Words by Sarah Leahy
Photos by Deon Deville, Phill Stark and Andrew Tremain

On the 9th of January, AJ2025 had the honor of being Budjerah’s first show of the year. It was greatly enjoyed by all, whether you were up the front dancing your heart out, slowly swaying in the middle, or just relaxing on the grass out the back.

During his show he played many songs, including ‘Stranger Love’ and ‘2 Step’. He also played a few covers such as ‘Valarie’ and ‘Proud Mary’. By far the crowd’s favorite song of the night was Budjerah’s original song, ‘Therapy’, which he played after explaining how “this song has let us travel the world and live out our dreams”.
Before his show we had the chance to interview Budjerah, who talked about how “[he] wasn’t in Scouting” as he was busy taking any music opportunity he could. However, he had friends who did Scouting and at times was a bit jealous of them. During his show, Budjerah got scarfed up with an AJ2025 scarf leading the crowd to cheer and chant ‘one of us, one of us’, making him truly part of the action.

Budjerah’s advice for any inspiring musicians is to “practice every day and yes, you hear it a lot from your teachers – but it really does take that to master it.” Practice really does make perfect.
I think it’s safe to say that everyone had an amazing night, we’re so grateful to Budjerah for coming and performing for us!