'Go on that one day, bub': Cait's leap of faith for late dad on The Voice

Guitar-slinging singer Cait Jamieson adds a country flavour to Richard Marx's hit song Right Here Waiting when she appears on Sunday night's blind auditions episode of The Voice Australia. The 19-year-old insists she selected the song before knowing the chart-topping 1980s pop star was going to be a coach on the show's 14th season. "I think it was just a beautiful song. And then I found out he was a coach; the pressure was on," Ms Jamieson said. "It's always very nerve-wracking singing someone's song in front of them, because there's obviously no one who can top the original. So I just wanted to do it as much justice as I could." READ MORE: 'Rock chick' Rose's angels on Voice stage: the women who believed in her most Country music is Ms Jamieson's blood and appearing on The Voice Australia is something she's wanting to do for a long time. "I used to love watching The Voice Kids with my family. I always wanted to go on that, but I never did," she said. "Dad would always say, 'Oh, you should go on that one day, bub." So I took a leap of faith and thought I might just give it a go, and somehow I ended up on the big stage." On the August 17 episode of the Seven Network show she sings for resident coaches Kate Miller-Heidke, Spice Girl Melanie C, Ronan Keating and of course Marx. READ MORE: What made Charlie O'Derry cry as he sang his way into our hearts on The Voice Being on stage is something that is not foreign to Ms Jamieson. Her parents, Alisha Smith and Keith Jamieson, are singer/songwriters. A key reason for the Queensland artist wanting to pursue a music career. "It always felt normal growing up, I didn't realise that not every young kid would tour around for eight months at a time and go to all the different states and do shows every single night and then drive 10 hours the next day," she said. "It's definitely always been something that I wanted to do; there's no doubt about it." One of Ms Jamieson's fondest childhood memories was being beside the stage for one of her father's performances. "I'd be right next to the stage where Mum and Dad could see me. And I used to crawl into his guitar case and fall asleep, and I would have this big Australian flag that I put over myself as a blanket," she said. As a result, Ms Jamieson grew up with nothing but country music. It was not until Ms Jamieson was around 11 that other genres of music were listened to. READ MORE: 'There's no train wrecks': hit-maker Richard Marx joins The Voice When Keith died in 2022, Ms Jamieson knew it was the music path she wanted to go down, and the main reason for her shot at the blind auditions. "After losing Dad, I had to come out of my own shell a bit more, because he was a very big personality. I just used to hide behind him a bit," she said. "After that, it was definitely cemented. That's what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, if I could." But coming into The Voice audition, it was not as daunting as expected. It also helped having Alisha, who travelled from their hometown of Bouldercombe, Queensland, in attendance. "I used to get a little bit nervous growing up, but I've done it so much now I couldn't wait to get on stage to do my thing. "It was really special to have her come all that way to watch. Mum and Dad had always been there to support me in pretty much every single musical thing I did. Outside her appearance on The Voice on August 17, Ms Jamieson is busy honing her craft in Brisbane. She plays fiddle in a country band and plays festivals and other shows as a solo artist. She's also started recording an album. "It's going pretty well, hopefully I'll have that out by early next year."