Natalie Gauci: Difference between revisions
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''The Winner's Journey'' was released on [[December 8]], [[2007]]. After five days of sales, it debuted at #12 on the [[ARIA Charts]] on [[December 17]], [[2007]], selling 11,489 copies. This was significantly lower than last year's ''[[The Winner's Journey (Damien Leith album)|The Winner's Journey]]'' by Damien Leith, which sold 89,257 copies after its first full week on sale.<ref>[http://www.undercover.com.au/News-Story.aspx?id=3655 Idol Album Fizzes]. undercover.com. Retrieved on [[December 17]], [[2007]].</ref> After its disappointing debut in the #12 spot, there have been an increasing number of ads on TV and radio in the hope of boosting sales. In its second and subsequent weeks it failed to reach the top 10 on the official ARIA charts, and has continued to plummet, and has become the least popular album released by an Australian Idol winner in their 5 year history. |
''The Winner's Journey'' was released on [[December 8]], [[2007]]. After five days of sales, it debuted at #12 on the [[ARIA Charts]] on [[December 17]], [[2007]], selling 11,489 copies. This was significantly lower than last year's ''[[The Winner's Journey (Damien Leith album)|The Winner's Journey]]'' by Damien Leith, which sold 89,257 copies after its first full week on sale.<ref>[http://www.undercover.com.au/News-Story.aspx?id=3655 Idol Album Fizzes]. undercover.com. Retrieved on [[December 17]], [[2007]].</ref> After its disappointing debut in the #12 spot, there have been an increasing number of ads on TV and radio in the hope of boosting sales. In its second and subsequent weeks it failed to reach the top 10 on the official ARIA charts, and has continued to plummet, and has become the least popular album released by an Australian Idol winner in their 5 year history. |
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==== Lack of popularity ==== |
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The lack of popularity of Natalie Gauci's debut single "Here I Am" and debut album "The Winner's Journey" has led to a lot of speculation about why she has become the least popular Australian Idol winner in its 5 year history. |
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A popular theory is that Natalie Gauci was not the popular choice to win. Runner up [[Matt Corby]] was the bookmakers favourite to win every week of the competition, aside from 1 week when 5th placed [[Tarisai Vuche]] (later embroiled in the Hillsong church scandal and the fake scandal) was the favourite to win. However, the actions of judge [[Mark Holden]], who for many weeks prior to the final suggested that he wanted Natalie Gauci to win and Matt Corby to finish 2nd has led many to believe that he is the reason that Natalie Gauci won, and that in effect the contest is rigged. Various rigging speculations have been pushed forward throughout the 2007 series of Australian Idol, which dominated the competition. |
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Another theory is that the song "Here I Am" was a particularly weak song choice, and that anyone who sung it would have failed to sell copies. Given that this is the only original song on the album, it is also a suggested reason for the lack of album sales. |
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A third theory is that Australian Idol, as a whole, is declining in popularity. The number of people watching the series has been declining, and many felt that the various scandals that embroiled the 2007 series were invented or at least hyped up to try to encourage more interest in the struggling competition. |
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Many of these theories will be answered if Natalie Gauci manages to have a successful career beyond her debut single and album, and whether other prominent contestants such as runner up [[Matt Corby]], [[Tarisai Vuche]] and [[Ben McKenzie]] manage to have more successful careers than Gauci. |
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In many circles the phrase "the winner's curse" is used, to reflect the fact that in every one of the 5 years that Australian Idol has been in production, the winner has sold less singles and albums than the runner up. |
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=== Other performances === |
=== Other performances === |
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Revision as of 01:10, 24 January 2008
Template:Infobox musical artist 2 Natalie Gauci (b. 26 November 1981, Australia) is an Australian singer of Italian and Maltese descent. She won the Network Ten music contest Australian Idol 2007,[1] at the Grand Finale at the Sydney Opera House on Sunday the 25th of November, 2007. She is the first wildcard contestant to win Australian Idol, and the fourth one from around the world, following Canada's Ryan Malcolm, Kazakhstan's Almas Kishkenbayev, and Sweden's Agnes Carlsson.
Biography
Early Life
Before Idol, Gauci was a session musician who performed with a few artists including Matt Hetherington and Beven Addinsal. After performing at various venues, she began songwriting and creating her first record, releasing a solo EP on April 2006 titled Take It or Leave It. The EP scored at the Top 500 in the Billboard World Songwriting Contest in 2007. On November 2006, Gauci was invited to Los Angeles as part of the "Oz City Song Circle", where she performed with other Australian artists to the American audience.[2]
At around the end of 2006 into 2007, she formed "The Natalie Gauci Band" which featured herself on vocals and keyboard, Kumar Shome on electric and acoustic guitar, Jules Pascoe on electric and double bass and Conrad Tracey on drums and percussion. The band took a soul, pop and jazz style, and have performed at several venues around Melbourne.[2]
Gauci was also a music teacher at the Academy of Mary Immaculate, Fitzroy. She was one of several vocal coaches who offered private tuition to those seeking it at the Catholic all-girls school.
Australian Idol 2007
Gauci auditioned in Melbourne, Victoria singing one of her original songs and also "I Will Survive" because the judges requested her to perform a cover track. Judges Ian Dickson and Mark Holden both commented that they thought that Natalie could win the competition, though Marcia Hines warned Natalie that she still had to work hard, as such a comment had always been 'the kiss of death' for contestants in the past. She was chosen by the judges to enter the top 24, but during her semi- final round, she did not gain enough votes to proceed to the Top 12. The two finalists who progressed through in her semi-final were Tarisai Vushe and Lana Krost. She was then called back to perform at the Wildcard Show and once again was not voted by the public into the Top 12, hence the judges chose her and Carl Riseley as the judges choice to be included in the Top 12.
During the Top 12 performances, she received three of Mark Holden's coveted "touchdowns". Her first after her spectacular rendition of Rihanna's song "Umbrella". She later received two more touchdowns in consecutive weeks, one for "Boys in Town" by Divinyls and the last for "How High the Moon" from Ella Fitzgerald.
On 12 November, she was the first to be announced into the Final 2, later joined by Matt Corby, making her the third Australian Idol wildcard contestant to make it to the Finale. Season 2's Anthony Callea was the first wildcard to make it to the Finale, but lost to Casey Donovan. Season 3's Emily Williams was the second wildcard to make it to the Finale, but lost to Kate DeAraugo.
She recorded the winner's single, "Here I Am" along with Matt Corby at Kings Cross studio in Sydney, and performed the song at the Grand Finale after being announced the winner of the competition. The single was released on November 28, 2007. She is the first wildcard contestant to win Australian Idol.
Natalie released the winner's single the day following the Finale. It debuted on the charts at #2 behind Timbaland.
In an interview a few days after the Australian Idol Finale, Natalie explained that she was not expecting to win the competition. She believed that Matt Corby was far too popular with the teenage girls for her to win over him.
Natalie was known to significantly alter songs when covering them, such as Rihanna's Umbrella, Michael Jacksons Man In The Mirror and even on the winner's single "Here I Am". To her fans, this was considered to be a reason to vote for her, but for the people who did not like it, it was considered to be her weakest link, and a reason why she was known in many quarters as being "fake".
Australian Idol Performances
| Week | Theme | Song choice | Original artist | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top 24 | Contestant's Choice | "Hurt" | Christina Aguilera | Selected as Wildcard Finalist |
| Wildcard | Contestant's Choice | "Feeling Good" | Nina Simone | Selected as Top 12 Finalist |
| Top 12 | Contestant's Choice | "(Baby I've Got You) On My Mind" | Powderfinger | Safe |
| Top 11 | Rock | "Sweet Child o' Mine" | Guns N' Roses | Safe |
| Top 10 | Disco | "I Will Survive" | Gloria Gaynor | Safe |
| Top 9 | Acoustic | "Man in the Mirror" | Michael Jackson | Safe |
| Top 8 | Brit pop | "Rehab" | Amy Winehouse | Safe |
| Top 7 | Year you were born | "Endless Love" | Lionel Richie/Diana Ross | Safe |
| Top 6 | Judge's Choice - Hines Contestant's Choice |
"Nothing Compares 2 U" "Umbrella" |
Sinéad O'Connor Rihanna |
Safe |
| Top 5 | Australian Made | "Boys in Town" | Divinyls | Btm 2 |
| Top 4 | Big Band Big Band |
"Orange Colored Sky" "How High the Moon" |
Nat King Cole Ella Fitzgerald |
Safe |
| Top 3 | Audience Choice Contestant's Choice |
"Ray of Light" "Nobody Knows" |
Madonna Pink |
Safe |
| Top 2 | Contestant's Choice Contestant's Choice Winner's Single Grand Final performance |
"Apologize" "Running Up That Hill" "Here I Am" "Man in the Mirror" |
OneRepublic Kate Bush Natalie Gauci Michael Jackson |
WINNER |
Post-Idol Career
2007-2008: The Winner's Journey
As the winner of the fifth series of Australian Idol, Natalie went straight to the Sony BMG Studios to record her debut album The Winner's Journey. The album is a collection of most of her performances from Australian Idol that were re-recorded to go with a two disc (CD/DVD) pack that included a 35 minute interview.
The first single from the album was "Here I Am", the winner's single and in its first week on the ARIA Charts it debuted at #2, behind "Apologize" by Timbaland featuring OneRepublic. It was the first debut single from an Idol winner that did not reach #1 in its first week, although it did debut at #1 on the official Physical Singles Sales chart. After 3 weeks in the top 10, the single dropped out of the top 10, and has continued to drop in following weeks, making it the least popular single released by an Australian Idol winner in their 5 year history.
The Winner's Journey was released on December 8, 2007. After five days of sales, it debuted at #12 on the ARIA Charts on December 17, 2007, selling 11,489 copies. This was significantly lower than last year's The Winner's Journey by Damien Leith, which sold 89,257 copies after its first full week on sale.[3] After its disappointing debut in the #12 spot, there have been an increasing number of ads on TV and radio in the hope of boosting sales. In its second and subsequent weeks it failed to reach the top 10 on the official ARIA charts, and has continued to plummet, and has become the least popular album released by an Australian Idol winner in their 5 year history.
Other performances
Gauci performed at the annual televised event Carols by Candlelight in Melbourne on Christmas Eve 2007. She performed "The First Noel" and "All I Want For Christmas Is You". The show was broadcast by the Nine Network and Natalie joined other Idol hot favourates such as Guy Sebastian, Paulini, Anthony Callea and Jessica Mauboy who had all previously performed on the show in the past. Performing on Carols by Candlelight is classed as a huge achievement.
She also was a key performer at the Sydney New Years Eve 2007 Spectacular that was broadcast by Network Ten.
On January 2nd of 2008, Gauci began her national Winner's Journey Tour with Idol Runner-Up Matt Corby that would last over a month. The tour featured tracks from The Winner's Journey album, additional original material and a cover of "No One" by Alicia Keys who Gauci had cited as a major inspiration. Mid-tour, Gauci also made an appearance at Star City, Sydney at the 'Hits and Stars' party. Gauci will immediately fly out of Perth on January 24th after a performance at the Burswood theatre as she will be performing at the final night of the Malta Song for Europe festival on January 26. After the deal was finalised Natalie screaming with joy, telling timesofmalta.com, 'this is such fantastic news. I can't wait to be there.'
Discography
| Natalie Gauci discography | |
|---|---|
| Studio albums | 1 |
| Singles | 1 |
| Video albums | 1 |
| Music videos | 1 |
| B-sides | 1 |
| Tours | 1 |
The following is an incomplete discography of every album and single released by Australian pop/jazz/soul music artist Natalie Gauci. Prior to being on Australian Idol, Natalie Gauci, with her band, released an EP.
Albums
| Statistics | Singles |
|---|---|
The Winner's Journey
|
Singles
| Year | Song | ARIA Charts | Certification | Sales | Album |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | "Here I Am" | 2 | Gold (35,000) | 19,254 | The Winner's Journey |
External links
References
- ^ "Carl kicked out, Idol down to two". Retrieved November 12.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ a b The Natalie Gauci Band. Retrieved on November 21, 2007.
- ^ Idol Album Fizzes. undercover.com. Retrieved on December 17, 2007.
- ^ [http://www.ariacharts.com.au/pages/charts_display.asp?chart=1A50. Retrieved December 23 2007.
- ^ "ARIA Charts - Accreditations - 2007 Albums". ARIA. Retrieved July 3 2007.