Mini maestro Martina majoring in music

By DANIEL CLARKE

09/06/26

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Standing on a school stage in Bulgaria as a six-year-old with little grasp of the Slavic language, Martina Douglas belted out ABBA song Mamma Mia to gobsmacked parents.

 

A woman in the audience turned to Martina’s mother Nadia Shtereva and said “you realise she has an amazing voice”. From that moment onwards her parents have encouraged the 10-year-old to explore her musical talents with stunning results. 

 

It was a natural pathway given Martina’s father is talented musician Terry Douglas who has played with a variety of bands around the world and who still plies his trade on Kangaroo Island and beyond. 

 

Martina, who only took up playing guitar two years ago under her father’s tutelage, has shocked island audiences at a variety of venues with her powerful and beautiful voice, combined with a confident stage presence that transcends her years.

She has a repertoire of about 30 popular cover songs and two originals that display her wide variety of styles, from Elvis to The White Stripes. Her soulful rendition of I Put A Spell On You by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins but made famous by Nina Simone has quite literally left audiences spellbound. 

 

The Kingscote Campus Year 5 student was given the honour of singing the Australian National Anthem at the launch of the Kangaroo Island Football League’s season opener at Kingscote on ANZAC Day. 

 

“That was also my first netball game for the season,” Martina said. “I had never played netball before, so it was pretty exciting. I had 20 minutes to change from my netball gear to my dress and calm down and get ready to sing.”

 

As the youngest performer at last weekend’s When Pigs Fly festival on the Dudley Peninsula, she kicked off proceedings with a bang, which in turn gave confidence to another local young singer Ruby Palmer, 13, to perform her first song in front of a live festival audience. 

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WATCH: Short clip of Martina playing at When Pigs Fly festival. CLICK HERE

 

“I’ve been playing piano since I was four years old but I only started playing guitar about two years ago,” Martina said. “I’ve always liked music. It’s another way to express my feelings and it just helps me a lot.

 

“My dad has been great. He teaches me a lot and when I need guitar help I just go to him and he'll help me but piano was my first instrument. I started when I was four but I had to lie to my teacher and pretend I was five to get accepted. It was a little white lie,” she laughs. 

 

“My teacher was quite interesting. She would have a little ladybug toy and she would hold it under my hand so my palms were kept high above the keys. I now work with Scott Ellson on the island who is excellent.”

 

It is rare to find a talent this young and she has already been noticed on the mainland, having made the final of Adelaide's biggest talent search, Search For A Star last year.

 

“It went from 150 contestants to about 20 in the final so I was really happy to get that far because I was up against adults as well,” she said.

 

“Some people say you have to be a very talented singer or quite experienced to sing Queen but at that final I sang Don't Stop Me Now. I felt like I owned the stage there.

 

“There was a lot of people in the audience – probably about 1000. I remember standing outside there waiting for them to call my name and with about two minutes to go I told mum I needed to go to the bathroom.

 

“It was so funny because she was like, ‘you have got no time now. You have to go out!’ I could hear some of my friends screaming from the crowd, and lots of my family friends were there, and it was really cool.

 

“I used to get nervous but then I was like, ‘I'm up here for a reason. You shouldn't be nervous because they're going to like you because you're good’.”

 

Born in Bendigo, Martina’s family lived in a number of country Victorian towns before spending six months in her mother’s native country of Bulgaria, eventually deciding to settle on Kangaroo Island about four years ago.

 

“Before we went to Bulgaria, we came on a holiday to Kangaroo Island and stayed for 10 days in American River. I loved it and I’m glad we came back. It is beautiful here.”

 

Martina hopes to perform at the upcoming Fleurieu Folk Festival before taking her talents interstate, with plans to enter the Tamworth Country Music Festival next year. 

 

“I'm 10 years old so I have no idea what I'm going to do in life right now, but I feel like right now this is the path that I'm going to follow. I feel like this is my strong suit.

 

“I want to expand my music range and I want to write some new originals, learn some new covers, and record some stuff when I get a bit older.”