To rise to stardom, our OG diva needed a rebrand, so she trades her given name - Helen (not exactly giving superstar, no offence to all the Helens) - and takes on Nellie Melba.  

In the second part of her story, Nellie becomes the Kylie Minogue of her time, charming the masses in London's best theatres and touring the world drumming up support for the war effort (with some suspicious accidents along the way). 

But beneath the glamour, Nellie is in a domestic war of her own. Leigh and Alecia try to make sense of how she faced her own battles, and then how she came to her own sudden, somewhat peculiar death. 

Warning: This episode discusses intimate partner violence.

SOURCES

Melba, Nellie. Melodies and Memories. London: Thornton Butterworth, 1925. 

“Melba Remembers—An Interview with Dame Nellie Melba.” The Home: An Australian Quarterly 3, no. 2 (June 1, 1922) 

“Coombe Cottage: Dame Nellie Melba’s Home—Third of a Series of Studies of Notable Australian Homes.” The Australian Home Beautiful: A Journal for the Home Builder 6, no. 6 (June 1, 1928) 

“In Dame Nellie Melba’s Paris Home.” The Home: An Australian Quarterly 11, no. 7 (July 1, 1930) 

Campbell, Rachel M. “Dame Nellie Melba: Celebrity and the Portrait.” Context: A Journal of Music Research, no. 40 (January 2015): 69–79. 

Modjeska, Drusilla, Susan Dermody, and John Docker, eds. Nellie Melba, Ginger Meggs and Friends: Essays in Australian Cultural History. Malmsbury: Kibble Books, 1982. 

Blainey, Ann. I Am Melba: A Biography. Melbourne: Black Inc., 2008. 

Wainwright, Robert. Nellie: The life and loves of Dame Nellie Melba. Allen and Unwin: Sydney, 2021 

Davis, Richard. Nellie Melba: The legend lives. Mile End: Wakefield Press, 2025

• Hosted by Alecia Simmonds and Leigh Boucher
• Supervising Producer: Hannah Reich
• Producer: Hannah Jose
• Video producer: Christian Harimanow
• Executive Producers: Clare Rawlinson and Eric George
• Head of ABC Audio on Demand: Jessica Radburn
• Theme: Martin Peralta
• Artwork: Gabriel Virata-Alves