Meg Washington will begin 2026 with a major national run. The four-time ARIA Award winner has confirmed a 23 date Natural Beauty Tour, named after her latest single, Natural Beauty, which arrives today with a striking new video. The song is lifted from her recent ARIA nominated album Gem, which continues to expand her reputation as one of Australia’s most inventive voices.
The Natural Beauty Tour will take Washington into large cities, regional centres and some of the most isolated parts of the country. Each show will be performed solo at the piano. Washington enjoys the format, as it echoes her early years singing jazz in small venues. She says the intimacy lets her improvise and react to the audience in real time.
Washington considers Natural Beauty a central piece of Gem. She says the song took time because it tackled the pressures facing an artist within a commercial world. She never expected to use the word “superannuation” in a lyric, yet the song made space for that mix of wit and frustration. It is the only piano track on the album, and its placement makes the new tour title a fitting choice.
The new video arrives today. Meg Washington says it reflects the emotional tone of the track.
Meg Washington closes 2025 with more accolades. She won Best Original Song Composed For The Screen at the Screen Music Awards for Dream On from Binge’s How To Make Gravy. She is also nominated for Double J Australian Artist of the Year and received a 2025 ARIA nomination for Best Adult Contemporary Album for Gem.
Gem is her fifth studio album, arriving after a career that began in the Brisbane jazz scene. She first broke through with I Believe You Liar in 2010, which reached the ARIA top three and delivered early hits including Rich Kids and Sunday Best. Her follow up, There There, also reached the top five. Batflowers and Hot Fuss followed, with Gem extending her creative evolution.
Washington was born in Port Moresby and grew up in Brisbane. She studied jazz voice at the Queensland Conservatorium before shifting from jazz to indie pop. She recorded early EPs with Sean Foran and Paul Grabowsky before her national breakthrough in 2009. Her song How To Tame Lions won the first Vanda & Young Songwriting Competition.
She has long worked across creative fields. She has acted, written for film, and provided the voice of Calypso on the global hit Bluey. She also co-wrote the screenplay for the 2024 film How To Make Gravy.
Gem Album Tracklisting
Gem
The Sound Of The Feeling
Shangri-La
Kidding
Golden Orb Blues (Ft. Kevin Morby)
Natural Beauty
Starlife
Honeysuckle Island
Fine (Ft. Paul Kelly)
The tour dates are:
Fri 6 Feb – Queenscliff, VIC
Sat 7 Feb – Portland, VIC
Fri 13 Feb – Pomona, QLD
Sat 14 Feb – Toowoomba, QLD
Fri 20 Feb – Redland, QLD
Sat 21 Feb – Brunswick Heads, NSW
Sun 22 Feb – Tugun, QLD
Fri 13 Mar – Wagga Wagga, NSW
Sat 14 Mar – Cowra, NSW
Sun 15 Mar – Katoomba, NSW
Wed 18 Mar – Adelaide, SA
Thu 26 Mar – Canberra, ACT
Fri 27 Mar – Mangrove Mt., NSW
Sat 28 Mar – Dungog, NSW
Sun 29 Mar – Old Bar, NSW
Thu 9 Apr – Main Ridge, VIC
Fri 10 Apr – St Kilda, VIC
Sat 11 Apr – Sale, VIC
Thu 16 Apr – Perth, WA
Fri 17 Apr – Mandurah, WA
Fri 29 May – Gunnedah, NSW
Sat 30 May – Tamworth, NSW
Sun 31 May – Armidale, NSW
Tickets for the Natural Beauty Tour go on sale on 18 November from 11.00am AEDT.
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