By Oliver Lees
When Melton resident Erica Padilla graduated highschool at the end of 2019, she knew she wanted to try to make a career out of music.
The only question was, how?
“All my life I’ve been doing music, trying different things like joining the school choir and high school musicals, literally everything,” she said.
“I was in a band and playing gigs, but I also wanted to explore my options as a solo artist.”
When the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in 2020 and restrictions were brought in that made live performance impossible, Padilla shifted all of her attention to growing her presence on social media.
Two years later, the 20-year-old is now set to perform on stage in front of a live TV audience, with the hopes of being selected to perform at the Eurovision Song Contest later this year.
Padilla earned her spot as one of the artists on the Eurovision – Australia Decides stage by sharing her talent on the popular video sharing platform, Tik Tok.
Since 2020, Padilla has grown her followers from 800,000 to more than 1.2 million users, as the performances she recorded in her bedroom caught the eye of fans across the world.
After posting her submission to compete for Eurovision, she woke the next morning with her video having reached more than 24 million views.
“I kind of feel as though I’ve manifested this,” Padilla told Star Weekly.
“I have watched previous Eurovisions, and I always felt like I could do that. I think that [Tik Tok] really helps you reach a wider audience. You can be creative and try different things.
“At the end of the day, I don’t have a grounding in the Australian music industry.
“But I was on Tik Tok already, so once I saw this competition running, I just put my name down to apply. Now this is my TV debut, and I have a chance to show who I am.”
Eurovision – Australia Decides will air on SBS at 8.30pm on Saturday February 26.
Voting opens at 10pm on Friday February 25 at 10pm.
Details: www.eurovisionaustralia.tv
