Bertie Blackman - Boy

In the midst of all the hubbububalub of Kimbra and Gotye taking the world by storm, I feel like the story of the meteoric rise of Beatrice "Bertie" Blackman got pushed to the wayside. In fact, all three acts were poised for big things and were at the same level less than a year ago.

It's amazing what a Youtube video can do!

Not to be outdone, Blackman is back with an incredibly cool new video of her own, one that could just as quickly and easily rise up the charts as any other song.

Blackman rose to fame with her debut album in 2004, despite playing African percussion at the age of twelve and guitar at the age of fifteen, entitled 'Headway' which came after years of prolific performances around Sydney's Inner city venues, where she developed a dedicated following.

The album established her as an Australian headline alongside contemporaries Something For Kate, Ben Lee and Alex Lloyd and led to the opportunity to write music for Australian films including the title track to the 2008 production Hey, Hey, It's Esther Blueburger".

In 2008, Bertie signed with newly formed Australian management company Forum 5 and began working on her third studio album, entitled Secrets and Lies which was recorded between Sydney and Melbourne. Musicians involved included Neal Sutherland, Evan Mannell and Ben Hauptmann with producers Lee Groves (Goldfrapp, Gwen Stefani) and Francois Tetaz (Architecture in Helsinki, Gotye).

Her first single from the album, "Heart" was released on 10 April 2009.[8] The song was added on high rotation on Australian radio station Triple J and nationwide on commercial radio network Nova as well as on regional and community stations across the country.

At the fourth annual AIR Awards, held on 22 November 2009, Bertie Blackman received four nominations for 'Best Independent Single or EP', 'Breakthrough Independent Artist of the Year', 'Best Independent Album' and 'Best Independent Artist', winning 'Breakthrough Independent Artist of the Year'.

Then she seemed to slip off the radar. Until now. The official video for Boy by Bertie Blackman directed and animated by Quan Yeomans alongside illustrator Celeste Potter, taken from Bertie's forthcoming album 'Pope Innocent X'.

To celebrate, lets revisit some of Bertie's more enjoyable hits...