ANYONE that tuned into the coverage of the Fire Fight Australia's bushfire fundraising concert at ANZ Stadium in February wouldn't have missed Michaela Baranov.
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The new Newcastle resident was centre stage with her platinum blonde hair and white fringe dress, dancing and singing for electro-pop heavyweights Peking Duk in front of 75,000 people.
"That was definitely something I will treasure forever," Baranov said.
The performance was the culmination of an incredible rise for Baranov, that started five years ago when she appeared on X-Factor.
She impressed Hugo Gruzman from Sydney electro duo Flight Facilities and was offered the chance to become their live vocalist.
A year later Hayden James recommended Baranov to Canberra's Peking Duk, who were preparing to shift from DJ sets to live performances. The 29-year-old was walking through Sydney's Centennial Park when she was urged to audition for Peking Duk.
"They sent their songs to sing to see how I sounded and how it fitted," she said. "I literally recorded it into my phone as a voice memo and he called me within an hour and said, 'The boys really wanna come and meet you,' and we had a rehearsal the next day."
Since then Baranov, who Peking Duk dubbed "The Baroness", has spent the past three years performing across the world playing festivals like This That, Falls and Fuji Rock.
"I'm the only girl among 29 guys in their Australian team," Baranov said. "Everyone had a nickname and they treat me as one of the boys, but still a girl, and the nickname they kept giving me was Baron or Bazza.
"I said, 'I wanna feel more feminine, I feel like a man'. So someone said the Baroness and it just stuck."
Baranov has taken The Baroness and is running with it. On Friday she'll release her first single, Another Day, under the name and she has three more singles and a debut album in production.
Baranov has previously released guitar-based pop-rock songs under her own name, but Another Day signals a shift towards '80s-inspired electro-pop, with a touch of '90s Chemical Brothers grit.
"I've been writing music my whole life and the main thing I struggled with was picking a lane with the style of music I want to go in," she said.
"I like different types of music and I've come to the sound of this song from touring with Peking Duk and before that Flight Facilities. I knew the energy I wanted to capture on stage and the music I wanted to play live."
Amazingly, Baranov is deaf in her right ear due to contracting measles at two weeks old. She was fully deaf until she was three and has endured 28 operations to improve her hearing.
Despite perforations, skin grafts and grommets, Baranov refused to let the disability diminish her career.
"Nothing has really affected my career at all," she said. "When you perform on stage you have in-ear monitors so you hear through your microphone really, so it's actually been easier performing and singing on stage than I find it talking to people."
Josh Leeson
Josh Leeson is an entertainment and features journalist, specialising in music, at the Newcastle Herald. He first joined the masthead in 2008 after stints at the Namoi Valley Independent and Port Stephens Examiner and has previously covered sport including the Asian Cup, A-League, Surfest, cricket and rugby league.
Josh Leeson is an entertainment and features journalist, specialising in music, at the Newcastle Herald. He first joined the masthead in 2008 after stints at the Namoi Valley Independent and Port Stephens Examiner and has previously covered sport including the Asian Cup, A-League, Surfest, cricket and rugby league.
