Updated
Tasmanian singer Maddy Jane will be performing for crowds bigger than the population of her island home when she supports former One Direction singer Harry Styles on his "intimate" Australian tour.
The up-and-coming artist, Maddy Jane Woolley, who grew up on Bruny Island off Tasmania's south-east coast, will kick off Styles' tour at the Enmore Theatre in Sydney tonight.
Maddy, 23, told ABC Hobart she was never a One Direction fan, but was "stoked" to get the call-up.
'"It's pretty weird," she said.
"I'm pretty stoked and super privileged."
She will also open for Styles at Auckland's Spark Arena, which holds a crowd of 15,000 — about 25 times the population of Bruny Island.
Maddy hoped to get some advice from Styles about how he coped with the spotlight.
"I would like to talk to him about how he handles it all," she said.
"He has such a huge, intense following. It must be overwhelming and a little bit daunting to deal with at times."
"That aspect of it is becoming something important for me - how you get by doing what you are doing when you are that high profile.
"I definitely have people coming up and saying hi and taking photos now. You just have to be switched on a lot."
Growing up about 85 kilometres south of Hobart, Maddy said it took time getting used to "bigger situations".
"You are used to waving to everyone and knowing everyone," she said.
"I have learnt to be more comfortable in bigger situations, because I am just a little small town girl.
"I have definitely had to get used to the scale of things."
Earlier this year, Maddy opened for Welsh indie rock band, Catfish and the Bottlemen, after buying tickets to their gig.
She got the call-up to support them three days before the show.
"That was a bit of a jump up in the whole experience," she said.
"I found out they had actually listened to my songs and picked it out themselves."
Topics: music, music-industry, arts-and-entertainment, adventure-bay-7150
First posted