RENÉE GEYER 1953-2023

"Say I love you"

- TOBY CRESWELL

Renée Geyer stood in the middle of a wooden marquee feeling bewildered. The Spiegeltent was designed in the 1920s as a movable cabaret venue – ballooning velvet canopies; gold leaf; hand-painted woodwork; circular, teak dance floor; stained, cut-glass mirrors. Renée stood side-of-stage, on a warm spring night last year, watching the venue fill up.

“A lot of these people were really young,” she told The Weekly. “I asked my keyboard player, ‘Who are they? Where did they come from? Why are they here?’ This is years after I’m anybody famous, and the place is packed. I’m standing on stage going, ‘wow’.”

Gigs like this happened often, but she was always taken by surprise.

“I’m not fishing for a compliment,” she added with a wink. “I know I’m fantastic, but I am always in awe when I see an audience come to hear me.”

It had been 52 years since a teenage Renée Rebecca Geyer snuck out on school nights to sing in Bondi wine bars. Within a year, Go-Set magazine had crowned her Best Female Vocalist and the following year she’d debuted in the Top 40, where she remained for 10 years.

Renée’s hits, such as Stares and Whispers, Say I Love You and Heading in the Right Direction, helped to break the glass ceiling for Australian women performers. Her life featured momentous highs and desperate lows but the one constant for Renée was standing in front of an audience and baring her soul.