Golden Guitar Beccy Cole and wife Libby O’Donovan mark anniversary

When country music singer Beccy Cole won the Golden Guitar last weekend, she was quick to thank a special person.

Golden Guitar winner Beccy Cole, left, and wife Libby O’Donovan are celebrating their first year of marriage with a trip to the AFLW footy. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

When country music singer Beccy Cole won the Golden ­Guitar award for female artist of the year in Tamworth last weekend, she was quick to direct her gratitude towards a special person sitting in front of her.

“To my darling wife — and I’m allowed to say that now,” said Cole, who married jazz and cabare­t performer Libby O’Donovan a year ago today.

Soon after same-sex marriage was passed into Australian law, the couple gathered their friends and family at an Adelaide Hills vineyard for their wedding.

Cole was heartened by the respons­e to their happy news.

“I feel as though a lot of people who are fans of the genre possibly needed a voice, and someone to put their hand up and say: ‘Hey, I’m gay and it’s OK’,” Cole said.

“I even had one young man in regional Australia once say to me: ‘One of these days I’ll move to Sydney so I can be gay’.”

While this year marks 20 years since Cole recognised that she was gay, she decided to keep her personal life private for many years. It was only in 2012 that she came out publicly — the same year that she and O’Donovan first sang together at the Feast Festival in Adelaide, where they performe­d a duet of The Beatles’ Oh! Darling and cameras captured the moment when the two women fell in love.

“Thank god it was videoed — I blush even watching it,” O’Donovan said. “There was such a spark — it was that perfect connection with another person that you rarely find in your life.”

Cole’s Golden Guitar for femal­e artist of the year was her fifth such award. Her 12th album, Lioness, was released last year. Its musical and production team was made up entirely of women; O’Donovan played keyboards and sang harmonies too.

“I’d met so many incredible femal­e musicians, and a lot of very talented and capable women in the technical side of things,” Cole said of the album’s origins.

“But I wanted to prove to the outside world — and to young girls — that it can be done. It’s the same as the introduction of AFLW: it’s just taken this long for it to develop and happen.”

So how will the couple celebrate their first year together as wife and wife? “We are going to round one of the AFLW, to watch the Crows and Bulldogs play at the Norwood Oval in Adelaide,” Cole said. “It’s a very rare weekend off for both of us, so our wedding anniversary will hopefully be watching the Crow girls win.”