Guy Sebastian

Guy Sebastian
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Guy Theodore Sebastian (born October 26, 1981) was the winner of the first series of Australian Idol in 2003. So far he has released his first and second albums which have both proven to be very popular in the music charts.

Guy Sebastian was born in Malaysia and moved to Adelaide, South Australia as a child. With broad shoulders, he first gives the impression of being larger on stage, but when seen live you realise he's quite average size. He played football and cricket for years, until winning the Idol competition.

He started singing at the age of fourteen. After moving to Adelaide, he attended school at King's Baptist Grammar School, a Christian private school. He also attended the Paradise Community Church, one of the largest in Australia with over 5,000 people in attendance, associated with the Pentacostal Assemblies of God. While at Paradise, he joined their youth conference band, Planetshakers, and sang as one of the lead singers, touring around Australia and the United States. Guy Sebastian never had any formal voice training but followed the people he adored. These included artists such asMichael W. Smith, a [[Contemporary Christian musician, Stevie Wonder,and whom Guys unique style has been influenced and developed through.] While working as a recording engineer and a singing teacher, he decided to enter Australian Idol. Throughout the competition Guy continually blew the audience and the judges away through his uniqueness,versatility, incredible vocals and world class performances. The judges also made reference to his afro hairstyle, with such catchphrases as "Go the 'Fro", and such and Guy became the muched loved "fro". The final of Australian Idol where he competed against Shannon Noll was the most popular program broadcast in Australia during 2003 and the second most popular non-sporting broadcast in Australian television history.

In World Idol he sang "What A Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong which is also on the Australian Idol Final 12 CD and his debut album Just As I Am. He impressed many of the World Idol judges with this performance but finished 7th out of the 10 finalists. There were questions over his song selection for the competition as many fans felt that his dance reggae version "What A Wonderful World" was his weakest performance during the earlier Australian Idol series. He was planning to use his rendition of Prince's "When Doves Cry", but there were legal issues with that choice.

Sebastian has been public about his strong Christian beliefs and plans to release a gospel album for the American market sometime in 2006. He has become admired and respected by both his peers and the Australian community and has a strong involvment with several large Australian charitable organisations. He remains a strong drawcard at many popular events and was a nominee for the "Young Australian of the Year". He recently became an Ambassador for World Vision and presented a Channel Ten special, "An Idol in Africa", where he visited places in Africa with World Vision to highlight the issues faced by people living there such as poverty and civil war.

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