By VICTORIA STONE-MEADOWS
DIANA Trask moved on from Warburton to make great headway for female Australian artists to tackle the international stage and has led a varied and exciting life.
Ms Trask was the first Australian female to break into the US music charts when she won a talent show on Channel Seven and then went on to sing on ‘In Melbourne Tonight’.
“We had a house next to the police station,” she said.
“We moved there when I was two and I went to Lilydale. When I was a kid I couldn’t wait to leave that valley and now I can’t wait to get back.”
Once Ms Trask was discovered by American promoter Lee Gordon and signed to tour Australia with ‘The Frank Sinatra Show’, she moved on to storm the American music charts.
In 1959 Ms Trask opened at the Blue Angel Night Club in New York where Mitch Miller discovered her and a recording contract with CBS followed.
In 1960 she landed a regular singing spot on the US national television series ‘Sing Along with Mitch’ and was signed to a three-year contract by NBC television.
Ms Trask spoke of how it felt to leave Warburton and the Yarra Valley for a jetsetting life of fame.
“It’s not so easy to transplant yourself,” she said.
“For the first five years I cried nearly every day. I was terribly homesick.”
In the late ’60s, Ms Trask made the change from singing ballads to country songs and she later signed with independent Tennessee music label Dot Records.
Diana Trask was established as one of America’s top country singers after releasing many albums.
Ms Trask was the first woman to sing the national anthem at the AFL Grand Final in 1985 and was invited again in 1996 for the 100 Years of AFL celebrations.Diana is now a dual citizen of both the US and Australia but has not forgotten where she began.
“I am 100 per cent Australian and I am a dual citzizen,” she said.
“I try to live equally across both counties.”
