‘Writing music is therapy’: Ricki-Lee Coulter on Australian Idol, finding herself and the legacy of Young Divas

Australian Idol host Ricki-Lee Coulter is embracing a new maturity while still harnessing the joy that’s defined her. As she tells Stellar, ‘I’ve never had more fun and felt more confident’.

Ricki-Lee is in her empowered era. Picture: Steven Chee for Stellar

Relaxed in her dressing gown as she speaks to Stellar via Zoom from her apartment overlooking Sydney’s Hyde Park, Ricki-Lee Coulter projects an easy confidence.

Though she has harnessed a successful career since placing seventh on Australian Idol in 2004, the singer-songwriter, radio presenter and TV host – of the very show that catapulted her to fame – admits it has taken her almost 20 years in the entertainment business to reach this bold yet serene state.

“Writing music is therapy, in a sense. And when you really go there and dare to peel back the layers and be really personal, that’s where the magic is,” she says.

The 38-year-old’s ability to conjure up hit singles like ‘Ghost’, which addresses the pain of being ditched by a longtime friend, is reflected throughout On My Own, her first album in a decade.

She’s red-y for her close up! Ricki-Lee Coulter. Picture: Steven Chee for Stellar

As the title suggests, it’s a declaration of a new path. Establishing a truly independent career via the company that she and her manager-husband Richard Harrison founded in 2010, Coulter – like her inspirations Beyoncé and Taylor Swift – now owns the masters to her own recordings. The only person choosing the music she wants to release is Coulter herself.

That last point, she insists, is the reason why she left her first label in 2011, and why she walked away from EMI when a difference of opinion saw her last album shelved. In 2018, she was persuaded to record a track titled ‘Unbothered’ but as Coulter now recalls, “I hated that song. It was called ‘Unbothered’ but I was extremely bothered by it. It wasn’t me, and that whole thing showed me that [the label and I] were not on the same page.”

But before she could get back in the studio to produce new music, Coulter had to cool her heels during the Covid pandemic. She took that time to create songs that confront both personal challenges and general millennial angst. “Maybe I haven’t been as honest as I could have been or maybe I was wanting to make fun, party pop music, which doesn’t really have a lot of heart,” Coulter says of her earlier music. “When I’ve opened up about these experiences and, I guess, opened a wound, the response has been incredible. All I’ve ever wanted to do is to make people feel something.”

Read the full interview inside Stellar, out today.

Her desire to connect began in childhood. “My mum was a single mum and I was born in New Zealand, but she moved to the Gold Coast and worked her arse off in so many jobs to put a roof over our heads,” Coulter recalls, citing her mother’s sacrifice as both inspiration and the catalyst for her self-reliance, which involved holding down regular gigs at pubs, weddings and her local RSL by the age of 15.

So when she announced on a live Australian Idol show last year – to gasps from the audience – that a 16-year-old contestant was in the bottom three, Coulter was overcome with emotion as she recalled standing in that spot aged 18. “I turned around and looked at her and she was bawling,” she tells Stellar. “Then I started crying, and all I wanted to do was run over and give her a hug and tell her it was going to be OK. I remembered what it felt like to have them read out my name, and for that to be the end of my dream.”

Of course, that was hardly the end. Two years later, she became part of the girl group Young Divas with fellow former Idol contestants Kate DeAraugo, Paulini Curuenavuli and Emily Williams. Despite feeling a healthy nostalgia for their tenure, Coulter has no interest in a revival. “The great thing about music is that it lasts forever,” she adds. “Young Divas was a moment in time and can never be recreated.”

‘I know exactly who I am.’ Picture: Steven Chee for Stellar

She recalls one incident when she lost her voice towards the end of a long tour with the group. The advice from her doctor was clear: perform and risk permanent damage. “It was terrifying because my voice is how I make my living, so I told the people in charge that I couldn’t do the show that night,” she says. “But I was summoned into a meeting and [they] wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer. I cared about the longevity of my career over [the] show.”

Coulter did the show, but didn’t sing a word and left the Divas shortly after to refocus on her solo career. Recently, she adds, a person connected with that production reached out to her, pitching a new idea. “The answer,” she says, “was no – a hard no. I don’t work with people like that.”

In any case, she has plenty on her plate. Since hosting Australia’s Got Talent in 2022, Coulter has spent weekday afternoons with her radio co-stars Tim Blackwell and Joel Creasey on their Nova national drive radio show Ricki-Lee, Tim & Joel. Last month, she returned as the host of Australian Idol on the Seven Network. And in November, she’ll tour with Take That, performing as a special guest at the A Day On The Green concerts.

And when she wants a complete change of pace, she relishes looking after her baby goddaughter Ari. “When you just sit there with a baby, they don’t give a sh*t what you’ve been up to,” she tells Stellar with a laugh. “They’re just ‘change my nappy’ and ‘where’s my milk?’ It’s so nice to switch into a different world.”

For all her success, Coulter maintains that she’s still the same bogan from the Gold Coast who loves motorsport, McDonald’s and spending time with Harrison. “He’s as close to perfect as you can get, and we’re a great team,” she says of her husband of eight years.

And as she approaches 40, she feels she has a greater sense of self. “I know exactly who I am and I’m not trying to be trendy. I don’t wear heels any more unless I really have to and I’m not trying to squeeze into skin-tight hotpants. I don’t want to feel self-conscious or insecure, so I wear things that I’m extremely comfortable in.”

That comfort works on the inside, too. When she thinks of her 18-year-old self, standing on the Idol stage devastated to have placed seventh, she wishes she could have given that girl a hint of what was to come. “I’ve never had more fun and felt more confident in who I am,” Coulter says. “I’m not doing anything I don’t want to do – anything that makes me unhappy or upsets me or that I don’t feel great doing. There’s a real freedom in that. And it’s an incredible place to be.”

Ricki-Lee Coulter’s new album On My Own is out March 8. For details, visit ricki-lee.com

Originally published as ‘Writing music is therapy’: Ricki-Lee Coulter on Australian Idol, finding herself and the legacy of Young Divas