Award-winning country singer-songwriter Paul Costa will make a welcome return to the stage this Friday night as the latest artist to perform as part of Mildura Arts Centre's (MAC) Backstage Pass.
Backstage Pass is a live music streaming event created by MAC in response to COVID-19 restrictions, providing an outlet for local musicians to continue performing live, despite the impacts of the pandemic on local venues.
Like numerous musicians across the country, Paul's planned 2020 gigs were cancelled due to the pandemic and its restrictions.
Eager to get back on the road and perform again, the Robinvale-based country music star is able to reach audiences again in a live setting by performing on MAC's Backstage Pass, which will be the ninth event this year.
Councillor for Arts and Culture Jason Modica said Paul Costa would be one of the biggest and most well-known music artists to perform on Backstage Pass so far.
"Paul certainly needs no introduction to country music fans, and to many music fans more broadly, thanks to his energetic style of country music and his award-winning song-writing and performing talent," Cr Modica said.
Paul has written five studio albums, the most recent of which – Whisper in the Crowd – shot to number three on the ARIA Australian Country Chart in 2018, and was named Album of the Year at the People's Choice Awards.
In January of that same year, Paul was inducted into the Country Music Hands of Fame while performing at the Tamworth Country Music Festival.
A year later he was inducted into the South Australian Country Music Hall of Fame.
Paul is also a four-time Golden Guitar Award nominee and set a record in 2007, winning five Victorian and national Country Music Awards in one night, including Male Vocalist and Entertainer of the Year.
Paul will perform live at MAC's Backstage Pass this Friday at 7pm. The performance will be streamed live on MAC's Facebook page and YouTube channel.
In a first for Backstage Pass, this Friday's show will be cross-streamed via the Visit Mildura, Visit Victoria and Visit Murray Facebook pages.
"This is a great collaboration between the MAC team and these key local, regional and state bodies that will allow this fantastic initiative to reach a much larger audience," Cr Modica said.
"It will not only help maintain the profile of our beautiful Mildura Arts Centre and the broader Sunraysia region at state level, but importantly provide a stage for local artists to reach audiences outside our region during the current COVID-19 restrictions.
