As an artist
After his win at Australian Idol, things started to happen pretty quickly. The next day, his new single 'Angels brought me here' came out on the radio, and it was available for sale a few days later. It was soon number 1 on the charts and broke records for single sales. It sold out totally in Adelaide and was impossible to obtain for a week or two except by order. The video clip for 'Angels' premiered on Video Hits the Saturday after his Idol win.
The day after his Idol win was full of media appearances and publicity things; after this, Guy got to work recording his first album, which he did in five and a half days, including three of his own songs, plus some he had helped arrange. The album, 'Just as I am', came out on December 8 and also broke records in the number of copies sold; it even beat Delta Goodrem's 'Predictable'.
That's a lot of success for your first month in the industry!
Guy was touring around Australia to promote the new album (like it really needed promotion ^_^.) and to sign autographs for fans and stuff, but unfortunately this tour was cut short after a fan collapsed at the Adelaide venue (it was a 40 degree day -_-.).
Now...
At the time I'm writing this (December 17), Guy is in London and has just performed in the World Idol competition against a number of Idol winners from other countries around the world. Guy is tipped to be the third favourite to win, though I don't know how accurate this is. He's performing 'What a wonderful world' and we'll get to see it on December 26. Let's all not vote for Kelly Clarkson since she's tipped to be the favourite; maybe if we all vote for one of the unpopulars, we'll give Guy a better chance. ^_-.
Also in the near future, Guy will be doing a song on a Christmas Carols show, will be touring Australia with the other Idol finalists for a series of live performances, is tipped to be putting out another single in the not-too-distant future, and may be soon to break into Asia. Additionally, if I remember correctly, they're aiming to ultimately have Guy produce five albums; the next one possibly at the end of next year.
For more Guy info, try one of these subpages: performances, news, info or albums.
Main page
Now, to sum up, if you've been living under a rock, there was recently a very popular television series called Australian Idol, which was basically a large-scale singing contest (although looks, style, dancing, personality, etc, all factored into the contestants' success, as well as voice). Fans would vote for who they wanted to win; those with the least votes would be eliminated, and at the end, whoever was left would be the winner - the first Australian Idol.
Before these initial auditions, Guy was living in Golden Grove with his family, working as a singing teacher, studying at the Elder School of Music (Adelaide Uni) and performing with the Christian youth conference/band, Planet Shakers, as well as helping lead worship at his church Paradise, playing sport, cruising around on his motorbike and writing music.
The top 40 were split into five groups of 8, and each week a group was brought out and each contestant given the chance to sing a piece of their choice to piano backing. They were also given a little video intro telling viewers a bit about who they were and what they were like. At the end of each show, the Australian public could phone in to vote for their favourite, and the top two would make it into the finals.
The songs he performed during this time were:
When the finals began, so did the show 'Inside Idol' which showed snippets from the daily lives of the finalists.
As the competition began to near the end, with five finalists left, only the bottom two were identified each week, and the lowest scorer, vote-wise, was eliminated. The number of Idol publicity stunts seemed to increase at this stage; the other main change was that each week they sang two songs. By this point in the competition, each of the five finalists had a sizeable fanbase established; Guy's just kept growing as he continued to give consistently great performances.
Some of the extra-curricular activities the finalists did at this time included going to the Arias, singing the anthem at a basketball game, various signings and publicity sessions, visiting hospitals, working out, doing photo shoots for magazines, climbing the Harbour Bridge and being photographed for the celebrity Bridge shots, and getting photographed as a rock star for Rolling Stone (Guy chose Lenny Kravitz).
With only two contestants (Guy and Shannon) left in the competition, the final push began. The guys did an unjudged performance night of three songs each - two of their own choice, as well as their version of the Idol single, 'Angels brought me here'. Guy's songs were 'I'll be there' (Jackson 5) and 'Crazy in Love' (Beyonce). Then the voting lines opened and remained open all week, which was quite ridiculous really but did leave a lot of time for them to plug the numbers and show ads and so on.
Finally they came back and made ready for the Australian Idol Grand Final at the Sydney Opera House. It was a big night with a huge crowd. Guy and Shannon each sang a song (Guy did 'When I get you alone') as well as singing with the other finalists, and we got to see footage of their Idol journey so far.