Kate Miller-Heidke’s home boys keep vision alive

Early on Wednesday, Keir Nuttall lay in bed with his son Ernie in Melbourne, watching his wife on an acrobatic pole in Tel Aviv.

Keir Nuttall and son Ernie at home in Melbourne, where they’ll watch wife and mum Kate Miller-Heidke in the Eurovision final. Picture: David Geraghty

Early on Wednesday morning, songwriter Keir Nuttall was lying in bed with his son Ernie in Melbourne, holding his phone and watching the most important person in both their lives representing Australia in the world’s biggest live music competition.

As his wife Kate Miller-Heidke swayed on an acrobatic pole in Tel Aviv during the semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest, Nuttall was struck by the feeling of cognitive dissonance, where the mind struggles to hold two conflicting ideas simultaneously.

In this case, it was because the couple co-wrote the song Zero Gravity after Miller-Heidke ­experienced depression following the birth of their son in 2016.

“It was two separate things: feeling completely elated, but also just really feeling for Kate,” Nuttall told The Weekend Australian. “I was looking at this triumphant moment of Kate nailing it — and she really did emphatically bring home the bacon in that performance — but at the same time, I was seeing her perform this song about this little guy that I know she’s missing so much while she’s over there.”

Miller-Heidke in Tel Aviv. Picture: Getty Images

Straight after his wife’s three-minute routine ended, father and son made breakfast, did some jigsaw puzzles and went about their morning as usual. It wasn’t until a few hours later that Nuttall found out that her compelling performance had been voted into the grand final, to be held tomorrow morning, Australian time.

During the week, the couple have been in touch intermittently. “We text backwards and forwards in detail, but it’s not usually about the competition; it’s usually about what Ernie’s been up to,” he says. “Or questions like, are we going to get the pest control to come when we’re away on tour?”

Tomorrow morning, Nuttall plans to follow a similar routine to Wednesday’s.

Again he’ll feel that tug of dissonance between snuggling with his son while watching his wife sing about him from the other side of the world before an enormous audience.

As for just how high Zero Gravity might place in the contest?

“Disappointment is four out of every five experiences that you have in a music career, so I’ve learned not to really get my hopes up,” said Nuttall.

“But of course I do, because I’m an optimist.

“It’s a very Eurovision kind of song, and with the staging in particular, I do have the odd moment where, despite myself, I think, wouldn’t that be amazing?”