In last month’s Triple J Hottest 100 countdown, the annual song poll which has been career-making for so many Australian artists, one groundbreaking track was conspicuous by its absence.
While Australian musicians dominated the count, with two-thirds of the nation’s most popular songs, only a tiny fraction of these were performed by women of colour: Sycco’s ‘Dribble’ and Thelma Plum’s cover of the Powderfinger ballad ‘These Days’.
That ‘Twisting Words’, by the prodigiously gifted 21-year-old indigenous songwriter Miiesha, wasn’t even part of the conversation is an extraordinary omission – it is one of the most affecting and innovative Australian singles in years.
Its climax, “Know your ocean ain’t gonna hold me”, is truly cathartic, the stuff of major R&B hits, but the song keeps twisting away from expectation, with Miiesha’s searching, upward inflection posing the lyrics as a series of questions rather than assurances.
The chorus has a gospel grandeur that feels utterly earned, yet Miiesha doesn’t rest on these majestic chords – instead, the song keeps on moving and travelling, embodying a flow that can’t be contained.
The bridge packs in an emphatic statement of self “No-one can make me something else / I can’t make myself / In my mind”, the singer delaying the next line to make her meaning clear, while the ending comes surprisingly soon, leaving us in a mood of irresolution.
‘Twisting Words’ should be recognised as a moment in Australian pop history, but just try searching for the lyrics online. Beyond a handful of respectful reviews, the song hasn’t made its mark with audiences, and Miiesha is far from being a household name.
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Which begs the question: what does it take to crack the national zeitgeist?
The highest-ranked song by a Black female artist in the Hottest 100 this year – and in the poll’s 32-year history – is Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s sui generis ‘WAP’, two global superstars riding a perfect storm of art direction and sex positivity. Is this the kind of heft one needs to seize the public imagination as a woman of colour?
A Pitjantjatjara woman living and working in the community of Woorabinda in central Queensland, Miiesha is a striking example of the depth of female indigenous talent we have in this country.
The last two decades alone have brought us performers as diverse as Emma Donovan, Kaiit, Alice Skye, Kira Puru, Mo’Ju, DENNI, Kee’ahn, Emily Wurramara and the uniquely raw-voiced Ngaiire – none of whom have ever placed in the Hottest 100.
Two artists from Australia’s increasingly influential African diaspora, Sampa the Great and Tkay Maidza, have slightly higher profiles, but one look at Maidza’s blazing charisma in videos and performances should tell you that she is, if anything, underrated.
Considering her star power and her work with Kari Faux and Run the Jewels’ Killer Mike, it’s a surprise that Maidza isn’t even better known.
If a song as powerful as Miiesha’s ‘Twisting Words’ or ‘Hold Strong’ – or Maidza’s ‘White Rose’, for that matter – can’t reach ubiquity, what more is needed?
A viral clip, a cultural moment, an even starrier collaborator from overseas?
Maidza, more than any of her counterparts, is in a position to capture all three with the video for her latest single ‘Kim’, a collaboration with US rapper Yung Baby Tate, in which she cannily impersonates both Kim Kardashian and Lil’ Kim.
It’s a combination designed to bring Maidza to the very centre of popular culture. We’ll see if it’s enough.
Lesley Chow is an Australian writer on music and film, and author of the book You’re History: The 12 Strangest Women in Music.
Watch the music video for ‘Twisting Words’ by Miiesha.
