Mirusia Louwerse is world-wide opera singing sensation. To be specific, she is an opera soprano soloist, though in the following interview she reveals that behind this classical foreground lies a true master of all genres. At twenty-one years old, she was the youngest ever winner of the Dame Joan Sutherland opera award (2006), and since then has recorded a string of her own no.1 hits. Mirusia regularly takes time out to return to her own roots – a recent song was aptly titled ‘Home’. Thankfully for us, the choruses of her life, the times when she returns to the stage, are never far away. In fact, I was lucky to catch Mirusia for a chat as she waited on a connecting flight from Singapore to the Netherlands, for a New Year’s day concert kicking off a 2014 tour…

Hi Mirusia, how are you?

Good. How are you?

Very good too thanks. You are in Singapore at the moment, heading on tour?

Yes, I am. I’m heading over to the Netherlands to tour with Andre Rieu again, through Germany and Belgium again for two months.

Great! I first discovered you after stumbling on a performance of yours with Andre Rieu, your Ave Maria song in particular. It is so wonderful and captivating that I was intrigued to learn more about you.

Thank you!

I was wondering to start with if you could tell me a little about your background, where you are from, where you grew up…

Sure. I was born in Brisbane, in Australia, and I grew up in Australia but my parents are Dutch, so they emigrated to Australia before I was born. They started a beautiful new life. So I grew up sort of in the bush in Australia, and grew up with nature. So I really love nature and animals and things like that. I think that’s where my love for animals comes from. And yeh, I grew up bilingual of course. Very coincidentally I ended up working with Andre (Rieu) in the future, who is Dutch of course, so that came in very handy. But yeah it was all very coincidental. Yeah, so I grew up in Australia. I loved my childhood. My childhood was very much based on the outdoors, going to the bush, going sailing, camping. And you know, I think I had quite an ordinary childhood, do you know what I mean? I wasn’t pushed by my parents to be a singer ever, so that came a bit later on. I was always singing though. As an only child it was kind of the only thing I could do on my own, to have some fun (laughing).

And when you were growing up did you always want to become a professional singer?

Yeah, I did. I sort of never saw myself doing anything else.

With a lean towards opera music, or other areas?

Yeah, actually it was anything that sort of suited my voice. So, you know, When I was fourteen I really started professionally as a country singer. It was first ever paid gig (laughing). Yeah, so I started as a country singer and then I was asked to… I mean I was in the high school musical of course, and doing choir in high school and things like that… I was asked by a parent of one of the students at my schools, who’d seen me in one of the musicals, to come and sing at his restaurant, and he played piano. So it was kind of like lounge music that I was singing, really jazzy sort of stuff. So I sort of started doing that. And because I was singing this jazzy stuff, I loved it and I was singing a lot of like Dionne Warwick sort of style. I got a lot of requests to sing songs like ‘Memory’ from Cats, and Phantom of the Opera, ‘cause people would come up and you know, they are a little bit drunk and they say “can you sing opera?”, you know they just try to challenge you. So what I tried to do was to always be prepared. So that I could just blow them away so that they could never say “well, you couldn’t do it”. I was always just one step ahead. Yeah, and then when I finished high school after singing in this jazz restaurant for many years, my music teacher said, “what are you going to do after high school?”. And I said “well, I’d just love to be a singer but I don’t know where to go from here”, and he said, “you should study at the Conservatorium of Music”. So I actually auditioned for the Conservatorium, and I wanted to audition for jazz, but I actually ended up auditioning for classical music. Without ever having really sung classical music or been trained in classical music. But the thing is, when I was singing the sort of Phantom of the Opera musical pieces, it seemed to fit in my voice so much better than country music or jazz music. So I was like, maybe this is the way I should be going. So yeah, I guess it was, because I really started to find my passion for classical music when I started at the Con. And yeah, since then I’ve just always loved classical music. Especially the classical crossover rep, because that way I can still approach quite a large audience, that maybe necessarily might not be interested in opera, do you know what I mean? The ones that are a little bit scared to enter a symphony orchestra recital or something. So, I like that, I like that everybody should be able to enjoy classical music, it shouldn’t just be for the elite. And I think in that way I really follow in Andre’s footsteps.

And do you ever sing any country or jazz music these days, even just for yourself?

Yeahhh, I still… I mean I just released a new CD and DVD called ‘Beautiful That Way’, and it’s got a whole heap of different things. I open the show with a song called ‘Home’, which was written by a friend of mine in Australia, and it’s kind of got a country feel to it you know, it’s kind of a country song. But it’s actually a waltz, so it sort of mixes my two, you know, sort of lives together in a way. And then I sing a jazz song called ‘Summertime’. Then after that I’ll sing an operatic aria, ‘Solveigs lied’ from Peer Gynt. So, I like to mix it up and, you know, I like to surprise my audiences. I think my next genre will probably be rap or something (laughing).

(Laughing). And do you listen to a lot of that kind of music too?

I think it’s just a random mix.

I had read that you describe yourself as quite a simple person. One quote was that at a festival you said you are “as homegrown as the strawberries”…

(Laughing) Yeah!

That’s a lovely quote. Do you think it’s from your roots that you just like the outdoors and the Australian way of live?

Yeah, just because I stand on the stage and sing for thousands of people doesn’t mean that I’m not just an ordinary person as well. People might see me, and and thousands might see me, but that’s just because of what I do. But deep down I am just Mirusia from Australia, the girl who loves kangaroos and koalas, and hanging out in the bush and on the bay…

And do you still like to be outdoors in the same kind of way?

Absolutely. I actually just got back from a really long sailing trip for Christmas, which was fantastic. We took the catamaran over to Moreton island, which is an island just off the coast of Brisbane. And I just loved it. Because we just sailed along the coastline and we see all the beautiful animals… we saw so many turtles, and we saw heaps of… shovelnose sharks, but they’re not actually sharks, they’re a stingray. They’re sort of like a mixture between a stingray and a shark. It’s like if a stingray and a shark got together they’d produce the shovelnose! (laughing).

(Ed. note: Funnily enough the shovelnose might have a musical connection to Murisia too as it is often referred to as a ‘guitarfish’ due to its unique shape!).

That’s awesome. I had actually just recently interviewed another Australian, Dr. Conrad Hoskin, a biologist who discovered new species there in Cape Melville, Northern Australia. He too had a similar love of being outside, and in nature…

Yeah? I was just speaking to somebody here in transit, a guy from Moscow. He was telling me that he doesn’t like to go to see the cities in Australia. But he likes to see the nature. And the cities, there is nothing good about the cities. But the nature is so beautiful. And I said, I guess so. Australians live outdoors, everything’s about barbecuing, and having an outdoor set, sitting outside, and having a couple of beers, and that’s really Ozzy too.

Yeah! Sounds like a great way of life.

Yeah!

I had also read your famous story about being called up by Andre Rieu, and it seemed to be kind of serendipitous in that your aunt contacted him and it all kind of fell into place…

(Ed. note: Mirusia’s aunt, living in the Netherlands, sent an email to Andre Rieu asking him to check out the website and music of her niece – a type of email Andre says he receives all the time. However, he did check it out and then immediately called Mirusia on the telephone and asked her, despite her initial disbelief, to join his world tour. Within forty-eight hours she had flown from Australia to the Netherlands and secured her spot with him).

Absolutely. It was a bit of a right time, right place sort of thing. I mean, everybody knows the story and I’ve told it a thousand times, you can read it in every interview I’ve ever given (laughing). And yeah, my aunt sent that email and it is like that in life. Right time, right place. He was looking for a soprano. And that email came in right at the right time. And he called me, and I flew over to the Netherlands. But it was also a trust thing also. Because you know, he didn’t know if I was really that good. He just flew me over to the Netherlands, just expecting me to be what I said on my website. I’m sure there are lots of people who have websites who aren’t really who they are. And it was the same for me, I mean, I suddenly had this guy on the phone claiming to be Andre and sending me an air ticket. It could have been anyone! (laughing).

Were you nervous to go there, to perform for him and seal the deal, or were you feeling very confident?

I don’t know what my feeling was. I mean I can still remember my trip over, I flew with Thai Airways I believe. And I just remember flying over and thinking, “Yeah, I’m just going to go to my new job now. I know I’m going to get the job”. I sort of sat there saying, “I’ve never met this guy in my life but I feel like I know him already”. And we both had the same feeling, when we met each other for the first time in real life, it was like meeting somebody we already knew.

That’s great! The whole thing seems incredibly natural.

Yeah, it really was. And the way that we make music together, the way that we can just sit and have a chat, it’s all very natural, there’s no forcing. He sometimes tells me, “oh I would love you to, you know, give a bit of glissando on that note”, or something, and I’ll be like, “oh my gosh, yeah exactly, you know, that’s exactly what fits there”. And there’s never been any disagreement in that way. It just flows so naturally it’s great. And even now I’m flying now, I arrive on New Year’s eve, and we’ve got a performance on New Year’s day, so you know, I don’t need to rehearse, because Andre just knows, “oh she’s got it, she can just do it”, there’s no rehearsal time needed. It’s really good when you’ve got that trust, you know?

That’s brilliant. And do you ever think what you might be doing if you hadn’t gotten that call?

Yeah, I do think about it. At the time I was touring with a company doing Scotland the Brave, which was a Scottish show. So, I was singing in a Scottish accent (laughing), halfway around the world, in a tartan kilt. Um, but um, I don’t know, it’s so hard, I really believe in destiny and I believe eventually I probably would have ended up working with him anyway. I really believe that. I don’t believe that in our life, the really big things in our life, that are destined to happen… I just don’t think there is any way that they wouldn’t happen. It’s the people that we meet. And it’s the things that we do. I think they are always destined. That’s just my belief and that’s what I believe anyway.

Cool! And in regards to the orchestra and your singing, I was wondering what effect it has on you… I mean are you always very aware of them when you’re singing, do you feel very closely connected, leading them or them you, or a bit of both?

I think it’s definitely a group situation. Even though I’m the soloist standing in the front it is still a group effort. Because without them I am just singing acapella, do you know what I mean? I really believe it’s a group effort. Everyone is feeling the same things. Especially when I work with Andre, every night I’ll have one of the orchestra members come up and just say, “tonight I was really connected with you”, and, “tonight I really felt emotionally moved by what you were doing”, and every night I’ll have, you know, we’ll talk about the performance and what we can do.

I also… when I’m making music though you can actually see it happening… I walk on stage and as soon as the music starts, I go into this sort of bubble. And you can actually see it happening. I didn’t know that I did this, but my auntie, not the one who sent the email, another one, my auntie actually said to me, “do you know when you go on stage, as soon as the music starts, you’re different?”. And I was like, “you know, you’re right”. It’s like I lock myself in this bubble that can’t be burst until the applause starts. You can see it, you actually can really see it happening. As soon as the music starts and I’m in that mood, you see me close up, I’m in my musical bubble, and as soon as the song is finished you’ll see a break.

Sure! And that’s probably, partially at least, what is so captivating. Like when they show clips of the audience being completely enthralled by you or the music. Probably you need to be in that bubble to have that sort of profound effect on them?

Yeah… and it’s so weird to watch yourself back as well. I watch the videos back and I go, “was that me, did I really do that?”, (laughing). It’s so weird to watch it. Especially, I mean I just recently filmed my first solo live DVD, the guys that worked on that production, they captured the audience. When I saw it for the first time it was like, “wow, those people are watching me and their faces, and the way that they’re moved, and they’re crying…”, I don’t know, it’s so incredible to watch that. I guess that’s what you aim for as well, as a singer. You aim to move people. You aim to… you know, take people with you on your musical journey.

Sure. And do you ever feel moved yourself, while you are singing? Some of the songs are very emotional themselves, I wondered if you feel the profound effect yourself?

Yeah. Especially doing the work that I do. For example this tour I’m doing now with Andre, it’s almost two months of touring, but I’m doing the same songs every night. So, it’s very repetitive what you’re doing. But it’s very important to every night find an emotional connection to the music. Otherwise you are just a mechanical instrument, aren’t you? You’re not really there making music anymore, you’re just on auto-pilot, and I don’t ever want it to be like that. And sometimes it can be harder than other times. I remember, I was singing a song called ‘Wishing you were somehow here again’, from the Phantom of the Opera.

Oh yeah, I love that one.

Yeah, and this was in the first year that I was touring with Andre. And in that first year that I toured with Andre, I actually lost five of my very close friends. Five people that I knew passed away in that one year. And I was singing that song, and every night I’d be singing, and it was so difficult because I would be singing ‘Wishing you were somehow here again’, a song about a father who is passed away, but you listen to the words while you are singing them and it’s just difficult… it’s hard. It is really hard.

Wow, that’s so sad. And probably not a lot of people knew that when you were giving those performances…

No, nobody knows that.

That gives it a completely different meaning to your whole performance…

Absolutely. ‘Cause you can’t really stand on stage and go, “yeah, my friend just died”. Everyone’s just gonna go, “Um, okay, thanks for letting us know”. There’s no sympathy that way from an audience because they are there for the entertainment. You are not there to shock people, to make people feel sad. So, you know… but yeah, people sometimes don’t recognize the background story of what’s going on with the artist. And we do go through the same hard, emotional things that other people go through as well. We lose friends. And we have our own personal issues. We all have our own things going on. Pets can die. We also suffer from homesickness, especially being away from home for so long. So there’s lots of things… and we also get sick sometimes, you know, that’s also something that can happen. So, yeah people do need to realise that we are just normal people. And I think that’s what I aim to do when I’m performing. I’m just a natural girl. I just do what I do. When I’m singing I just take you away for a moment, and then we’ll come back to Earth and we’ll just be normal again (laughing).

(Laughing). Sure! Cool. I was also going to ask you about some of the technical side of things, like your breathing techniques…

Yeah!

I had read a little about it and noticed that you have an amazing ability to take some notes and keep them going for a very long time, and even to raise them up close to the end, just when we might expect you to finish. Is that something you learned, or does it come naturally?

I think it’s like of a whole mixture of stuff, and also like I was saying before about the jazz club thing with people saying, “can you sing this song”, “can you sing that note”, or whatever, it was always about proving people wrong. And you know, you’re an only child so you have to always show that you are the best (laughing). I also think it’s gotta be appropriate too. You can’t just do it in the wrong place… But yeah, I think you are talking about a song like ‘Time to say goodbye’, where at the end we’ve really got that long note, and normally that note is cut off, but with Andre’s orchestra we actually just keep building and keep building until people are like, “what the…”, “what’s going on here”. We had a really funny situation this past year. I sang at the Vrijthof at Maastricht, and we were singing ‘Time to say goodbye’. And they always have these restaurants along the side of the square that have a package deal where they can see the show but they also get a dinner. So there, was this one… I think he was a bit drunk, a wannabe tenor, who was singing along the whole show, like really loudly. He wasn’t part of the show, just an audience member, sitting on the side, bit of a wannabe, every time somebody was singing he was singing at the top of his lungs to sort of overpower them! Anyway, so it comes up to the end of ‘Time to say goodbye’, and it’s got the three notes (begins to sing), “lo, con…”, and then I take a breath and then I do the really long note. But while I was taking a breath to do the long note… because I always pause a bit so that people are like, “is she going to make it?”, the guy, the drunk guy, starts singing the note. So, I stopped the song, and I put my hands on my hips, and I sort of went like, I sort of looked at him and went like, “okay, I’ll wait ‘till you’re finished”, (laughing). And the audience were laughing. And when he finished people started clapping. And then I did my note. It was so cool, and we were just like, “what just happened”, (laughing). I love moments like that. I don’t know who the guy is, never saw him, never met him. He never came up and said, “I was the guy”. It was just such a funny moment.

Amazing. And I was going to ask you about your solo work… is that something you focus on also, and you just take time out to travel with Andre as well?

Yeah, absolutely. I’m loving combining the two. I mean, that’s kind of ultimately what I wanted to do. For a while I talked to Andre when I went back to Australia last year, and we made the decision together. I was feeling a bit homesick at the time, and you know, it was time for me to just start my own thing. And so, I went back to Australia and recorded an album called ‘Home’. And toured with that around the world. And so, out of that came ‘Beautiful that way’, the next album which we just released a few weeks ago just in time for Christmas. And um, yeah… I think releasing my own albums on the side, and working with Andre is a really nice combination. I’m really happy. Because, in a way, he’s my mentor, and I learn from him a lot, and I love to see what he does. I mean, he’s so great on the stage. Not only is he a great entertainer and businessman, but he also loves to stand on the stage. He loves music. I just love to see that passion. It moves me, because I see sort of what I want to do as well in the future. I want to follow in his footsteps. And I’ve said that from the very beginning, you know?. I want to follow in his footsteps and bring classical music to the masses. And I guess that’s kind of what I’ve started doing now. And it is working. I’ve got such a lovely, lovely fanbase. And they’re so beautiful. And they always write to me, and I try to write back to everybody, you know, on my Facebook fan page I’ve got thirty-five thousand fans, and I write back to them. It’s great. And it is me writing back to them. It’s not someone else. I think that’s something you have to appreciate, the people who appreciate you. Because without them you wouldn’t be anywhere. You’d just be still singing in the jazz bar, down in Cleveland (laughing).

(Laughing). And I was wondering too, having dedicated your life to music and performance, it’s a unique life, if there is any key lessons you’ve learned along the way, in relation to life or philosophy to life or that kind of thing?

There’s so many things I’ve learned. I mean, like I said before, I believe that everything that happens was meant to happen. I really believe we are all destined to do things in our lives. For example, meeting Andre, that was destined to happen. But it could have happened sooner, or later. Things just have a way of figuring themselves out. And I also believe in never giving up your dream. I mean, if you really believe that you are good at something, and you can do something, you’ve just got to chase that dream. And don’t ever let it go. And never let anybody tell you that you can’t do it. That’s the worst. That’s also something I don’t like about those talent shows like American Idol for example, where they tell singers that you’re not good enough and maybe you should stop singing. That’s not nice. People… they might not be that good at singing, but don’t tell someone to stop singing. That can shatter their life.

Sure. And do you think sometimes for other singers who feel within themselves that they can be a great singer, but who perhaps haven’t gotten to that stage yet where they actually are very good, if you know what I mean… it has to be a balance of following your dream but also putting in a huge amount of hard work?

That’s right. Absolutely. It takes a lot of hard work. If you’ve got a dream, you’ve got to work hard to keep the dream alive, you can’t just let it fade away. You know, I worked so hard to get where I am today. I was always, I don’t know, just… I always wanted to get to the next level. There’s no limit to how far you can go. Even the most famous singer in the world, someone like Madonna, or Lady Gaga, you know, Katy Perry, all of those singers, they will keep going, you know? They won’t reach a limit where it’s like, “Okay, I’ve had it now, see ya”. Do you know what I mean? And that’s with everybody, not just with singers, with everything. If you are a fantastic journalist, you are not going to go, “Okay, I wrote one article, that’s it”, (laughing).

Right! And you mentioned destiny a few times… that’s probably equally true that all your hard work kind of meets the right time and right place, such that it allows destiny to happen?

Absolutely. And also the people that you meet. I believe everybody is meant to meet who they have in their lives. Especially for relationships at that moment. Even strangers you meet on the street, you meant to pass them at that moment.

Sure. And one question I had in regard to modern music, modern opera, I was wondering if you think there is room for a modern opera comparable in brilliance to those of centuries past?

Well, that’s the thing… when you are going through the Conservatorium you are thinking, “why are all these operas so old?”. I mean, there are new operas but they are just not being performed. They’re just not popular, I guess, ‘cause it’s not the culture anymore. When Mozart was writing operas that was the pop culture. So people would go to the opera because that was the thing to do. Where as nowadays, going to the opera is like, “um, do you want to go to the opera?, “oh no thanks, I’d rather go see Taylor Swift”, you know, like… (laughing). So, I’m really wondering if in three hundred years something like Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musicals, or Wicked for example, is gonna be considered what we consider today to be opera. Do you know what I mean? I really wonder. And then I think, “how far can music really evolve?”. There’s a great video on youtube somewhere and it documents that our music is becoming so much less creative. Because we use the same words in each song. And we use the same chords. I mean, all of the pop music that you hear nowadays on the radio, it’s all the same chords. You can sing each song to the backing track of a different song. It’s all the same. They’re all the same chords. They’re all the same progression. They are all verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, first chorus. It’s all the same. It really is quite incredible. And you know, sometimes I think I’m just waiting for something new, something amazing. And I feel that there’s something new waiting to happen. But who knows when it will?

It seems like it needs to be in the classical or opera arenas because there is so much more flexibility and diversity. With pop it is very limited, even if they play instruments with their bands…

It’s become limited. People don’t have the creativity anymore. And I think it’s also the fact that it’s become very commercial. It’s like, lets pop out a song. You’ve got an album to make. You’ve got two days in the studio, let’s just write a crap song. It’s just… music has become very much about the commerciality and nothing about the musicality.

Sure. Are there any modern musicians who you do like?

I think a lot of the musicians nowadays are experimenting a little. And I think that’s what we are getting to when I say that something is going to happen. There’s something new going to happen. Because a lot of musicians are experimenting. Especially people like, for example, Mumford and Sons, who are sort of bringing this country music kind of into the mainstream. You’ve got… ah goodness me… even the really independent, the indie artists, like Birdy for example… Sara Bareilles is another really great example of that.

And, I was going to ask you about your work with the Australian Children’s Music Foundation, if you could tell me a little about that?

Mmmm. It’s a really long story, but I’ll cut it short (laughing). So, when I was growing up, obviously I was speaking Dutch but I was living in Australia. So, my parents knew that I had to go to school eventually in Australia, so they decided to buy me some cassettes by some children’s musicians, sort of like children entertainers. And on TV we have a show, I’m not sure if you know it, a show called Playschool. It’s a show for kids and it mixes music. They sing little songs while they are baking. Or they are making something out of clay and they sing little songs about it. Or the colour of the day, or the clock and what time it is. Anyway, one of those artists from that TV show was Don Spencer. So, as I was growing up, I had a cassette called Feathers, Fur or Fins, by Don Spencer and it was a cassette full of songs about Australian animals. And I kind of grew up singing that, and it helped me with learning how to speak English. Years and years and years later I was touring Scotland the Brave, and I was talking to the fiddler and I said, “oh do you remember that old cassette from the eighties Feather, Fur or Fins?”. And the fiddler said to me, “you wouldn’t believe it but I actually played on that album”. And I was like, “whatttever, you did not”. And he was like, “I so did, I know Don Spencer really well”. And I was like “no way, he’s like my childhood idol!”, he’s the reason I started singing really, you know! Because I was singing along to all these songs. So, he said, “contact Don and let him know that you used to listen to his music”. So, I emailed him. Like, I didn’t dare to, but I just did, you know like, “Hi Don, well yeah I listened to your music as a child, and I now sing with Andre Rieu around the world, but yeah, just wanted to say thanks for inspiring me as a child”. He straight away was in contact with me, and we ended up meeting up in Sydney. And it’s like, there he was. My childhood idol, and it’s so weird. I was… I was… starstruck! I didn’t know what to say. All I could say was, “You sound like my tape. You sound like my tape”. And Don was like, “you’re so cute”, and I was like, “keep talking”. (Laughing). A very comforting voice you know, to hear after all those years. Anyway, we started talking and we became very very good friends. And he started to explain to me how he is the founder of the Australian Children’s Music Foundation. They do amazing work. Raising funds for kids, and indigenous children, and kids that are underprivileged or maybe in juvenile detention centers, who just can’t afford to, or just don’t have the ability to be exposed to music. And we raise money to give these kids a musical education, because music is a healer. Not only for sicknesses and your health, but also for mental health. And some of these kids, in juvenile detention centers for example, when they start to play music and guitar and get taught by a professional teacher, you can see a really large development in them, and progress. So we raise money for them, for the kids. It’s also to bring money into schools where music classes have been cut from funding, which happens very often. Especially right now with the economy the way it is. A lot of music groups have had their funding cut. And it’s very sad, because without a musical education, I mean, for example myself, I wouldn’t be where I am now without a musical education. So, we get that back in schools. And Don is an amazing guy. And every year we do a fantastic concert called Duets. This year we raised over one hundred and thirty thousand dollars. It’s a really great foundation and I’m very much behind it. I’m their international ambassador. And I love working with Don. Fan-tastic, yeah.

So you must think that music is a great learning tool for people’s development? It probably brings out great empathy in people and shows them both the beauty of music and of life?

Yeah, that’s right. Absolutely. I think music is a wonderful tool. And without music… I mean, we hear it all around us. You can’t escape it. It’s everywhere. It’s on TV. It’s on the radio. It’s in your mind. Everybody, I believe, even has a musical soundtrack for their life. I mean, we hear a song and we go, “oh that was playing at my graduation”, or, “oh that was playing when I was five years old, I remember that song”. Everybody has a musical soundtrack.

And is there anything you are particularly excited about for your own future?

Well, right now, we are releasing my album and DVD ‘Beautiful that way’ internationally. It will be released in Australia in May, for mother’s day. We’re going to go and do a really really great launch for that in Brisbane. And I’ll be touring that around the world, so that’s going to be really exciting!

Great. I’ll try to catch you somewhere, if I am travelling around I’ll keep an eye on your tour calendar.

Yeah! Please do. You are always welcome to come and join us.

Thanks a million for taking the time to speak with me. It’s been really fascinating and a great pleasure.

Oh, thank you. I really look forward to reading what you’ve got to write.

Great. And all the best for your New Year’s performances.

Thank you so much. Have a great 2014. Bye, bye.

A selection of some of my favourite Mirusia performances below:























For more on Mirusia you can check out her website at: http://www.mirusia.net

Or follow her on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/MirusiaLouwerse

Or Twitter: https://twitter.com/mirusia

Or Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/mirusiamusic