year as her third single from
Little Eve. The tracks were mostly written during a two-month period with creative collaborator and now-husband, Nuttall. The album's lead single, "
Can't Shake It" debuted on the ARIA Singles Chart at No. 38 in October 2008, making it her first top 40 song. Miller-Heidke and Nuttall co-wrote "
Caught in the Crowd", which was issued as the album's second single in February 2009, which peaked at No. 33 on the ARIA singles charts in June. They were the first Australians to win the grand prize. Her following single, "
The Last Day on Earth" (July 2008), reached No. 3 in Australia, her first top 10 hit.
Curiouser gained critical praise in the United States:
Sasha Frere-Jones from
The New Yorker, wrote "I got lucky last week and found a gem in the pile;
Curiouser. If your favourite American pop star is coming across slightly washed out, you will want to hear Miller-Heidke.
Curiouser is a big clutch of pantone swatches." At the
ARIA Music Awards of 2009 in November, the Miller-Heidke performed and was also nominated four more times,
Single of the Year for "The Last Day on Earth",
Best Video for "The last Day on Earth" (directed by Mark Alston) and Best Female Artist and Best Pop Release for
Curiouser. She toured throughout the US, United Kingdom and continental Europe as support act for
Ben Folds. Folds explained, "she's one of those people that actually does deserve to be called a unique talent." She released her first music DVD,
Live in San Francisco (October 2010). "The Last Day on Earth" received another nomination, for Most Popular Australian Single, in the newly installed public-voted categories at the
ARIA Music Awards of 2010. Through 2010 to 2011, Miller-Heidke played at international festivals,
Coachella,
Lilith Fair,
Rifflandia,
Byron Bay Bluesfest,
Southbound and
Peats Ridge Festival. She also featured on UK singer
Passenger's album
Flight of the Crow (2010).
2011–2013: Fatty Gets a Stylist and Nightflight On 24 June 2011 Miller-Heidke's side project, Fatty Gets a Stylist, released a
self-titled album. The album was written and recorded on a lap top over several months, with Nuttall producing, in different locations in Australia, South East Asia and West London. It reached No. 90 on the ARIA Albums Chart. and in promo for the
Seven Network's shows, in which actors from various shows mime to the words while walking, ending with
Alf Stewart from
Home and Away yelling the final line, "Let's go!".
Fatty Gets a Stylist, was credited to Miller-Heidke as her third solo album,
Liberty Bell, outside Australia. When English opera director,
Tom Morris, saw Miller-Heidke in the role of Baby Jane back in 2009, he had asked her to audition for his production of
John Adams' opera
The Death of Klinghoffer for the
English National Opera (ENO) at the
London Coliseum. Following two months' rehearsals, she sang the role of British Dancing Girl for a two-week run in early 2012. She performed the role again at the
Metropolitan Opera in New York in October 2014. On 13 April 2012 Miller-Heidke's third Australian studio album,
Nightflight, was released. It had been recorded at two studios in Melbourne and another in London: Nuttall co-producing with
Lindsay Gravina (
Jebediah,
the Living End,
Thirsty Merc).
Nightflight peaked at No. 2 – equal highest chart position with
Curiouser – and provided three singles, "
I'll Change Your Mind" (April 2012), "Sarah" (February 2013) and "
Ride This Feeling" (July 2013). "Ride this Feeling" was selected as the promotional theme for the "Visit Brisbane" TV ad campaign in 2013 by Brisbane Marketing as part of the Brisbane City Council's Economic Development Board.
2013–2019: O Vertigo! and ''Muriel's Wedding'' Miller-Heidke sang the screen-role of Amber in the world premiere of
Michel van der Aa's opera
Sunken Garden for the ENO in April 2013. In September Miller-Heidke left Sony Records, which she described as a "corporate juggernaut". She started work on her fourth Australian studio album,
O Vertigo! (14 March 2014), and sought
crowd-funding via
PledgeMusic to record it independently, as well as donations for the protection of the
Great Barrier Reef.
O Vertigo! was produced by John Castle for
Cooking Vinyl Australia and reached No. 4 on the ARIA Albums Chart. Miller-Heidke was co-commissioned by
Lyndon Terracini of
Opera Australia in late 2014 to write an opera,
The Rabbits, based on
John Marsden's children's novel of that name, to be performed in 2015.
The Rabbits was premiered at the
Perth Festival in February 2015, to critical acclaim. At the Helpmann Awards of 2015 she won two more categories for
The Rabbits:
Best New Australian Work (shared with co-writers
Lally Katz and
Iain Grandage) and
Best Original Score (shared with co-composer Grandage). She took on the role of "female protagonist" in van der Aa's interactive
song cycle film,
The Book of Sand (June 2015), based on the short story of
the same name from 1975, by Argentine writer
Jorge Luis Borges. In November 2015, she issued a non-album single, "
I'm Growing a Beard Downstairs for Christmas", featuring comedy rock group,
the Beards. The charity single was used to raise funds for
bowel cancer research. She also debuted as a TV actress in the
Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) comedy opera miniseries,
The Divorce (December) in the role of Caroline. She also sings on the related soundtrack album,
The Divorce: Original Cast Recording. At the
2016 ARIA Music Awards she was nominated for
Best Original Soundtrack, Cast or Show Album with
The Rabbits: Original Live Cast Recording (April 2016) and
Best Comedy Release for "I'm Growing a Beard Downstairs for Christmas" (shared with the Beards). In August 2017 a live album,
Live at the Sydney Opera House, was issued by Kate Miller-Heidke and the
Sydney Symphony Orchestra. She received two more ARIA nominations in
2017:
Best Classical Album for the album and
Engineer of the Year for Bob Scott's work. Miller-Heidke and Nuttall co-wrote new music and lyrics for the musical theatre version of ''
Muriel's Wedding'', which was directed by
Simon Phillips and adapted from the 1994 comedy-drama film of
the same name – both written by
P. J. Hogan. A documentary,
Making Muriel, including interviews with Miller-Heidke and Nuttall, was broadcast by ABC TV in late November 2017. At the Helpmann Awards of 2018 she won Best Original Score (shared with Nuttall) and was nominated for Best New Work (shared with Nuttall and Hogan) for work on ''Muriel's Wedding''. During 2019 the musical toured to Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. Miller-Heidke and Nuttall also co-wrote the music for Phillips' 2018 production of
Twelfth Night for the
Melbourne Theatre Company where they were performed by
Colin Hay. At the
ARIA Music Awards of 2018 Miller-Heidke sang alongside
Missy Higgins and
Amy Sheppard on their rendition of "Not Pretty Enough" in honour of that year's
ARIA Hall of Fame inductee,
Kasey Chambers.
2019–present: Eurovision Song Contest and Child in Reverse " during the first semi-final of the
Eurovision Song Contest 2019 in Tel Aviv, Israel. She won the semi-final and finished ninth in the final. She won the Australian candidacy in February for the
Eurovision Song Contest 2019 in Tel Aviv, Israel. "Zero Gravity" won the first semi-final, before placing ninth in the grand final in May with 284 points. Miller-Heidke received the
Marcel Bezençon award in the Artistic category, given to the best artist as voted on by the commentators of the contest.
The Music AUs Guido Farnell, observed, "eleven nuggets of finely crafted pop tunes that are soft, dreamy and impossibly silky smooth whilst moving to compulsive grooves". Staff writers for
scenstr.com.au, noticed that the tracks were "sculpted into 3 and 4-minute shots of love and fear, memory and empathy, rage and redemption". Miller-Heidke appeared in episode 2 of the 2021
ABC TV comedy show
Preppers as herself and a fantasy character, the Penrith panther, singing her song, "I Am My Own Panther Now". She and Nuttall collaborated again in 2021 with the
Melbourne Theatre Company and
Simon Phillips, writing music for their production of Shakespeare's
As You Like It. The couple composed in collaboration with Connor D'Netto the
monodrama The Call for
Opera Queensland and
Brisbane Festival 2022, featuring soprano
Ali McGregor. Miller-Heidke and Nuttall composed the music for the 2022 television series
Darby and Joan. They wrote the musical comedy
Bananaland, directed by Phillips, for the 2023 Brisbane Festival. Miller-Heidke sang the
national anthem before the
2023 AFL Grand Final and appeared in the half-time show. In February 2024,
Seven Network announced that Miller-Heidke would be joining the
thirteenth season of the singing competition show
The Voice Australia as a coach, replacing
Jessica Mauboy. The season premiered in August 2024, and she features alongside returning coach
Guy Sebastian and fellow new coaches
Adam Lambert and
LeAnn Rimes. She returned as a coach in 2025 for the
fourteenth season with
Melanie C,
Ronan Keating, and
Richard Marx. Miller-Heidke ultimately coached the winner of the season,
Alyssa Delpopolo. Miller-Heidke performed along tenor
Rosario La Spina and soprano Rachelle Durkin at
Opera Queensland's 2024 Festival of Outback Opera in
Winton, singing
Vivaldi's
motet ''
, arias from her opera The Rabbits'', and her "Zero Gravity". ==Band==