It’s one of the toughest gigs for any singer in Australia – get one word or note wrong, and you’re cancelled.

Dami Im is one of the go-to queens of the national anthem, tapped to sing Advance Australia Fair at major sporting events including the AFL and NRL Grand finals.

Yet the polished vocalist stills finds it “scary”, more terrifying than performing at the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest, on live television for The Masked Singer, or at her own concerts.

The power-lunged performer doubled the challenge recently when she sang both the Australian and South Korean anthems ahead of the Women’s Asian Cup match. And did them both acapella.

Im, who releases her new EP Stormy Weather in June with a national tour, revealed most singers who perform the national anthem at big events do so for love, not money.

“It was scary because, because I’ve done the Australian anthem many times in all sorts of big stadiums for different games and finals but I haven’t performed the Korean anthem publicly since I was a kid,” she said.

“When you do the anthem, they kind of cover your transport costs and things like that but it’s your choice to do it; if it’s a big event, it’s ‘exposure dollars.’

“The fear is always if I fumble one word, it’s a national disgrace, right? Like it’s a sacred moment, so it is a hard gig, in a way.”

Spare a thought for the singer who gets booked to follow Kylie Minogue’s pre-match set to sing the national anthem at this year’s AFL Grand Final.

Ahead of Im’s new record, Im has marked the 10th anniversary of her runner-up finish at the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest in Stockholm with a makeover of her “life-changing” hit song Sound of Silence.

Ever since that star turn as Australia’s most successful representative since we started competing in 2015, fans have begged Im to give Eurovision another crack.

While she has previously hinted she has “unfinished business” with the competition, she ruled out repping the country this year due to caring for her second son Rory, who was born last June.

For her Sound of Silence 10th anniversary revamp, she enlisted Electric Fields duo Zaachariaha Fielding and Michael Ross, who represented Australia at Eurovision 2024 in Malmo, Sweden.

Over 10 years and thousands of performances, Im’s version of the song and her voice have changed, so the 37-year-old artist was keen to capture her sound of now.

When she performed it on the Eurovision stage in 2016, she was under orders from her record label to sing Sound of Silence note-for-note as it was recorded in the studio.

This time around, Im told Ross to let loose on the production, while Fielding added a powerful verse in First Nations language.

“I just wanted to make something that felt fresh and different and for somebody else to put their own perspective into it and I thought of Electric Fields because they have the Eurovision connection from 2024,” Im said. “And I’ve always admired them. They’re so great, aren’t they? Just their energy, their music, their fashion, just everything.

“I’ve come such a long way since 2016, and 10 years ago I had to work in a way that wouldn’t upset people in my label and I was just young and naive and trying to figure it all out.

“Now I find myself not having to answer to all the different people about my own artistic decisions and to collaborate on my own terms, pick who I want to work with, people that I love.

“The song is who I ended up becoming after 10 years, so yeah, it means a lot in that way.”

Im is now “leaning into my jazz era” with the release of her Stormy Weather EP on June 12 and national tour, with shows selling out around the country.