From cancellation to comeback, Hayley Mary is reclaiming her well-earned career after she became public enemy number one for the Australian music industry last year.
The singer-songwriter and former frontwoman of The Jezabels is heading out on the ‘Hayley Mary Quite Contrary’ tour from January-April 2026, her first live performances since being vilified for standing up to woke ideology.
By her own admission, it was a self-imposed exile brought about by seething disillusionment with an insidious industry culture that no longer accommodated dissenting views.
“The whole wearing of the MAGA hat and protesting the misinformation bill, outing myself in an anti-woke way, to me it was a bowing out of music,” Hayley explains.
“I was done and I didn’t feel I could be an authentic version of myself in the industry anymore. It’s ideologically homogenous and slightly tyrannical in that way and I’m not the sort of person who is able to pretend, for better or worse.
“So, for me, I felt I was bowing out and going: ‘I’m saying goodbye but when I do, I’m going to make a point, because I think someone needs to say this, or more people than do, about the industry’. I didn’t want to quit quietly and not illuminate it a little bit.”
For the past 12 months, Hayley has been relegated to industry pariah for her views, excluded from opportunities and disavowed by those she once called friends. “Probably 80 per cent of the people I used to know just don’t talk to me anymore,” Hayley says, “but I’ve made new friends and new connections; people who are a bit more like-minded.”
Even her own bandmates disowned her, which is ironic considering their Biblical namesake was chosen for Jezabel being misunderstood and misrepresented.
But in that time, Hayley says she also found support from people who understood the salient point she was trying to make. Like her, these people had been bullied to curtail their personal beliefs in order to maintain their careers, scared to express themselves lest they too find themselves cancelled.
That was the turning point for Hayley. Having fallen out of love with singing and making music, her sabbatical from the industry provided the space she needed to rediscover that passion. The ‘Hayley Mary Quite Contrary’ tour is more than a comeback for Hayley – it’s a reckoning.
“What’s the point if I make this statement that you should be allowed to have different views in the music industry, and then my career is just over?” she says. “What kind of signal does that give anyone who is thinking maybe they should be more honest about some views that they have, or maybe they should push back against the one-sided politics you’re allowed to virtue signal about, as if there’s no argument for the other side whatsoever other than they’re just a bunch of evil people?
“I thought it's better that I get back on the horse and do at least one tour. And it doesn’t even matter if it sells out or if it’s huge or anything. I feel someone needs to make a path forward for people who have different views - that are probably going to be illegal soon - but I don’t think they’re immoral and a lot of them are actually quite normal views, but people are too scared to say them.”
The ‘Hayley Mary Quite Contrary’ features Hayley performing her own original songs and influential covers as well as selections from The Jezabels’ catalogue. Given the enforced isolation from her usual industry contacts, Hayley will be presenting a stripped-back show that brings her musicality to the forefront.
“At the age and level of experience I have, it’s going to be an interesting one because my band and all of the players that have ever played with me have distanced themselves from me, including the Jezabels, but also my solo session players have quit after the MAGA hat post, which I kind of knew they would,” Hayley says.
“Being primarily a singer, this is a bit of a challenge and growing experience for me because I like big sound behind me and I’m used to big sound. I am playing guitar like a solo act but I’m also bringing in some tracks in because even though I’m coming from that rock background where tracks used to seem inauthentic, it’s the opposite to me [now]. The only way I can be an authentic artist is by automating musicians because they refuse to play with me,” she laughs.
‘Hayley Mary Quite Contrary’ Australian Tour 2026
- Fri 30 Jan - Milk Bar (Perth)
- Thu 5 Feb - Camelot Lounge (Marrickville)
- Fri 6 Feb - Brass Monkey (Cronulla)
- Sat 7 Feb - Rubys Upstairs (Maitland)
- Sun 8 Feb - Heritage Hotel (Bulli)
- Thu 5 Mar - Lefty's Music Hall (Brisbane)
- Fri 6 Mar - Sol Bar (Maroochydore)
- Sat 7 Mar - Wallaby Hotel (Gold Coast)
- Sun 8 Mar - Brunswick Picture House (Brunswick Heads)
- Fri 13 Mar - Odessa At Leaver’s Hotel (Creswick)
- Sat 14 Mar - Pelly Bar (Frankston)
- Fri 10 Apr - The Austral (Adelaide)
