Missy Higgins shared an explicit tribute to her mother Margaret as she was inducted into the Hall of Fame at the 2024 ARIA Awards on Wednesday.
The 41-year-old thanked her family for their support over the years because gushing over her mum’s guidance as she took to the stage.
‘The love of my fierce mama bear mum who championed me from the very first day I stepped into the industry,’ the singer said.
‘It’s well known to his day you don’t f**k with Marg Higgins,’ she added as the crowd burst into laughter.
She also called for Australian artists to have a better chance of success in the music industry.
‘The young singer-songwriter just starting out won’t be as fortunate as me,’ she said as she recalled her rise to fame.
Missy Higgins shared an explicit tribute to her mother Margaret as she was inducted into the Hall of Fame at the 2024 ARIA Awards on Wednesday
‘We have to keep demanding local content here. We can’t lose Australian stories: we lose that, we lose who we are.’
Missy also won the award for Best Australian Live Act at the award’s ceremony.
Her induction into the hall of fame comes after Missy recently opened up about the shocking demands established by her record label during the height of her career.
The Australian singer-songwriter revealed the American label – that she did not name – wanted her to ‘look prettier’ by wearing feminine clothing.
Speaking on Abbie Chatfield’s It’s A Lot podcast in September, Missy recalled how her managers wanted her to ‘sex it up’ and ‘have more sex appeal’ by forcing her to wear a dress for her 2007 music video Where I Stood — her first US single.
‘It had just gotten really gross. Like they just, they weren’t seeing me for who I was,’ she told Abbie.
‘They were trying to make me into, you know, some little pop starlet I think. I don’t know, it just didn’t feel authentic.’
‘I had to redo my film clip for Where I Stood, and they wanted me to look prettier in that and they wanted me to wear a dress,’ Missy added. ‘I was adamant that I wanted to wear shorts.
The 41-year-old thanked her family for their support over the years because gushing over her mum’s (pictured) guidance as she took to the stage
‘Word came from the top of the label that, “No, she’s wearing a dress. She’s absolutely not allowed to wear shorts”.’
Missy said she was ‘livid’ at the time.
‘The whole day, I just felt like a triangle trying to squeeze through a circle,’ she sang, referencing the lyrics to her hit song Scar.
She also recently about the pressure she felt to keep her same-sex relationship a secret amid her growing popularity.
Appearing on ABC’s Australian Story, the Sound Of White hitmaker revealed how she had been in a ‘secret’ relationship with her tour manager Emma Goodland early in her career.
‘In the early days, people were very interested in my love life, very interested in my sexuality, who I was dating and what gender I was dating,’ Missy revealed.
‘And I found that really hard at the time, because I was still figuring it out but also just a very private person.’
Emma, who also appeared in the episode, said it was a ‘tricky time’ for the star, trying to keep the relationship out of the public eye.
‘It’s well known to his day you don’t f**k with Marg Higgins,’ she added as the crowd burst into laughter
‘Newsflash. I was that person,’ Emma said, confirming the relationship.
‘We went out. Missy and I went out together and we had a great relationship. We had a really lovely time,’ she added.
Missy, who revealed that her relationship with Emma ended during the recording of her second album On A Clear Night, added that she was amazed with how much easier it was for young people today to express their sexuality.
‘Kids coming up today are so comfortable saying: “I’m fluid in every way – gender fluid, sexuality fluid.” If I was coming up at that age right now, I think I would be the same: No labels,’ she said.
‘But I was coming into the industry at a time where it was very taboo. It all just felt quite terrifying, and I didn’t feel like I could be myself, and all I wanted to do was just to relax somewhere and not be noticed.’
The singer, who topped the charts with her hit Scar back in 2004, first set tongues wagging about her sexuality when she told Rolling Stone magazine in 2005 that ‘everyone is a bit bisexual.’
Appearing on Anh’s Brush With Fame in 2021, Missy said she was pressured to define herself as gay, when she was unsure how to define her own sexuality at the time.
‘Everyone was speculating about my sexuality, which was such a personal thing, and such a thing I was grappling with,’ she said at the time.
She also called for Australian artists to have a better chance of success in the music industry
‘All the journalists were trying to get an answer from me, they all wanted me to say I was gay and to come out loud and proud.’
Missy said that the constant pressure led her to ‘shut down’ and eventually retreat from the limelight.
She said: ‘Every time I did an interview, I was in shutdown mode, because they were probing, trying to get me to slip up. Trying to get me to say a pronoun, you know? I’d be like, How do I describe what this song’s about without saying “she”?’
‘It was so traumatic, in a way. That became my persona: Shutting down in that way meant I wasn’t going to be able to express myself because that would make me way too vulnerable.
