Amy Shark was all set to tour outside of Australia for the first time since before the pandemic began, but those plans were scrapped—not because of travel restrictions or a positive COVID-19 test, but for something much more fun: A judge’s chair on the new season of “Australian Idol,” which will begin airing in the new year.

In her home country, the 36-year-old has become one of the biggest music artists around and before releasing her 2021 album Cry Forever. She’s won eight ARIA awards (Australia’s version of the Grammys). Marie Claire Australia named her the entertainer of 2022. Joining fellow judges like Harry Connick, Jr. and Meghan Trainor on the show’s panel was huge and an opportunity she couldn’t pass up.

“I feel like I was just talking to you not that long ago after releasing ‘Adore.’ Now I’m an ‘Australian Idol’ judge—it’s crazy,” Shark said in a recent video call from Australia.

The singer-songwriter, who also appeared in 2022 on the Australian version of “Celebrity Apprentice,” was very nervous about judging hopeful musicians—she had been one herself, after all, and struggled for years before catching a break.

She used to watch the show and wonder how the show’s judges could even think of themselves as capable of judging the art of others.

“I’m not sure I even liked the concept,” she said. But she found a premise she could support: “I heard today that there’s a hundred thousand songs being uploaded to platforms every day. It’s great to have any sort of television platform to try and cut through. All respect to the kids that that give it a go.”

Amy Shark became like the show’s Paula Abdul. Alongside the “brutal” judges, Connick and Kyle Sandilands, she offered the more constructive criticism.

“Myself and Meghan Trainor are there to sort of pick up the pieces after the two guys have destroyed the person who obviously can’t sing,” she said. “I guess I’ve gone for more of a caring angle because I just can’t [be mean]. That’s just not in me. So even if they really suck, I try and pick one thing that I like about them, like, maybe they got a cool T-shirt on.”

Shark did the other high-profile show (which has no connections with the American version and its failed star) solely to raise money for charity. In her case, it was for Support Act, an organization providing mental health care for musicians and others in the industry, as well as financial relief for those impacted by the pandemic.

The artist has been vocal about supporting the music and touring industry in Australia. She said it was fun to surprise her fans by making the appearance on “Celebrity Apprentice,” where she finished in the top four. Shark was voted off after some tense scenes.

“Would I do it again? Never!” she said.

Shark knows all too well about the difficulties musicians face in her home country. For years, she played anywhere she was allowed to, while repeatedly being turned down by labels—and she found success with breakthrough single “Adore” and 2018 debut album, Love Monster.

This year, she returned to her roots—sort of—playing a massive 60-show tour of Australia, including the country’s metropolises, as well as any town that would have her. While the United States is about as large as Australia, it has many more large markets. Even then, you just don’t see any artist try to undertake a tour of all those markets at once.

Some of the towns had only one motel and one theater. She played much smaller rooms than she’s used to in Australia—about 800 to 1,000 people per night. In one town, the theater had a capacity of 500 (which is about the size of the Independent in San Francisco).

How did she pull it off?

“With great difficulty. It was a huge challenge, and it wasn’t a glamorous tour,” she said. “It’s illegal to have tour buses in Australia. You have to always be seatbelted. It was back in Sprinter vans and long drives, staying in really shitty motels because a lot of these towns, that’s all there is; one motel. So the whole town would know where I was.”

Some of those towns weren’t accustomed to having a touring artist come in and play. Some venues underestimated how much music and production equipment Shark brought in, and her touring manager came close to ripping his hair out on a number of occasions, she said.

It involved many late nights, early mornings and long drives through the countryside. At most shows, she could tell who her biggest fans were, but she worked extra hard on the people who didn’t know her but were curious who was causing such a scene in town.

“I would like zone in on them and try and win them for the night,” she said.

Shark used to wonder what it’s like being Harry Styles or Justin Bieber. She got a taste of their lives on this tour, as some diehard fans and others were easily able to track her down in the smaller towns, encircling her car and following her around.

“We changed one place up because there were too many people around this motel, and it was literally just a motel,” she said. “I just didn’t expect people to do that—to be there and not leave. Some people were really respectful, but then in some towns, they just didn’t understand, and they just wanted me to talk to them all night, and they would wait outside my door and wait at reception. It was tough. I love that they were there for it. I love that they were excited. It was just a bit of a roller coaster.”

After so many shows together, there’s not a tighter, more in-sync band in the country than hers, she said.

Amy Shark is rounding out 2022 with new single “Only Wanna Be with You,” an ‘80s, Cure-like (think “Just Like Heaven”) power popper that’s the first of several songs she’s written since Cry Forever. The happily married artist, who’s a very personal songwriter, wrote the song about a relationship she had many years ago.

It stemmed from a corporate gig. She’d gone to play for bank executives, where she ran into an ex she had dated. “‘Whatever happened with us?’” he asked, suddenly.

“When I was dating him, I had someone else that I wanted to be with, but he was taken,” Shark said. “It was this feeling of ‘I’m just gonna date this person, and hopefully, I’ll form feelings for him, and these feelings for someone else will go away, if I give it time.’”

She saved the notes from the encounter, and that’s the song that came out on a later songwriting trip to Los Angeles.

“Only Wanna Be With You” has none of the vibes of the Hootie and the Blowfish classic. It’s about biding your time while the person you want to be with is taken.

As for that ex? Shark let him down gently.

“Yeah, I definitely didn’t say, ‘I wanted to do something else, and you were kind of boring.’ I was like, ‘It was a weird time, man. I didn’t know who I was, really, and I was working it out,’” she said.

“He’s got a really great job. Maybe I should have stuck with him,” she added, laughing. “He kind of took it on the chin. He was such a lovely guy, and there was a bunch of dudes that I dated at the time, and they’re also lovely. They just weren’t this other person, you know?”

Fans can expect more songs to come from Shark, presumably leading up to an album.

“You know me, man. You know I got heap of of songs that I want to release,” she said. “It’s just working out how to do it. I’m an album artist. … I don’t want to be just a singles person.”

Shark already has replacement dates for a U.S. tour lined up. She’ll be back next summer, making sure to include San Francisco.

“I can’t wait. I miss the seals and I miss the Giants,” she said.

Follow editor Roman Gokhman at Twitter.com/RomiTheWriter.