Do we like Kate Ceberano?
Our score: 7 out of 10. A long, well-loved career and real charity work, held back by one 2019 on-air slur she apologised for.
Kate Ceberano is one of those Australian artists who has just always been there. She came up with I'm Talking in the 80s, and her 1989 album Brave is a pub-singalong staple. This year the ARIA Hall of Fame finally gave her the induction her four-decade run deserves, with Eddie Perfect doing the honours.
The one real stain is from October 2019. After being unmasked on The Masked Singer, she used a transphobic slur twice in post-show interviews, once on Kyle and Jackie O and again on Studio 10, while joking about how she'd disguised her voice. Out magazine and New Idea both reported it at the time, and the Studio 10 hosts reportedly laughed.
What she did next matters. Out in Perth reported that she apologised, saying “I apologise profusely and it will be erased from my vocabulary.” That's not a grovelling masterclass, but it's a straight apology without excuses, and I found nothing since that suggests she's repeated it.
On the wider harm check, there's honestly not much to find. No searches turned up anti-vax, climate-denial or culture-war material from her, and no pattern of working with people who push that stuff. The slur is the only mark on file, and it reads as careless, not campaigning. Tour coverage has her talking about celebrating Australian music and culture, not picking fights.
The good stuff is real. She headlined WaterAid Australia's Victorian Ball in 2025, which raised more than $580,000 for clean water and sanitation. In 2021 she promoted limited-edition prints of her Archibald Packing Room Prize portrait, with part of the proceeds going to Support Act, the charity for music workers.
Right now she's touring an encore of her Australian Made show. She told InDaily people need “a nostalgic adrenal hit” in the cost-of-living squeeze, and that she plans a creative break afterwards. She's a working musician still taking risks near 60, and the Hall of Fame is overdue.