J-MILLA
A STAR ON THE RISE
For the first time at Giiyong - J-MILLA! 24- year old J-MILLA is a proud member of the Mak Mak Marranungu people, who are the traditional landowners of the Litchfield National Park in the NT. Born in Darwin J-MILLA's life started hard from the get-go; yet he managed to find a way to stand outside the intergenerational trauma pathway that affects so many Aboriginal families. Losing himself in music and storytelling was what got him through and it was this part of his culture that he clung to. When he noticed the power of narrative and its influence on those around him; mainly his brothers and sister - J-MILLA’s passion for writing lyrics and telling his own stories began. J-MILLA used this passion like a weapon to maintain a healthy mental state for himself and his sibling. His lyrical content swings between deep societal commentary and bangin’ club vibes.
At the age of 12 Jay’s mother applied and won a scholarship for him to Scotch College in Adelaide to give her eldest son a better chance at life. Jay moved to Adelaide where he now is a proud resident and calls the place home. Just last year J-MILLA was nominated by MusicSA for “Best Aboriginal/TSI Artist”. It was his first official industry award nomination.
“Adelaide gave me the chance to break the cycle – I feel blessed by the things that are happening for me here.” says J-MILLA.
J-MILLA's combined social media figures sit at over 300k followers, and his collaboration with Xavier Rudd on "Ball & Chain" has over 1.8M streams on Spotify but it was the track ‘Unlock the System’ about the murder of Kumanjayi Walker by police that brought him attention. Soon after he was deemed ‘Spotlight Artist’ by triple j Unearthed [twice], programmed by Tik Tok for their inaugural 2020 NAIDOC Week online concert, Darwin Festival, Adelaide Festival and Fresh Produce. J-MILLA has been handpicked for THE BIGSOUND50, nominated as “Best Aboriginal/TSI Artist” by MusicSA. In July 2021 J-MILLA won a spot on Australia’s largest independent music prize the 2021 Needle in the Hay competition, was nominated for a 2021 NIMA - Best New Talent and won the 2021 NIMA Archie Roach Foundation award. 2022 saw him nominated for a swag of NT Music Awards where he won the award for "Youth Song of the Year".
Committed to mob 2022 and 2023 saw J-MILLA travel to Garma, Maningrida, Groote Eyelandt, Beswick, Alice Springs, Amata, the APY Lands and Wadeye remote NT Aboriginal communities where he hosted motivational workshops and performed concerts. However, it was his mentor-work with troubled youth in the remote NT community of Maningrida that caught the attention of triple j UE who added a song called "No Problem" by Lil Youngins about the current system that stigmatised Aboriginal youth in Australia to their official playlist in April 2023. More recently J-MILLA's historic Tik Tok live stream from the remote community of Wadeye, NT made national attention gaining coverage across all News Corp titles, NITV, SBS and ABC TV nationally, Rolling Stone, Purple Sneakers, Hip Hop Observer, Koori Mail and Happy Mag. The total reach of this live stream campaign was an engagement of 380K followers and boasts a high retention rate of 48 seconds up to 3.29 minutes with exisiting followers. Quite a feat.