NIKKI WEBSTER, performer
The Sydney Olympics may have forever etched Nikki Webster into the national psyche, but for the ambitious pint-sized performer her achievement with hit single Strawberry Kisses in 2001 remains a clear personal highlight. The single went gold within 10 days of its debut on the Australian charts, and stayed at number two for an impressive eight weeks. Reminding her of this career high are the pink maybe-real-maybe-fake leather boots that she wore for the song’s video clip.
“I think they might have brought me a bit of luck,” she says, “because of how well Strawberry Kisses went. You know, I don’t think I’ll get rid of them, even if I grow out of them. It’s a memory that I’ll always hold . . .of that day doing the film clip.”
Webster is a self-confessed fashion junkie but cannot remember exactly where she bought the boots – it was somewhere in Sydney – but says she chose them because they went so well with the pink plastic outfit she had already picked out.
“I saw them and they were really different. It was a few years ago, I think a lot of the same boots are out now, in different colours and stuff, but when I saw them they were just coming out and they were really different. I went, `Wow, that’s cool!’. . . and they’re really comfy.”
She sees her success with Strawberry Kisses as one of the many “stepping stones” on her way to developing her career, getting her music overseas and, ultimately, making her country proud.
Having just released a new song and video clip, I Want To Be Like You for Disney’s The Jungle Book 2 movie soundtrack, Webster is on the publicity and promotional trail again, with interview spots and appearances on pay TV and free-to-air planned. Webster enjoys this process and is certainly not fazed by appearing on television. She feels right at home, it seems.
“I enjoy talking and – I think a lot of people see that – I enjoy my work . . . It feels like second nature to me. I mean, everybody is down to earth, it’s like having a normal chat!”
— Peter Barrett
Source: The Age
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