‘Jackie’ singer Joanne Accom: Where is she now?
Melbourne singer Joanne Accom won fans across the world with her hit song ‘Jackie’ from the 90s. Now the singer reveals how she has survived as an artist and her plan to put out new music.
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If readers of a certain age were to search for the song Jackie by BZ featuring Joanne, they might find more than a couple of YouTube clips which are a nostalgic nod to one of Australia’s biggest dance hits.
The video clip is almost as legendary as the 1998 track itself, and includes, inexplicably,
footage of a rave-ready Joanne playing with a Rubik’s cube, crouching behind a clear inflatable couch, and playing Connect Four.
“People often ask, ‘Where did these ideas come from? How did this happen?’ laughs Joanne, born Joanne Accom, talking to News Corp from her home in Melbourne.
“‘Why were you tantalising jelly beans in a bowl? Why were you playing Connect Four?!’”
“I have a bit of a playful personality too. I can’t remember if they told me to do that or if I just did it,” she said.
“But the whole concept behind the video was, you know, we’ve got a small budget here. Let’s do something fun. Let’s do something colourful.”
Jackie reached no. 3 on the ARIA charts and was the top-selling single in Australia in 1999.
Some 22 years later, it’s still guaranteed to make Gen Y audiences in particular squeal and dance.
Accom was listed as a featured artist on the track, but the BZ credit actually refers to Blue Zone, the British band fronted by Lisa Stansfield that released the original version of the track in 1988.
Accom was just 19 and working with local producer George Papapetros and manager Chris Apostolidis, who had decided they wanted to release a fresh edit of the track that was a hit in their clubbing heyday.
Accom’s background was in R’n’B, but one day in the studio she decided to show her bosses, hypothetically, how she would sing Jackie.
“It was purely just mucking around on the spot at the time,” recalls Accom. “And then there was this moment where everyone looked at each other and looked at me and it was like, ‘Oh my goodness, you’re meant to do this song. It’s your voice we need.’”
Jackie originally came out as a 12” vinyl record and was quickly doing the rounds in clubs around the country.
Back then, DJs would often host radio shows, and the track soon gained traction on underground stations before finding its way onto commercial radio and finally getting a release as a CD single.
Accom came up at a time when the local dance scene was flourishing, with the likes of Madison Avenue and Josh Abrahams also scoring hits.
Her first tour was with RuPaul and she went on to support some of the biggest international stars of that period, including Destiny’s Child, Shaggy, Craig David and Nelly Furtado. It was an “amazing” experience, Accom confesses, but for someone who’d aspired to be a musician their entire life, the pportunity to go on and write and release her own album Do Not Disturb was the ultimate gift.
“I think to any young artist, especially at the age I was, that was like a dream come true,” she said.
Accom has barely stopped performing since, frequently with cover bands, but doing a national reunion tour in 2016 with other iconic late ‘90s dance acts such as Vengaboys, Tina Cousins, Sonique and Whigfield made her realise how much she missed performing her own music.
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Accom has been working with Sydney producer Grant Gould and will appear on his upcoming charity compilation which re-imagines old pop songs, and also hopes to release some of her own music this year.
In between gigs, she’s maintained a day job in insurance for a number of years.
“You’ve got to be smart,” said Accom, who has watched her friends struggle when the bookings dry up.
“If something falls through and the gigs get cancelled or the residencies get pulled or things like that, you don’t want to be in that position.”
Recently, however, Accom’s been in high demand, headlining a New Year’s Eve 2019 gig at The Tote in Collingwood to much fanfare.
She said the crowds are even more enthusiastic today than they were in the late ‘90s.
“I think that now, ‘cause it’s years later, you teach yourself to really not take life for granted and to be in the moment and take it in,” she said.
“So I do enjoy having those moments where you stand back on stage and the crowd is singing along and you just take it in and appreciate it — it’s very humbling to have that happen.”