Beautiful is the third studio album by Australian recording artist Jessica Mauboy, released on 4 October 2013 by Sony Music Australia. Beautiful debuted at number three on the ARIA Albums Chart, becoming Mauboy's highest-charting album to date. It was certified Gold by the Australian Recording Industry Association for shipments of 35,000 copies. It spawned four singles, "To the End of the Earth", "Pop a Bottle (Fill Me Up)", "Beautiful" and "Never Be the Same". To promote the album, Mauboy embarked on the To the End of the Earth Tour from November 2013 to January 2014.

In an interview with Spotlight Report, Mauboy admitted that after her work on the 2012 musical film The Sapphires and its soundtrack which features 1960s soul music, she struggled to find a direction for her third studio album. "This album was definitely quite frustrating and hard to put together ... It was a hard process after coming off the back of doing The Sapphires and having that beautiful soul, motown classic music. It really kind of left me not knowing what I wanted to do next because that [The Sapphires] was so good."^[1] Mauboy further stated that not knowing which direction she wanted to go with helped. "I had all these stories and feelings. All I needed was to be in the studio and play a bit of piano and play some melodies to help me write."^[1] Mauboy wrote half of the album in Australia with DNA Songs and Adam Reily, and also in Los Angeles.^[1][2] Mauboy co-wrote 10 of the 13 songs on the album.^[3]

Mauboy told The Northern Star that the album is "very diverse ... I'm taking it back to my first album where I had a bit of dance and twist of R&B."^[4] Part of the album's musical direction was influenced by 1990s music, including dance artists such as Culture Beat and Corona.^[4][5] "I'm such a big '90s fan and grew up with the '90s, and I love how artists had such big vocals and yet such simple bedding on the tracks – and they use such little effects."^[5] Harvey Mason, Jr. served as the creative director for the album and co-wrote and produced a number of songs.^[3]

Mauboy's exclusive interview with Melissa Doyle in Darwin was broadcast on Sunday Night on 15 September.^[6] On 26 September, she co-hosted The Footy Show and performed a medley of "Inescapable", "To the End of the Earth" and "Saturday Night".^[7] On 29 September, Beautiful became available to stream online via Songl.com before its official release.^[8] Mauboy performed "Pop a Bottle (Fill Me Up)" during the fifth season of The X Factor Australia on 30 September.^[9] On 5 October, she performed and signed copies of Beautiful at Tumbalong Park, Darling Harbour in Sydney.^[10] The following day, she performed at the 2013 NRL Grand Final.^[11] Mauboy performed songs from Beautiful and signed copies of the album during instore appearances at Westfield Kotara in Kotara, New South Wales on 7 October and Westfield Fountain Gate in Narre Warren, Victoria on 10 October.^[12][13]

"To the End of the Earth" was released as the album's first single on 17 July.^[14] The song peaked at number 21 on the ARIA Singles Chart and was certified Gold by the Australian Recording Industry Association for selling 35,000 copies.^[15][16] The second single "Pop a Bottle (Fill Me Up)", released on 27 September,^[17] debuted at number two on the ARIA Singles Chart and was certified Platinum for selling 70,000 copies.^[15][16] The title track of the album, "Beautiful", was released as the third single on 22 November,^[18] and became the lowest charting single of her career at number 46.^[15] The fourth single "Never Be the Same", released on 7 March 2014,^[19] peaked at number six and was certified Platinum.^[15][20] A fifth single "I Believe - Anything is Possible" was released on 1 August 2014. ^[21]

In July 2013, Mauboy announced the To the End of the Earth Tour, a national tour presented by Nescafé to celebrate its global 75th anniversary.^[22] Tickets for the tour went on sale on 5 August.^[22] There were 27 shows in metropolitan and regional Australia that ran from November 2013 to January 2014.^[22]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Renowned for Sound	[23]
The Border Mail	½[24]

Tim Spencer of Q News viewed Beautiful as the type of album "you can easily wind down and dance to", and concluded that fans of Mauboy's previous efforts "will definitely be impressed with this record."^[25] Renowned for Sound's Jana Angeles praised the album's "perfect balance" of pop and R&B, and further added, "what makes Beautiful such an impressive album by Mauboy is the fact that some of the tracks have honest lyrics and are clearly spoken from the heart."^[23] Suzie Keen of In Daily wrote the album is "a no-brainer for fans of pure pop" and found the tracks to be "irresistibly catchy."^[26] Entertainment Hive's Honey B called it "a stunningly honest CD with beautiful melodies."^[27]

Beautiful debuted at number three on the ARIA Albums Chart issue dated 13 October 2013; it became Mauboy's third top-ten album and the highest-charting album of her career.^[28] The album was certified Gold by the Australian Recording Industry Association for shipments of 35,000 copies.^[29] Due to the success of the album's fourth single "Never Be the Same", Beautiful jumped from number 42 to number 17 for the issue dated 21 April 2014.^[30] The following week, Beautiful moved up into the top five at number four, making it a fourth week within the top ten for the album.^[31]

Notes

• ^{^a} signifies an additional producer
• ^{^b} signifies a vocal producer
• ^{^c} signifies a co-producer

Adapted from album liner.^[3]

• Adz Joint
• Captain Cuts Studios
• The Highlands
• Mason Sound
• Orange Factory Studios LA
• Rondor/Universal Recording Studio
• Sony Studios

Technical credits