photo via Mojo Juju

Mojo Juju‘s bio describes her as “5’3″ of wise crackin’, sass mouthin’, jump jivin’ attitude, wrapped up in a zoot suit and propped up on a Cuban heel”. She may be small, but dear god, she owns a stage like nobody else on this green earth.

We walked in as Emma Donovan and the Putbacks took the stage and she damn near won my heart with the first notes out of her mouth. A voice so smooth has never been created — Emma has a gift, and together with the band The Corner Hotel was filled with some sweet, sweet music.

The bodies were pretty packed in towards the front of the stage by the time Mojo Juju took to it. I’ve been listening to her tunes for the last two years and I was borderline shaking with excitement as the curtain went up and I finally got to hear her live. Recorded Mojo is brilliant (really brilliant, go check out her new album), but the charisma and vocal voodoo she brings to a stage is a whole new experience. A giant baritone sax, bass, drums, a nifty keyboard player along with the dreamy voice of backup singer Loretta Miller (Clairy Browne & the Bangin’ Rackettes) make for one hell of a smooth dance party. The audience were loving every second of it as the songs varied from slow heartfelt tunes to more boppin’ feet movers, and in between songs Mojo Juju single-handedly charmed every person in the joint with not just the amazing songwriting and soulful voice, but a gallon or so of wit and spot-on banter.

Mojo Juju is launching the new album ‘Seeing Red/Feeling Blue’ all around Australia — check for a gig near you . Go fall a little in love with some amazing music and one of Australia’s great musicians.

-Jasmin
Jasmin Ashton is a PR student and designer from Melbourne who has a lot of feelings about pretty much everything. Find her at @Jasmanna.