Asha Newman feels ready to step up.
The 23-year-old Central Coast musician and songwriter finally gets her long-awaited chance to shine on The Voice, which commences a new season on Monday, April 18, on the 7 Network at 7pm.
Newman has been kicking goals as a singer since Year 6 when she had her first lead singing role in the Christmas musical at Coast Christian School in Bensville.
She followed her singing dreams and has performed hundreds of gigs, mostly with her brother Sam (she plays acoustic guitar, Sam plays electric guitar), at venues like the Queens Wharf Hotel and Crowne Plaza (now Rydges) in Newcastle.
You can watch her progression as a singer with originals and covers on her YouTube channel (ASHA), from Lonely Boy by the Black Keys (covered in 2014) to Taylor Swift's Getaway Car (2017) and more contemporary cuts.
Qualifying through The Voice auditions is a big step for Newman, who previously tried to get into The Voice in 2019 but didn't quite make it.
The end goal: "I like writing music. I would love to tour with a band, singing my songs. That's definitely my idea of success. Music is so joyful, such a unifying thing. I see it as a privilege."
Her own gigs are a mix of covers and originals, with a touch of country and a keen pop music sensibility. She's worked as songwriting teacher with Gina Jeffreys and Rob McCormack, a couple of country music legends.
She's also paid her dues, doing kitchen and barista duties at Better Days cafe in Killarney Vale on the Central Coast (her drink is a small almond cappuccino).
Newman cut her first music in 2017, and has kept putting new music in front of her followers (@ashamusicc on instagram).
It was last year just before the second COVID lockdown hit that Newman realised things were going well. In May 2021 she released Better, her first song in a couple of years.
"I got a band together, my first one in ages, it was an incredible band, all amazing players," she says of the show at The Entrance Leagues Club in Bateau Bay.
"More people turned up than I thought. It felt like my biggest ever show."
Appearing on The Voice certainly takes things up a notch, singing in front of Keith Urban, Guy Sebastian and her idols Jessica Mauboy and Rita Ora.
At 13 years old Newman won a "meet and greet" with Jessica Mauboy and got to sing for her.
Mauboy told her she had a great voice which has given her inspiration and kept her striving to fulfil her dream.
Newman is also a big Rita Ora fan and will be singing one of Ora's biggest hits and putting her own stamp on it.
Newman affirms it is the "opportunity of a lifetime" for her.
"It is always something I've grown up watching as a kid," she says.
