Guy Sebastian
Australian Singer-Songwriting Star

One of the most successful Australian artists in recent times is Guy Sebastian.

Guy was first noticed during the original Australian Idol series in 2003 and most Australians would remember his first TV appearance with big 'afro' hair,(the fro) a great voice and outstanding singing style.

He very quickly progressed through the auditions and the heats finally going on to win the series with consummate ease and was awarded a recording contract as the first prize.

"Angels Brought Me Here" was the winners single and on its release debuted at number one on the charts. It became the highest selling single in Australia in 2003 and in 2010 was named the highest selling song of the previous decade, a magnificent achievement for a first ever recording!

Guy Sebastian's first album "Just as I Am" was released in December 2003 and it also immediately achieved number one on the album charts. In just the first week of its release it sold 165,000 copies and scored the second highest one week sales in Australian chart history.

By now, we here in Australia recognized that this young man with his afro hair, mature approach to life, incredible singing voice and song writing ability was a talent bound for the world stage.

By early 2004 Guy Sebastian was well and truly on his way. He performed on the Asian MTV Awards, was invited to be a guest judge on New Zealand Idol, performed on Indonesian Idol, then headed to the US to write songs for his next album and also performed on American Idol.

The second album was called "Beautiful Life" and was released in October 2004. It included "Forever with You", a duet with American R&B singer Mya and the lead single "Out With My Baby" which debuted at number one on the popular music charts.

Guy performed at the 2004 ARIA Music Awards where he received the award for the Highest Selling Single for "Angels Brought Me Here", and the Channel V (music channel) Oz Artist of the Year Award. He was also nominated for Highest Selling Album for "Just as I Am".

Beautiful Life peaked at number two on the album charts and was also certified platinum as sales continued to soar.

Guy Sebastian embarked on a national tour in November of 2004, with a second round from March to June 2005. There were two more singles also released from the album, "Kryptonite" which went to number fifteen, and "Oh Oh" to number eleven.

In 2005 the awards for Guy Sebastian just kept on coming! He received awards for Favourite Video, Favourite Music Artist, and Favourite Aussie at the Nickelodeon Kid's Choice Awards, and an MTV Video Music Award for "Out with my Baby". He also received a Highest Selling Album ARIA Award nomination for "Beautiful Life", and was named as a state finalist in the Young Australian of the Year Awards.

The next album was "Closer to the Sun", which was a mix of pop, R&B, soul, pop-rock and jazz and mainly co-written with other Australian musicians. The single released from the album "Taller, Stronger, Better" debuted on the charts at number three in August 2006, and achieved gold status immediately. The album went on to reach number four on the charts while the next single release "Elevator Love" went as high as number 11 and went gold also.

Closer to the Sun's third single "Cover On My Heart" came out in August 2007, reaching number thirty two on the Aria chart while the album itself was named Best Album at the 2007 Urban Music Awards.

In late 2007 Guy decided to record an album in Memphis USA with the veteran rock musicians Booker T and the MG's. "The Memphis Album" was released in November and immediately went to number 3 on the charts and was the seventh highest selling Australian album of the year.

The critically acclaimed album reached double platinum in 2008 and perhaps most importantly gained the attention of the American music press. Several newspapers in the Memphis area wrote a series of articles about Guy recording with The MGs while the radio station 'All Memphis Music', which specialises in playing music originating from Memphis, began playing "The Memphis Album" songs in late December 2007. They also aired two special programs featuring songs from the album and interviews with some of the people involved in recording it.

As a direct result of all the publicity, in 2008 Guy Sebastian was signed to record another album in the US and one of the songs from that forthcoming release "Like it Like That" was chosen as the theme song for the NBC network's summer promotional campaign.

The US release of the new album was unfortunately delayed and wasn't made available until 2010 but "Like It like That", the title track, was released in Australia in August 2009 and reached number one, his fourth number one single. It became the highest selling Australian song in 2009, the album came out in October 2009. It reached number six.

"Art of Love", a duet with Jordin Sparks was released as the second single and reached number eight. There followed another Australian tour during February 2010 and again in June and July.

Later in the year Guy Sebastian was chosen as a judge on the 2010 series of Australia's 'The X-Factor'. At the same time his delayed album was finally released in the US which meant he had to fulfil commitments to the X-Factor and also the promotion of his album in America. That saw him dividing his time between Australia and the US during the show.

We'd often tune in to watch the show and Guy would be missing and we knew he was in America promoting the album. He was later nominated for six ARIA Music Awards for "Like It Like That". He received nominations for Best Pop Release, Best Male Artist, Most Popular Australian Album and Most Popular Australian Artist, with "Like It Like That" and "Art of Love" receiving nominations for Most Popular Single.

Another new album, "Twenty Ten" came out in November of that year. It got to number 4 on the ARIA Album Charts, the sixth consecutive top ten album to do so for Guy Sebastian. "Twenty Ten" was twelve weeks in the top ten, went platinum and became the fifth highest selling Australian album of 2010. The stand-out single was "Who's That Girl" featuring US rapper Eve which reached number one, went platinum 4 times over and was Sebastian's fifth number one single in Australia.

Late in 2011 Guy wrote and performed "Don't Worry Be Happy" which was released as an early single from his next upcoming album Armageddon and in early 2012 also released "Gold", an up tempo soul track. Both songs achieved chart success and in June and July Guy toured nationally to showcase the new songs.

Armageddon's third single "Battle Scars", featuring a hip hop rap by Lupe Fiasco, was released in August and went straight to number one, his sixth number one single in Australia.

By now Guy Sebastian had achieved the most number one singles for an Australian male artist in Australian music history, and is third overall for all Australian acts with only Kylie Minogue and Delta Goodrem having achieved more.

Armageddon, the album was finally released on 12th October 2012 and peaked at number one in its seventh week and has been certified double platinum in sales.

Guy was nominated for three 2012 ARIA Awards. He received nominations for Best Pop Release and Best Male Artist for "Battle Scars", and "Don't Worry Be Happy" was nominated for Song of the Year and was also nominated for an American NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Duo, Group or Collaboration.

The fourth single "Get Along", a song about religious, cultural and racial intolerance got to number five on the popular music charts and was Guy's 11th top ten single in Australia, and ninth to reach the top five.

And so the glittering achievements continue for this truly great Australian artist. Even with all the chart success, gold and platinum records, music awards, television fame, national recognition and international acclaim, Guy Sebastian's feet have always remained firmly on the ground.

On May 17th 2008 he married his girlfriend of eight years, Jules Egan, and Hudson James Sebastian was born 3 March 2012. Guy was absolutely delighted and has relished the role of the loving husband and devoted father.

His is a continuing story as each year brings with it further success and further glory as an artist with a remarkable talent - a genuinely gifted singer, songwriter and performer and one of the greatest of Australian musicians.

Guy has an amazing body of work that you can download from iTunes; click on the link below to go to his iTunes page and check out all of his music.