It’s 5pm in Hobart and hundreds of young voices gathered at a local music festival are chanting the lyrics to an unreleased song. “They gon’ know my name!” screams the crowd. They repeat the refrain again and again, as if willing it to come true. On the stage, a young artist with wavy brown hair is grinning from ear to ear. He is Budjerah, the ARIA-winning R&B wunderkind with a voice like sunlight and the charisma to match.
“Well, I was born with it,” the mononymous 20-year-old says with a chuckle. “A lot of people think Budjerah is a stage name. I get asked all the time: ‘What’s your real name?’ and I’m like, ‘It’s Budjerah.’”
A few weeks after that festival in Hobart, the fast-rising star is at Bells Beach in Victoria for the Rip Curl Pro World Surf League competition. He’s performing there, which he’s pretty stoked about. “I get to watch
