Casey Donovan |
Casey Lee Donovan (born May 13, 1988) is an Australian singer and the youngest winner of the Idol series anywhere in the world, winning the second season of Australian Idol, at the age of 16.
Donovan came from a family of musicians, with several of her relatives pursuing musical careers, including her father, a member of indigenous country band The Donovans. After her parents split, her mother and siblings moved in with stepfather Norm Axford.
Growing up, Casey was always interested in singing and was lucky enough to be able to stay in touch with cousins Shalena and Jaleesa as well as occasional contact with Emma Donovan.
This contact with the Donovan cousins fostered interest in both singing and playing guitar, which led to busking on the streets of Tamworth during the Country Music Festival when she was 10.
Caseys musical interest was noticed at Bass Hill Public School and Georges Hall Primary, but was not enough to have any public notice. It was not until high school that her talent became noticed, and was supported especially by both her mother and stepfather.
Donovan moved to the Australian Institute of Music in Sydneys Surry Hills in 2004, and it was in this year that her stepfather encouraged her into auditioning for the second season of Australian Idol.
While Donovan performed well throughout the Australian Idol competition, receiving countless praise from all three judges of her flawless performances and studio standard vocals, she was not widely considered a favorite to win.
During the competition, she received some outside success, winning the Most Promising New Talent Award at the 2004 The Deadlys, which honor indigenous talent in Australia.
Nevertheless, she surprised many by being the first making it to the 2004 final, and then defeating widespread favorite Anthony Callea in the grand final. To this date, she is still the youngest Idol winner in the world, having won the competition whilst still only 16.
Donovans post-Idol debut single, Listen With Your Heart was released digitally on November 21, 2004 and officially in stores on November 29, 2004 and it debuted at #1 on the ARIAnet singles chart. She then released her debut album For You on December 13, which debuted at #2 on the album charts.
Her second single "Whats Going On?"peaked at number 18 in February 2005, and her third single "Flow"was released on July 24, 2005 but only managed to reach number 51.
In 2005 Casey was nominated for three Deadly awards, winning two for Best Album and Best Single. Previously Casey had won a Deadly for Most Promising New Talent in 2004. Also in 2005 she received two ARIA nominations for Highest Selling Album and Highest Selling Single and was awarded an ARIA NO.1 award for "Listen With Your Heart".
On March 26 2006, she performed at the Closing Ceremony for the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games. In June 2006, SonyBMG dropped Casey from their record lineup, stating that she did not fit the image they want to promote. This was reportedly due to several controversial public appearances.
After Donovan faded from the limelight following her release from Sony BMG, she spent two years writing her own songs with her band.
As well as this, she has performed at numerous intimate gigs, mainly in Sydney, but also a show in Melbourne, and appearing twice at the Dreaming Festival on the Sunshine Coast.
In April 2007 Donovan teamed up with the former iron man Guy Leech in an effort to shed her excess weight and restore her singing career. In an interview on the 29th of August 2007 on Channel 7s "The Morning Show", Casey said that she had lost 15kg, and more than 30cm off her waistline, and hopes to reduce this further in the coming months to her own set goal.
Her contract with Karma management ended on November 22, 2007, with no plans to resign another contract. As such, Norm Axford, Caseys stepfather assigned himself as her manager.
Shortly following this, Casey released an independent EP, Eye 2 Eye, which she aims to use as a stepping stone to recording a second album, with plans to release it around mid-2008.
❊ Web Links ❊
➼ Casey Donovan
➼ Casey Donovan - official website
➼ Official Casey Donovan Forum
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