In March 2027, international pop icon Belinda Carlisle will take one last victory lap around Australia, saluting four decades of hits on her aptly titled G’day & Goodbye Tour.
One of the most unmistakable voices of the ’80s—and one of the few who kept the magic going long after—Belinda will pull fans through the full arc of her story: the era-defining solo smashes, the neon-drenched anthems, and the raw adrenaline of her early days fronting The Go-Go’s, the all-female punk-pop trailblazers who changed the game.
Australia has been more than just another stop on the map for Carlisle. It’s been a long, loyal love affair. And these shows mark the final time she’ll tour Down Under—one last communal sing-along, one last chance to celebrate the songs that soundtracked road trips, breakups, dance floors and everything in between.
“Australia has always held such a special place in my heart,” Belinda says. “The fans here have supported me from the very beginning, so this tour will be one big thank-you—a celebration of the music, memories and magic we’ve shared.”
The run hits Perth, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, with a career-spanning setlist built to remind everyone why Carlisle became—and remained—an icon. One last tour. One last toast. A pop farewell worthy of the legacy.
Earlier this year, Belinda spoke to Sean Sennett about her new album.
Belinda Carlisle’s Once Upon a Time in California: A Love Letter to a Golden Sound
Belinda Carlisle is having trouble with the internet. After a few false starts, the singer is back online from her home in Mexico and ready to talk about her new album, Once Upon a Time in California. It’s a deeply personal album for Carlisle, reflecting on the music she grew up listening to during the AM-radio days of her childhood.
The LP features Carlisle—who found fame first as a member of The Go-Go’s, then as a solo artist—covering the likes of “Anyone Who Had a Heart,” “The Air That I Breathe,” “Everybody’s Talkin’” and more.
“We started with about 150 songs,” she begins. “Narrowed it down to 50, then even fewer. I wanted to capture that time of intricate harmonies and real melody. I wanted the album to sound not retro—kind of modern, with a nod to that.”
Produced with longtime collaborator Gabe Lopez, the record is lush and rich but never overcooked. “We started in 2017, off and on,” Carlisle explains. “Because of the pandemic, it stretched out over eight years. I was flying in from Thailand, then Mexico, and we’d do a bit here and there. You worry, right? That if something takes that long, maybe it’s not working. But having that time gave us space. We never got sick of the tracks, and we stayed objective.”
Carlisle glows when discussing the process—her appreciation for the songs themselves runs deep in her DNA. She may still be a punk, but she also loves that delicious West Coast pop sheen, and she segues at some point into what the Brits were recording in the late 1960s.
“There was one song, ‘Holiday’ by the Bee Gees,” she says of the process. “I love that song. It’s such a weird song. But our version was horrible (laughs), so we canned it.
“Others, like ‘Anyone Who Had a Heart,’ I wasn’t sure I could sing it. Dionne Warwick’s version is iconic. But Cilla Black’s version—that’s the one that really hit me. It was so sparse and emotional, and it helped me find my way into it.”
You hear that reverence throughout Once Upon a Time in California. “Everybody’s Talkin’,” originally penned by Fred Neil and made immortal by Harry Nilsson, feels breezy and wistful in Carlisle’s hands. “I actually hung out with Harry a few times,” she reveals. “He’d hold court every night at my husband’s restaurant. Such a lovely man. I just hope I did him proud on that one. I think I did.”
Carlisle’s vocal performance throughout is nuanced—she knows how to sell a lyric.
“I prep like crazy,” she continues. “I do breath work, vocalising—I want to go in strong. Some songs, like ‘One,’ I had to be in the right mood to sing. But it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. The hardest was ‘Anyone Who Had a Heart.’ That was so full-on.”
Carlisle and Lopez invested heavily in the sequencing of the record, and it shows. “We spent a lot of time getting the tracklisting right,” she says. “The final song we added was ‘Reflections of My Life’ by Marmalade. It was a hit back in the day, always on the radio. But it’s about loss, beauty, life’s sadness—it’s heavy. I’m singing it at this stage in my life and it hit different. It was the perfect ending.”
For Carlisle, the path to pop perfection was never straight. “I was a rebellious kid,” she laughs. “Radio started changing in the ’70s, and some of those artists—I didn’t love them at the time. Then I discovered Roxy Music, I saw the cover of Raw Power, and it flipped my world. Punk came in, and I jumped in. You didn’t need to be good—you just had to feel it. That’s how The Go-Go’s started. None of us knew what we were doing.”
Flash forward to 2024 and Carlisle has just played Coachella. “I mean, Charlotte joined The Go-Go’s because she knew how to plug the guitar into an amplifier,” she says. “And here we are. Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Coachella. My first band, The Germs, with Pat Smear—he called me and said, ‘Can you believe we went from The Germs to this?’ It’s insane.”
Outside the studio and offstage, Carlisle’s Buddhist practice and daily breathwork anchor her. “I chant every day. I do pranayama most days—which is breathing, heavy breathing, like Wim Hof–kind of breathing. It’s changed my singing. It’s made me stronger. I don’t know if it’s impacted my taste in music, but it’s impacted my performance for sure.”
She plans to return to Australia in 2027 and speaks fondly of the musicians she plays with here. “It’s a killer band,” she says. “Singing with them is pure joy.”
And of course, she doesn’t forget the fans: “When I sing ‘Summer Rain’ down there, that reaction—it’s incredible. That’s my favourite song in my catalogue. The melody, the mood—it’s a little odd, a little off, but the melody is beautiful.”
Belinda Carlisle’s Once Upon a Time in California is out now.
Tickets for all shows are on sale now at www.abstract.net.au
BELINDA CARLISLE “G’DAY & GOODBYE” 2027 TOUR
March 3 – Fremantle, WA — Fremantle Prison
March 6 – Melbourne, VIC — The Palais
March 13 – Sydney, NSW — Enmore Theatre
March 20 – Brisbane, QLD — Fortitude Music Hall