When 22-year-old Yung Milla stepped on stage at The Voice Australia blind auditions, his community was always at the front of his mind.
“Just like every place there’s good, there’s bad, there’s dark, there’s rainbows and I just happened to grow up in the darker side of things,” he said of his hometown of Darwin.
“Coming out of that I’ve been a support worker, I mentor. I’m speaking through my music now and helping the mob back home, this is why I’m on this stage. This isn’t about me, this is about my family, my people back home, to show hope that they can do it too.”
Fast forward to now and Yung Milla has become the first ever rapper to win the reality singing show.
“It’s crazy!” he tells New Idea the morning after his win. “I wouldn’t even have thought a rapper would’ve won. My Pop he’s saying ‘Rappers don’t go on there!’ I didn’t believe it, but we did it!”
The Marranunggu hip hop artist adds that he was back in the Northern Territory to watch the finale celebrated his win with his mob.
“I’m so blessed and grateful that I could celebrate with my people. It was great turnout; there were about 800 to 1,000 people. Bringing the community together for a positive event was amazing,” he says.
But when it comes to the ins and outs of reality television, there was an aspect that surprised him.
“It’s strange,” he admits.
“You’ve got to be mentally prepared for everything that goes on and everything that comes with it. I had a young one ask me for advice, she wanted to go on The Voice and the thing I said to her is you’ve got to have strength in yourself but you’ve got to be mentally strong to go into something like that.
“It seems all fine, everybody will tell you to go into it but there’s a lot of things that come with it, negative things that come with it, and you’ve just got to be ready for it. You’ve got to be mentally strong, you’ve got to know who you are as a person before you step into something like that.”
Not only did Yung Milla walk away with the winning title, but he also took home $100,000 in prize money and an all-inclusive recording and development package.
“People ask me ‘What are you going to do with $100 grand’ and I was like ‘I’m going to give it to my mum!'” he laughs, before adding that he also wants to build a recording studio with his winnings.
“There are a lot of kids that want to do rap and want to record but they don’t have the money to buy these things. Building a studio here in Darwin that’s affordable, that’s a dream. I’m going to work towards that.”
The rapper’s relationship with coach Melanie C has also stayed strong, with Yung Milla revealing that the former Spice Girl contacted him on the night his win aired.
“She sent me a voice note congratulating me and saying how proud she is. Mel’s such a great person; she’s so humble, so down-to-earth and I’m so grateful to have spent that time with her and get knowledge from her because it took me a long way.”
But when asked if he’d open for a potential Spice Girls reunion, Yung Milla remained tight-lipped so we shall have to watch this space!
Along with his and Mel C’s duet of her hit Never Be The Same Again, the 22-year-old rapped a 90s hit for his finale performance that held special significance for him.
“2Pac’s Changes is one of my favourite rap songs and it’s funny, that was actually going to be my audition song but it ended up being my finale song,” he says, explaining that he chose his brother J-Milla’s song All My Life for his audition as a way of giving back.
“I thought it’s only right that I help him out as well. He brought me up in the music scene and I’ve got to give back to him, it’s morally right. I sang his song and brought him up on stage at The Voice. You’ve got to give back, hit two birds with one stone.”
With rumours buzzing that Shannon Noll could replace US coach Richard Marx for next season, Yung Milla admitted that whilst he grew up listening to American music, there’s one local star he’d love to see mentoring on The Voice Australia.
“It would be Jessica Mauboy. We’re both from Darwin,” he says, adding that they “bumped into each other” when she was headlining a show in their hometown where he was also on the lineup.
Whilst music has been Yung Milla’s first love, he’s also dipped his toe into the world of acting and stars in short film Cornwallis, written and directed by Tully Hemsley,
“I think right now music will be full on but I’ve always liked to act,” he tells us.
“I did a short film, about 15-20 minutes long here in Darwin with locals. We just did it based on my story, my life and the way I was raised up. My videographer who shoots my music videos wanted to do this and approached me and we kinda just laughed and then it all worked it out. I can tell you so much but you will see it in the film.”
