'Australian Idol' alumna Paulini has today released her song, 'We Are One', which she hopes will take her to Turin as Australia's Eurovision entrant for 2022. The Fijian-born soul singer who rose to prominence of the debut season of 'Idol' was announced in October as one of eleven artists vying for the 'Eurovision - Australia Decides' crown.
The song has been officially released in Australia.
At the time of her announcement in the Australia Decides line up Paulini told audiences they could expect her to "belt out... the big notes" on the Gold Coast, and her performance will have a "diva moment".
In an interview with Aussievision she shared a bit about the background behind her song:
"So I basically learned how to sing and grew up singing in church. And so a lot of those elements are in there. But the song is about empowering people to come together, unify, you know, through love, that's the only thing that's going to get get us past this whole pandemic, and all of these things are happening that are, you know, crazy, is our unified love for one another and respecting one another's opinions and choices. So, it's got an element of everything."
Paulini also elaborated on the "diva moment":
"Like when I say diva, I'm not saying like, you know, I'm a diva. And, kind of like I'm Mariah Carey. I just mean, I'm coming from a place where I'm bringing my experiences and the things that I've gone through into the song and it's an anthem that I'm trying to kind of get out there to people and to get them to think about the things that are happening and that the only thing that we really need to do is just be there for one another and show kindness and love."
Paulini was approached for Australia Decides and selected her entry from the song portal of 700 songs. She revealed the process:
"I had a vision of what kind of song I wanted... I pretty much said to them, okay, this is kind of things that I want to talk about in the song. And if you have anything in the portal that kind of talks about these things, and send them through, and I think I got five or six songs. And I basically just listened to those songs. I chose the one I liked the best and the one that I thought I could put my experiences in and make it as real as possible for myself and for others out there."
She also shared the changes made to the original song:
"I didn't want to get up there and just perform something that wasn't true to me. And I basically heard this song and lyrics and I had to do a few tweaks. Lyrically, I had to tweak, a few lyrics here and there. And the track, we basically, like, redid the whole track, so it is nothing like the original track that I first got. So yeah, it's exciting. Like I said, the process of creating something new, and just the whole performance side of of what I'm going to do on the night, that excites me, and I love the song. The song is is something that I believe in very much. And I stand by, you know, I think that's something that we all need to, we all need love at the end of the day."
'We Are One' was written by Rick Price and John Capek.
Paulini will perform 'We Are One' at 'Eurovision - Australia Decides' on the Gold Coast on February 25 and 26.
‘We Are One' is available now on iTunes and streaming on Spotify and Apple Music.
Check out our interview with Paulini here: