0/5

Reality TV’s music hits

Which Reality TV music acts have been the most successful, and who is on the comeback trail?

Altiyan Childs, fallen from grace winner of The X Factor 2010 has signed to independent label Oxygen Music Group and will release a new single, Headlines, in December and a new album Born Before The Sun, in early 2013.

“This album is 24 years in the making as far as I am concerned,” Childs has said in the statement.

“I would almost say this is my debut album as this is my first, real, honest album. The one I have always wanted to make, not an album I have been forced to make.”

I don’t really count his chances of rating a mention on The X Factor finale as very strong.

Meanwhile the Herald Sun today ranks album sales for some of Reality TV’s music graduates for the past decade or so:

GUY SEBASTIAN
SALES: over 2.4 million albums/singles/DVDs
TOP 10 ALBUMS: 7
TOP 10 SINGLES: 9

SHANNON NOLL
SALES: 1.3 million albums/singles/DVDs
TOP 10 ALBUMS: 4
TOP 10 SINGLES: 10

JESSICA MAUBOY
SALES: More than 800,000 albums/singles
TOP 10 ALBUMS: 3
TOP 10 SINGLES: 5
BRAN NUE DAY – made $7.5 million
THE SAPPHIRES – made $14 million

ANTHONY CALLEA
SALES: More than 640,000 albums/singles/DVDs
TOP 10 ALBUMS: 2
TOP 10 SINGLES: 5

DAMIEN LEITH
SALES: More than 450,000 albums/singles
TOP 10 ALBUMS: 4
TOP 10 SINGLES: 1

STAN WALKER
SALES: More than 400,000 albums/singles
TOP 10 ALBUMS: 2
TOP 10 SINGLES: 2

REECE MASTIN
SALES: More than 550,00 albums/singles
TOP 10 ALBUMS: 2
TOP 10 SINGLES: 3

RICKI-LEE COULTER
SALES: More than 300,00 albums/singles
TOP 10 ALBUMS: 1
TOP 10 SINGLES: 5

LISA MITCHELL
SALES: More than 100,000 albums/singles
TOP 10 ALBUMS: 2

JUSTICE CREW
SALES: More than 500,000 singles
TOP 10 ALBUMS: 1
TOP 10 SINGLES: 1

JACK VIDGEN
SALES: More than 40,000 albums
TOP 10 ALBUMS: 1

MATT CORBY
SALES: More than 280,000 EPs
TOP 10 ALBUMS: 1

Others to rate a mention as successes, if not necessarily in album sales, are The Voice‘s Karise Eden, Darren Percival, Rachel Leahcar and Sarah De Bono, Idol‘s Rob Mills and X Factor‘s Johnny Ruffo.

I would throw Dean Geyer’s name in the mix too, now with his star on the rise in the US on Glee. Axel Whitehead and Dan O’Connor have also had some acting success.

Casey Donovan also sings at NITV’s launch next month.

Before that you have to go back to nostalgic talent shows such as Young Talent Time, New Faces etc.

A number of names I haven’t heard of for a while are Mark Vincent, Liam Burrows, Wes Carr, Paulini Curuenavuli, Hayley Warner, Carl Riseley, Natalie Gauci, Bobby Flynn, Lee Harding, Kate DeAraugo….

32 Responses

  1. Really Heather ?? Have i appeared in one of these shows? a 51 year old man , ! lol From your reply , just let me say I was working on 1 when you were just a glint in your mothers eye. Idol and the shows like it are designed to sell cds and make money from silly little 12 to 14 yo girls.

  2. Here, here Heather. I also think that there is a lot support for theses artists out there. Something like 4 million people nationwide watched Casey win idol and though that doesn’t transpire into album sales it doesn’t diminish the goodwill felt for her, Shannon, Guy et al.

    I personally love to here when theses artists are making a success of something they love and million selling albums don’t denote success in my humble opinion.

  3. Also agree with Leo, a lot of the earnings these days are not in record sales but in live appearances (tours, shows, TV performances, etc) and corporate gigs.
    Finally, nobody (as far as I know) subjects Sophie Paladino, Ross Wilson, Leo Sayer, David Hobson, Gabriel Cilmi, Tina Arena, etc., to these levels of scrutiny. So why why this level of scrutiny on these young people?

  4. Mark Vincent performed a couple of times at Telethon but have no idea what else hes done.
    On his website it says: “Mark is busy writing songs for a new album, which is scheduled for release in 2013.”

    Paulini’s recently released a song called “Fireman”.

    As for Natalie Gauci shes now the lead singer for the band Tune in Tokyo and features in the movie “Big Mamma’s Boy” with Holly Valance.

    Lol Kate DeAraugo found success in Excess Baggage.

    But whats happened to X Factors Three Wishez and more funnily Idol S6 runnner up Luke Dickens?

  5. I forgot to mention Young Divas – their first album was extremely successful, although their second was largely ignored. They were all Australian Idol finalists.

  6. Some lovely and fair comments, particularly JayElle.
    It definitely is not all about charts, which are dominated by Sony and co., in my view to the detriment of Australian music.
    It’s more about making a career in the music industry in the long term. If you bother to check you would know that several of these artists have constant and probably well paid work (Shannon Noll, Ricki-Lee, Anthony Callea). For example, not only is Anthony Callea doing several concerts with the Philharmonic Orchestra at Christmas, he has also toured with Tina Arena across Australia recently and will be opening for Maria Carey in February. Casey proved her talent in the Sapphires, and I agree should have been in the movie version as well – but of course was out done in that role by our need for glamour (a great pity, I think). And Greyghost your prejudice is showing. Most of these young people proved themselves singing live without autotune, and just because you’ve appeared in one of these shows, does not make you less worthy than any other musician.

  7. Looking at the majority of names on that list and i say “who” ! But then again im old enough to remember when music was music and autotune was not invented.
    Music talent shows , give me a break !

  8. Have to agree with Leo. Many of them are still making a career in the music industry. It’s not all about charts. (Look how easy it is too have a song in the charts these days – Psy, LMFAO anyone) Some just don’t get the exposure of others either. Anthony Callea has got six big concerts coming up after christmas at Hamer Hall and Sydney Opera House with the Australian Philharmonic orchestra. This will get little media mention.. Casey has done so much over the last fews years. She may not be releasing songs every 2 months but she was in The live stage version of The Sapphires (maybe should have been in the movie). Shannon and Damian are continually touring the country.
    I think The Voice stars can’t be considered real success yet based on releasing 1 album on the back of the exposure of a TV show. Let’s see how they are doing in a couple of years time.

  9. What about Popstars? Bardot had a lot of success and only broke up because the girls themselves had had enough. Their first five singles all went Gold (in the days when you actually had to travel to an actual shop to buy a CD single!) and only their very last single didn’t receive a certification.

    Scandal’us had a #1 single and a #2 album in 2001, but broke up a year later (they were dropped by Warners).

    Scott Cain had a #1 single, but Warners waited six months to release his album, and it was a complete flop.

    Kayne Taylor reached the Top 10 with his debut single in 2003, but his planned album was scrapped. A similar thing happened to Natalie Gauci (Sony decided not to follow up on the option to release an album of originals, choosing to end their contract after the lack of success of her “Winner’s Journey” release).

  10. I recently interviewed Shannon Noll – lovely guy! He’s constantly touring the country to sold out audiences – artists make more money this way these days than from album sales.
    Cosima has a new single out called Right Here Right Now, Paulini has a new single dropping very soon.
    Emily Williams released a album online this year too.
    Just cause artists aren’t in the main charts anymore doesnt mean they arent working, times change & a lot of them are still recording independently & doing alot of corporate gigs.

  11. I always remember during the last few seasons of Aus Idol that there were rumors that the show struggled to get record companies on board. Mostly due to concerns about the winning contestants (and other contestants) ability to remain a viable long term ‘successful’ artist. However, with respect to those haven’t found commercial success, it appears that Aus Idol is the most successful (recent) format in producing commercially successful artists, particularly compared with other talent shows.

  12. Haley Warner has been writing for Sony, and co-penned Reece Mastin’s Good Night & Shut Up and Kiss Me.

    She’s signed with EMI Publishing Worldwide and is in LA at the moment writing for Demi Lovato.

  13. By that David, I meant I haven’t heard from them in a while. For example, both Shannon Noll and Anthony Callea haven’t had a top 20 song in 5 years, and I was just saying I don’t see them returning and being as big as they once were.

  14. Hmm. You would think the Herald Sun would keep up with the times. Guy Sebastian has actually achieved ten top 10 singles now, and his Australian sales have reached over 2.6 million.

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Sebastian

    But it’s hard to keep up these days I suppose. His sales are likely to hit 2.7 million in the next few weeks as Battle Scars is likely to add another platinum very shortly. And they have Shannon’s stats wrong as well, at least as far as how many albums he has. He has now released five top 10 albums, when you count his retrospective album No Turning Back: The Story So Far. Of course his Million Suns album, released last year, fell out of the top 50 so quickly (after only three weeks) perhaps the Herald Sun missed it.

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shannon_Noll

    As for Altiyan, all I can say is good luck. He has spent the last two years blaming everyone except himself for his fall from grace, when he has given the media nothing but ammunition to fire at him.

  15. I think Jessica Mauboy and Guy Sebastian are the best we’ve got from talent shows. I don’t think we’ll be seeing much more from Shannon Noll and Anthony Callea, where have they been, anyway?

    Natalie Gauci is long gone – she was recently in London auditing for a talent show. I was a huge fan of her on Idol.. so it’s a shame it didn’t work out for her.

    1. Leppie: I think you will find Shannon Noll has practically never stopped working since Idol. Unless I am mistaken he is almost constantly on the road. Anthony Callea was in Wicked, Fame: Ultimate School Musical and recently supported Tina Arena.

Leave a Reply