There’s much more to Kate Miller-Heidke than the “singing toilet brush” (a credit to Miller-Heidke’s father-in-law) or “singing windscreen wiper” (a credit to Graham Norton) who wowed her way to ninth place at the recent Eurovision Song Contest  singing her original composition Zero Gravity.

Kate Miller-Heidke. Photography courtesy of SBS

Firstly, there’s the vocal range that allows her to leap from Taylor Swift to Joan Sutherland in a single bar, not dissimilar to Joni Mitchell in her early albums or the late under-appreciated Minnie Riperton. Secondly, there’s Miller-Heidke’s penchant for clever incorporation of opera tricks such as coloratura and Gilbert and Sullivan patter singing into her songs. Thirdly, there’s the songs themselves, carefully crafted works of art that all have a story to tell whether it’s what it’s like to be a mother (Ernie) or regret about not protecting a bullied colleague in her teen years (Caught in the Crowd). And finally Miller-Heidke would not be the success she has become without her collaborators, husband and co-songwriter Keir Nuttall on guitar, musical director IaiIann Grandage, and backing vocalist Jessica Hitchcock.

There was a full house at Adelaide’s Thebarton Theatre for what proved to be a memorable...