If you're old enough to remember the first time you heard Macy Gray's voice on the radio, you'd recall it sounded like a relic from a distant time.
It was 1999, and the ARIA charts were populated with the sickly sweet manufactured pop of N Sync, the Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera.
But when I Try came on with its affectious chorus of "I try to say goodbye and I choke/ I try to walk away and I stumble," it introduced a brilliant new voice, matured with huskiness and the old-school jazz charm of Billie Holiday.
I Try topped the ARIA charts in the summer of 1999 and was the 18th-highest-selling single of 2000 in Australia. Worldwide, the song enjoyed its biggest success in Australia and New Zealand.
Naturally, it meant when the then 32-year-old American arrived in April 2000 for her first Australian tour, Gray went straight into big arenas.
"It was cool for me because I had never been out of the US," Gray says from Los Angeles.
"I would have gone anywhere at the time. When we came to Australia, because the record was doing really well over there, I'll never forget that experience and the way that my music was embraced there from the beginning."
The instant success of I Try and the subsequent debut album On How Life Is gave the appearance that Gray was an overnight success.
By the time she'd found fame, she was already a divorced mother of three.
For somebody who grew up being frightfully shy, was the instant fame difficult?
"It's not really quick," she says.
"It looks quick, and I think it's part of being an artist to make it look easy because nobody wants to hear you bitching and complaining when you're travelling the world playing music.
"So you kind of find the place where you can make it look easy to look good while you do it and smile and sign autographs and take pictures, and that whole thing about the 10,000 hours, you really can't get around it.
"Even if it looks like you are. You really have to do all the work that everybody does, and you have to make all the mistakes, and you have to try new things over and over again until you get what you want."
Back in 1999 and 2000, Gray's voice already sounded uniquely retro.
Asked if a voice like Gray's could become successful in 2026, she says it all depends on the power of the song.
"I think the song is what people keep flying to, even though it looks like we're all worshipping people," she says.
"You go home and you sing the song, you know what I mean?
"So, it's like when people say, 'Oh my god, I got pregnant to your song.' You don't want me standing there, right?
I think it's part of being an artist to make it look easy because nobody wants to hear you bitching and complaining when you're travelling the world playing music.
"I have songs that would be popular today, for sure.
"I don't know if it would have been embraced the same way or if I, as an artist, would have been embraced the same way because back then everybody thought I was a throwback, but it made sense because we were all born in that year, you know what I mean?
"So, now I think I'd have to come up with something else."
The 58-year-old Gray has continued to release new music over the past two decades and, earlier this year, recorded a surprise cover of Right Said Fred's cheeky 1991 hit I'm Too Sexy.
The original's muscle-bulging video clip and sleazy Eurodance beats have been replaced by a warm Motown-style horns section, acoustic guitar and Gray's smoky vocal.
"It sounds funny, but if you listen to the original song, it's got all these little details, and it's actually really well produced," Gray says with a laugh.
"Whoever made that song went to a music school for sure. I thought that was interesting about it.
"I always loved the song. It's just fun for everybody. And we sound good doing it, so we did it."
The I'm Too Sexy cover will feature on Gray's forthcoming album The Trouble with the Truth.
"It's very fresh and definitely something that's not the normal at the moment," Gray says of the album, her first since 2023's The Reset. "I think people will really appreciate that and just different sounds and a different approach.
"It's strong. There are a lot of great songs on there. We have [US rapper] 2 Chainz and [Canadian R&B artist] Jessie Reyez on there.
"It's actually one of my first albums where it has features a lot like that.
"So it's been a little trip. It's taken a while, but I think it's coming out great, and I'm very excited for people to hear it."
After touring Australian capital cities in 2024, Gray is returning in spring for a massive regional tour, hitting places like Port Stephens, Tamworth and Coffs Harbour that rarely host international artists.
