Ivy York

“I had a little wig and everything! Everyone used to call it my Dolly Parton wig. I just wouldn’t be without it. Obviously, as I got older I listened to the radio and other people, but Dolly started it all!”
Dolly Parton really does have a lot to answer for, but the diminutive country legend can be proud that she helped inspire Australian singer Ivy York. The eclectic singer first found her stunning voice through listening to Dolly as a small child and began impersonating Ms Parton at local singing contests. It was the start of a musical career that later saw Ivy tour her native Australia and Germany as a pop star, before she quit singing and moved to London. Several years on, Ivy has now returned to the scene, mixing country and Bollywood to dazzling effect on her new record THE CALL OF SPRING.
“My sister and I used to do these concerts until we were seven years old,” Ivy explains. “Then she decided it wasn’t her thing. So, I started going in for talent competitions on my own. I did quite well and then karaoke arrived in Adelaide. They had all these kid’s karaoke competitions. I used to love them.”
As much as she loved taking part in these karaoke competitions, there was one niggling problem. The young Ivy did not know any of the songs and the first karaoke machines to hit Australia were dominated by artists like Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline.
“There’s a much wider selection now,” she adds. “But my parents sat me down and made me listen to these records.”
Ivy carried on singing as a teenager and eventually left the cosy confines of Adelaide and moved closer to Sydney, so she could pursue her dreams of becoming a professional musician. “I’d done a band demo and started to send it out,” she says. “I started playing for bands and then I got a record deal. I’d had a lot of dodgy auditions by then. The deal was actually with Albert Productions, which is AC/DC’s record label. Savage Garden had just taken off, so my a&r decided to create a girl version of that group.”
Unfortunately, the new band floundered and Ivy soon found herself reincarnated as a moody solo act. “There was an American singer called Jewel and they [the record label] said you’re going to be like her now,” she recalls. “The next thing I knew we were doing all these moody songs, which I wasn’t into. Whenever I was in the studio I would get my backside kicked, because I did something wrong. I remember when Britney got a boob job, my producer said did I want one. I did feel a lot of pressure.”
Bizarrely, it was an offer to tour Germany that finally gave Ivy a way out of pop hell.
“I saw it as my big opportunity. I wasn’t allowed to change my image. I was rebelling a bit by then, so by the time I got to Germany, I was dressing up indie-style. I was just sick of being told what to do,” she adds. “I had always wanted to go London. I just decided not to go back to Australia.”