Jem Cassar-Daley drops new single 'Speak Now'

Published 15 April 2026
Image: James Adams

Rising Australian star Jem Cassar-Daley has today released her heartbreakingly beautiful new single ‘Speak Now’.

Written with fellow artist KYE and production duo MSquared, the song is a gentle pop song that is almost a reverse love song, with a topic unusual for pop music - getting married, but realising you’re possibly marrying the wrong person. ‘If I don’t speak now / Am I ever gonna leave?’

“’Speak Now’ was inspired by the classic wedding quote ‘speak now or forever hold your peace’ however this perspective is about the internal battle of knowing you are potentially marrying the wrong person,” Cassar-Daley says. “During the writing session KYE, MSquared and I talked about the conundrum of staying with someone out of fear of letting them down and losing sight of yourself in the process.”

A proud Gumbaynggirr and Bundjalung woman, Cassar-Daley has steadily built up an impressive amount of accolades since launching her career in 2021. In 2022, she won both the NIMA New Talent of the Year award and QMA Indigenous Artist of the Year, and in 2024 she won the Queensland Music Awards’ Best Pop Award and Song of the Year, plus the AIR Music Awards’ Song of the Year for her single ‘King of Disappointment’. She continued the charge in 2025, winning Queensland Music Awards’ Indigenous Artist of the Year.

An artist with incredible talent, Cassar-Daley lyricism is imbued with a maturity and insight well beyond her years, with an ability to draw out emotional nuances and situations which we don’t normally consider, yet instantly connect as soon as her gorgeous vocal gives them life. A superstar of the future, be sure to catch her live at the Sydney Opera House on 29 May as part of the Vivid Festival.

‘Speak Now’ is out now via Civilians. You can download and stream here.
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