On Friday, December 13th, singer-songwriter Jessie Hillel, known as JHM, released her new song GMT. Despite the date’s ominous reputation, she says, “Honestly, it didn’t even hit me that it was an unlucky day.” Fingers crossed, she’s hoping the track climbs the charts.
Born to Malayali parents from Kerala and now based in Melbourne, Jessie, 23, shares, “GMT is her collaboration with her good friend Spanish rapper Jalmar.
“I’d known about him and his music for a while. I’d been wanting to connect with him because I felt we both shared a similar dynamic in our art—a meeting of two cultures. For me, it’s about blending my Indian heritage with the Western environment I grew up in, and I see a similar duality in his work. With his Spanish roots and upbringing in Australia, his music reflects that intersection beautifully,” she says.
And this year it finally happened—naturally and organically. They ran into each other at a street festival after not seeing each other for ages. Later, they bumped into each other again at a Converse event (both are endorsed by them). “It felt like fate. I told him we should do a session, and he agreed.”
GMT is available on all major streaming platforms. “It’s a move into the kind of music that I’m going to be making more of next year,” she reveals.
The track comes off the back of Jessie’s performance at Music Matters Festival in Singapore, as well as an endorsement by Converse Australia, promoting her as an All Star in their class of 2024/25.
Jessie grew up in New Zealand before her family moved to Australia in 2015. By the time she was 13, she had already performed on stages around the world, become the runner-up on New Zealand’s Got Talent, and released her debut album with Sony Music.
In 2023, Jessie released her song Fever Dream in collaboration with multi-instrumentalist and producer Fractures (known for working with Amy Shark and Vance Joy). The track received widespread praise from both audiences and critics, debuting on national radio in Australia and gaining airplay across the US and the UK.
Fever Dream also earned Jessie a feature from Ones To Watch, a platform that has previously spotlighted artists like Billie Eilish, Dominic Fike, and Dua Lipa.
In 2024, Jessie solidified her reputation as an artist to watch with the release of her highly anticipated single The Garden. The track garnered over 500K views on TikTok and debuted during her headline show at Singapore’s Music Matters in May.
Following her standout performance, she supported indie-pop sensation Tiffi and viral singer-songwriter ISHAAN on their Australian tours. Jessie then collaborated with DJ Noiz on a single that broke into New Zealand’s top 20 singles chart.
Jessie, whose family comes from Kerala, says her love for Malayalam music was sparked by her grandparents, who introduced her to it during their annual trips to India. She’s soon heading back to India to visit her extended family. Although she dreams of making music in Malayalam one day, she admits, “I’m not fluent enough to take that step yet.”
She shares that she has spent a lot of time this year working on discovering her sound and figuring out the kind of music she wants to create.
“I love different kinds of music, and for a while, I was experimenting with everything. Now, I feel more confident in the type of music I want to create and the direction I want to take as an artist.”
From her first public performance at the age of five to now, Jessie reflects on her journey: “I feel like every step I’ve taken has been met with incredible validation and support, and I’m very grateful for that.”
Australian music is incredibly diverse, with so many talented artists creating truly unique and exciting sounds. “But I think only a particular a very small part of it is really highlighted and given a platform,” she says, adding, “I think have some work to do within the Australian music scene about how to how to kind of give everyone just a great music platform regardless of the genre or who is making it.”
For Jessie, the ultimate goal is to have her songs resonate deeply with people. “I want the songs I write to be really well received by people and to genuinely mean something.”
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