Baker Boy Talks Debut Aussie BBQ Performance for New York’s SummerStage: ‘I Get to Share Not Only My Music, But Also My Culture’

Taylor Mims
·2 min read
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Sounds Australia has once again teamed up with New York City’s Capital One City Parks Foundation SummerStage for the annual Aussie BBQ. For the first time in three years (waylaid since 2019 due to the pandemic), the showcase of new and rising Australian talent will take over Central Park this Saturday from 3-10pm with performances from Baker Boy, Electric Fields, G Flip, Haiku Hands, Peking Duk and You Am I.

Pandemic related lockdowns have deprived American audiences of live talent from Australia and the country’s rising stars are more than eager to make their U.S. debuts.

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Indigenous Australian rapper Baker Boy is using his trip to play his first headlining gig – a June 14 show at Los Angeles’ Moroccan Lounge – and then head to New York for the showcase. Performing at the Aussie BBQ “is really incredible because I get to share not only my music, but also my culture,” Baker Boy tells Billboard, “not just as an artist from Australia but as an indigenous artist. That’s pretty amazing.”

In October, Baker Boy – who raps in both English and Yolŋu Matha of the indigenous people of northeast Arnhem Land in northern Australia – released his debut album Gela and has already racked up accolades including six ARIA nominations, an ARIA Gold certification for “Cool As Hell” and “Mr La Di Da Di,” six wins at the National Indigenous Music Awards and an Order of Australia medal.

The Los Angeles show was a success by the Australian artist’s standards who says the audience enjoyed the messaging around his music and “the whole vibe was really energetic. It made me so hype that I started to bust a move and doing the splits,” he adds.

This Saturday, Baker Boy will be joined by artists he’s come to call friends including Peking Duk and Electric Fields, who is says are like family. In 2021, Baker Boy also released track “My Mind” with fellow performer G Flip.

G Flip, who moved to Los Angeles last year, also performed their first headlining U.S. show earlier this month at the iconic Roxy Theater in LA to a sold-out crowd. “Australia will always be home for me and I’m so stoked to be included in an event like this,” says G Flip of the Aussie BBQ. “I’m such a massive fan of all the Aussie legends on the lineup.”

For more than ten years, Sounds Australia has provided an integral platform for introducing the international music industry to the best new Aussie music. The inaugural Aussie BBQ in 2019 saw almost 5000 New Yorkers turn up to see A.B. Original, Hermitude, The Teskey Brothers, Tkay Maidza, San Cisco and WAAX perform.

Electric Fields will kick off the event on Saturday at 5 p.m. with a livestream throughout the day. To check out the livestream, head here.

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