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Clare Bowditch

Australian Musician
Music, Meaning and Money

Wednesday, 26 May 2021

National Press Club of Australia

Music is always there for us. Whether we’re celebrating victory, mourning loss, or just trying to cajole ourselves to complete a difficult or otherwise tedious task, music is the connector we turn to. It’s our fast-track to inspiration. It’s our constant reminder that we are never alone. 

But what happens at times like these, when music, and those who make, support, tour, promote and live for Australian music, are themselves under genuine threat of devastation?

Music is always there for us. Are we always there for music?

Join Clare Bowditch for stories and songs that explore the question of where to now for Australian music, and the people who live for it.


Clare Bowditch is a musician, broadcaster, sometimes actor, speaker, entrepreneur, and just recently became a top-ten, best-selling author.  Somewhat of a slashie you might say.

She has won the coveted ARIA Award for Best Female for her music, the Rolling Stone Woman of the Year Award for her contribution to Australian culture, and has been nominated for a Logie Award for her role as Rosanna on popular television show Offspring. 

Her very first book, a partial memoir entitled “Your Own Kind Of Girl” was released through Allen & Unwin in October 2019 and made an immediate splash with a top 7 placement on the Neilsen Book Charts, #1 seller for Dymocks, Readings and Booktopia and two re-printings in the first week. It won the 2020 Australian Book Industry Award (ABIA) for “New Writer of The Year” Award.

In August 2020, she released an Audible Original audio book entitled “Tame Your Inner Critic” which has remained at the top of the Audible Charts since the day of its release. It epitomises her unique approach to skill-building, and story-telling, using a novel mix of humour, story-telling and science to help people have better relations with the voice of their self-doubt.

In music she has toured and performed at every festival, venue and truck-stop Australia has to offer and played with the likes of Leonard Cohen, Paul Kelly, Missy Higgins, Gotye and John Butler, to name just a few. 

For two years she was a beloved broadcaster on the ABC speaking with millions of Victorians every week. She’s interviewed many of the greats, including sports stars, comedians, politicians, business leaders, and her favourite: other soccer mums and dads who are doing what they can to make a difference. 

She has been a professional speaker, emcee, and large-scale choir leader for over a decade, having trained under mentors Fabian Dattner, and Faye White. Often focusing on her favourite topics of the importance of creativity and gaining courage.

In 2012, suspecting the future of business lay in harnessing creative talent and cultivating empathy, she crowd-funded the enterprise Big-Hearted Business, an educational resource reminding the world of the R.O.I. of “giving a shit". 

After retiring from radio to pursue her creative projects, Bowditch has already had a very fecund time with “Your Own Kind Of Girl” and releasing the songs “Woman” and “If I Could Give You”.  She is currently working on her sixth album and second book.

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