Keli Holiday has opened up about his recent deportation from the US.
Speaking on Triple M’s Mick in the Morning, Holiday – the solo project of Peking Duk’s Adam Hyde – addressed reports he had been denied entry to the US over “national safety concerns”, which derailed a string of planned appearances including a surprise set at Aussie pub Ol’ Mates in New York.
“I was meant to go to Ol’ Mates, I was going to do a surprise set there and have a bunch of fun with a bunch of people,” he explained. “I’m not at liberty to discuss such matters fully at this time… but what I will say, is that I love the United States.”
“I’m gutted I couldn’t do the New York City show, and I hope to get back there soon because there is a lot of people wanting a Keli Holliday show, but I want to bring it to them, so we’ll see.”
The conversation then took a left turn when host Mick Molloy floated the idea of Holiday representing Australia at Eurovision, following the buzz around Delta Goodrem’s fourth place finish at this year’s competition.
“I had a fever dream the other day… you would win us Eurovision,” Molloy told him. “It’s possibly of no interest to you… it’d be incredible. You go there and do that [Dancing2 dance], and they would lose their minds,” he added, referring to Holiday’s ARIA No. 1 single “Dancing2”, which earned him Best Video at the 2025 ARIA Awards as well as the No. 2 spot on triple j’s Hottest 100 of 2025 countdown.
Holiday seemed immediately sold on the idea: “No, I would give it a crack! We could do it.”
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Despite the US visa issue, Holiday has had a huge 2026 so far. His debut album Capital Fiction, which features “Dancing2”, hit No. 1 on the Australian Albums chart, No. 3 on the ARIA Albums chart and No. 5 on the Vinyl chart in its first week.
His music pulls from new wave, indie sleaze, pop, dance, and rock ’n’ roll, landing somewhere between broken-hearted balladry and full-body party music. It’s flamboyant, funny, sincere, and occasionally heartbreaking, but never careless – and its why he landed on Rolling Stone AU/NZ‘s Future of Music list for 2026.
“What makes Keli Holiday work is that beneath the unserious-pop sparkle and theatrical bravado, there is genuine emotional weight. Hyde has built a world where heartbreak can still dance, where longing can wear sunglasses indoors, and where one song can be both a joke and a gut-punch,” Rolling Stone AU/NZ wrote. See more here.
