Australia Decides 2022: Erica Padilla

Laura Smith

Feb 23, 20222 min read

About the artist

Erica Padilla is a 20-year-old singer-songwriter from Melbourne who is the inaugural 'Australia Decides' TikTok wildcard winner.

Erica has been singing from a young age, performing at street festivals as well as being a part of the MiGen Juniors, an organisation that helps young singers to gain confidence, showcase their talents, and gain experience performing on stage. Erica has also appeared on 'The Voice Australia', and although she failed to turn any chairs, the coaches encouraged her, and the audience applauded the young singer's talents.

Since then, Erica has become a viral TikTok sensation, having amassed 1.2 million followers on the social media platform.

About the song - 'To The Bottom'

'To The Bottom' is an original song co-written by Erica Padilla, her younger sister Isabella, and her friend Ally Eley. The song was written and recorded in just 3 days at the Church St studios with audio engineer Sean Carey.

In an interview with Aussievision, Erica elaborated that although she was given the choice of a song from the song portal, she instead opted to pen an original track:

"There [were] amazing songs in there. And I thought that Australia would love these songs. But then I was thinking back to my artistry. And I was like, I love the songs, but I really want to show who I am as an artist. And Paul kind of hinted that I could send a demo of an original."

Erica hopes that 'To The Bottom' will give a voice to the powerless. In an interview with SBS, she says of her 'Australia Decides' entry:

"I think what sets me apart from other people performing in the competition is that I’m doing a very soulful RnB song and the message behind my song is empowerment. I want to encourage people to follow their dreams or conquer their own kind of demons."