Darwin-born pop star VASSY plays special set for hospitalised children on Starlight Day

Coming off a major career milestone, a Darwin-born dance musician made a special appearance at Starlight Day and shared a story of self-belief with young hospital patients.

Darwin-born pop star Vassy entertained sick children at the Royal Darwin Hospital for Starlight Day. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

Darwin-born pop star Vassy gave an exclusive performance to a group of hospitalised children on Tuesday, offering some special words of life advice too.

The Platinum-selling dance music artist was a guest of honour for Starlight Day at the Royal Darwin Hospital, where pediatric ward patients were treated to a day of activities.

Vassy, who performed at Saturday’s BASSINTHEGRASS festival, invited 11-year-old Ezra behind the mixing desk to play her signature hit “Bad”.

She also helped Ezra improvise his own song with DJ Batman and Captain Starlight, the charity’s mascot.

Vassy with Ezra pictured standing to her left. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

The pop star said the children who attended were “little troopers”. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

Taking questions from the audience afterwards, one child asked about having self-confidence and Vassy shared a difficult memory from her primary school days.

“My music teacher told me I didn’t have what it takes to succeed,” Vassy said.

“She would put me down in front of other kids and always made me feel like I wasn’t good enough.

“But even though the teacher didn’t see it, I knew I had something and I believed in myself … If anyone tells you you’re not cool enough or good enough, just say, ‘That’s fine, you do you and I’m going to focus on me’.”

She finished by telling the children to remember that “rejections are simply redirections”.

“If you say to yourself, ‘I’m going to do this, I believe in myself’, you can make it happen,” she said.

Starlight Day was attended by dozens of children and their parents throughout the day at the hospital’s Starlight Express Room.

The event marked the start of the charity’s national fundraiser, which aims to raise $1 million from the public by the end of June.

The money raised will be used to fund other children’s activities across Australian hospitals and donations can be made through the Starlight Children’s Foundation’s website.

Vassy, born Vasiliki Karagiorgos, was awarded by recording industry group APRA earlier this month for hitting two billion streams with “Bad”, a collaboration with French producer David Guetta.