Grace Woodroofe: Perth born singer makes powerful return to music with new song I Love You Babe

Grace Woodroofe has had a start-and-stop music career since emerging in the 2010s, but she is finally here to stay, returning with a fresh single that marks a new era in her artistry.

The Perth-born and Melbourne-based singer’s new song I Love You Babe is out now, her first music release since 2023, inspired by a five-year-long emotionally abusive relationship that took her away from her career.

Following her debut 2010 album Always Want and her 2015 electronic-pop EP Love It Need It Miss It Want It, Woodroofe disappeared from the music world as her personal life became engulfed with unhappiness.

It wasn’t until 2023 that she suddenly re-emerged with her first single in eight years, the aptly titled Beginning, after leaving the relationship and starting again.

Returning to her passion with her first song for 2025 ahead of an album, Woodroofe is ready to share the raw emotions from her deeply personal story she hopes will resonate with others.

I Love You Babe, produced by Oscar Dawson of Holy Holy and recorded in London, captures the fuzzy, sweeping feeling of love at the outset of a relationship when “nothing else matters”.

“It captures the early phase when everything felt all-consuming and magical — I thought it was what real love felt like,” she said.

“Looking back, I see how intense devotion can blur into control and isolation.

“This song sets the foundation for the album, showing how deeply I felt before things unravelled.

“It’s the first chapter in a story about losing myself, finding clarity, and reclaiming my voice.”

Woodroofe said it took many years to recover from the relationship and work out how to convey her story into lyrics.

“I’m ready now to talk about it, and I hope it resonates with others as well. But yeah, it was a very, very difficult time, and it certainly took me away from everything that I loved, especially music,” she said.

“It was definitely a cathartic experience writing about it and being able to get back into music again through sharing the story.”

Not only has she been collaborating with Dawson, who she described as a “sonic genius”, but she reunited with Matt Corby at his studio “up in the hills somewhere in Queensland”.

“It was really fun to reconnect with him, because we used to tour together and play music together years back. So it was really nice to have that again and just kick off where we left,” she said.

Woodroofe got her foot in the door in 2007, when Grammy Award-winning roots rocker Ben Harper signed the then 17-year-old to The Masses Music label he co-founded with Heath Ledger.

The Oscar-winning WA actor, who died in 2008, discovered the singer thanks to his half-sister, Ashleigh Bell — Woodroofe’s school friend from Penrhos College in Como, who encouraged Ledger to listen to tracks the young star was uploading online.

“It’s so surreal to think about that now,” she said of her whirlwind beginning.

“Once I got thrown into this creative community of filmmakers and musicians, and actors, I felt like I’d found my people. So that was such an insane experience, coming out of year 12 and going and doing that, but then I had to go back and graduate, which Heath was adamant that I do. So it was very like living two lives for a little while. But he was just spectacular. He was insanely talented, creative and very supportive of me.

“My life would never have turned out like this if I hadn’t met him. I don’t know what I’d be doing, but I’m very lucky that I went through that and he introduced me to some amazing people.”

With more new music on the way, Woodroofe is keen to get back into touring.

She will return to WA in March for City of Melville’s Tender is the Night live music series, where she hopes to be welcomed by warm weather.

“I miss the Perth heat, I am so not bred for this Melbourne weather, it gets so cold,” she said.