Australian Idol (season 2)


The second season of Australian Idol debuted on 13 July 2004. Over 50,000 people throughout Australia auditioned.

Overview

As well as the five larger cities, the judges also visited Canberra, Hobart, Darwin and Tamworth this year. Of the twelve finalists, three were from Sydney, two were from Melbourne, and one each from Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Hobart, Perth, Canberra, Adelaide and Bega.
The winner was Casey Donovan. Runner up Anthony Callea, Courtney Murphy, Hayley Jensen and Chanel Cole. The final 2, as well as Ricki-Lee Coulter, were the only contestants of the Top 12 to score hits, with Callea ending up the highest seller with his first release of "The Prayer" being named the second highest selling song of the last decade by ARIA in January 2009. Chanel Cole and Daniel Belle teamed up under the label Spook to release an album in October 2005, and a bootleg album for Chanel was also released in November 2005. Ngaiire Joseph and Marty Worrall released a single each in late 2005, and Hayley Jensen released an album in September 2007. To this date Anthony Callea is the only Idol contestant to make the final 3 without being in the bottom 2 or 3 throughout the course of the show. For this second series of Idol, the Grand Finale remains the highest rated Idol show in the whole 5 series.
On a darker note, Telstra, a major sponsor of the series, made an embarrassing error when they issued a series of half-page advertisements in major newspapers congratulating Donovan on her victory, with a reference to her website. However, the address was incorrect, leading to a website about gay porn star Casey Donovan, rather than the singer's. The company issued a prompt apology upon realising their mistake.
After this season, judge Ian Dickson bowed out of the series, later to appear in the Seven Network reality TV shows My Restaurant Rules, Dancing with the Stars and most recently, Australian Celebrity Survivor. The 2004 season was also notable for an Asian contestant named "Flynn", who sang the Freestylers song "Push Up" after being found from a terrible audition, in the same vein as William Hung.

Semi-Finals

Group 1

Advancing to the Top 12: Courtney Murphy, Chanel Cole and Hayley Jensen

Wild Card Contenders: Anthony Callea, Ngaiire Joseph and Emily George

Group 2

Advancing to the Top 12: Angie Narayan, Daniel Belle and Amali Ward

Wild Card Contenders: Tara Del Borrello, Adrian Hood and Liza Schulberg

Group 3

Advancing to the Top 12: Ricki-Lee Coulter, Casey Donovan and Dan O'Connor

Wild Card Contenders: Garth Ploog, Carlos Velazquez, Emelia Rusciano, Marty Worrall

Wildcards

Advancing to the Top 12: Anthony Callea, Emelia Rusciano and Marty Worrall

Weekly Song Themes

Top 12 – Australian Made

The Top 12 Finalists

Casey Donovan

Casey Donovan finished in first place for the second series of Australian Idol. She blew the judges and her fans away with powerful renditions of songs such as "Symphony of Life" and "The Special Ones". She came close to elimination twice when she landed in the bottom two during the Top 6 and the Top 4, thus making her the only winner of Australian Idol to date that has enden up in the bottom group on more than one occasion. All other winners were in the bottom group only once, or not at all. She scored four of Mark Holden's touchdowns during the Top 30, the Top 8, the Top 5 and the Top 3. Casey and season 4 winner Damien Leith hold the record for the most touchdowns at four apiece. After Australian Idol Casey was signed to Sony BMG and she released a number one single and released a platinum selling album. She is no longer with Sony BMG but released an EP independently in 2007 and plans to release an independent album in the near future.

Anthony Callea

Anthony auditioned and was selected for the final 30 in the television series Australian Idol in 2004. Based on viewer votes, he did not make it through the first round of competition but was invited back as a "Judge's Choice Wildcard", where his performance earned him a place in the final 12.
Over the weeks of the competition his popularity with the Australian public grew. During his run on the show, he gave several performances that earned him high praise from the judges, including Simon & Garfunkel's "Bridge over Troubled Water", Foreigner's "I Want to Know What Love Is" and Andrea Bocelli and Céline Dion's duet "The Prayer." Judge Ian 'Dicko' Dickson said Callea's performance of the latter was the finest he had seen during his two years with the show and rendered him speechless. Mark Holden invented a new concept of the 'Grand Royale' Touchdown for his fine performance. This, to date, remains the only 'Grand Royale' Touchdown given out by Mark Holden.

Courtney Murphy

Courtney Murphy was eliminated on 8 November 2004, making it to the final three.
Murphy played the parts of "Roger" a "T'Bird" in the Grease Arena Spectacular which toured Australia from May until June 2005. He has released a CD in the group "Murphy's Lore" with his brothers.
Murphy appeared as a guest on ABC's "Spicks and Specks" in 2005 and briefly revisited his performance of Billy Field's "You Weren't In Love With Me", causing co-host Myf Warhurst to become visibly emotional. Murphy's performance of the song is credited in Billy Field's 2005 released Best Of compilation as the impetus for a significant increase in interest in the back catalog of Billy Field.
Murphy performed the Australian National Anthem "Advance Australia Fair" before the test match held between Australia and India at the WACA Ground in Perth, Western Australia on 16 January 2008.
Recording and mixing of Murphy's debut album "Big" was completed in September 2009. Mastering by Sterling Sound, NYC to be completed October 2009. The full-length album is set for independent release in January 2010, and features production, performance and mixing contributions from LA-based power pop artist Bleu.
Courtney's brother, Chris Murphy, later competed in the fourth season of Australian Idol, where he was placed fourth.

Hayley Jensen

Hayley Jensen, was eliminated on 1 November 2004, placed fourth. Like Marty Worrall, she was placed in the bottom 3 five times including elimination.

Chanel Cole

Chanel Cole was eliminated on 25 October 2004, placed fifth.

Marty Worrall

Marty Worrall, was eliminated on 18 October 2004, placed sixth. He was placed in the bottom group 5 times, including elimination.
Independently he released a single "One Day" in 2005 which remained in the top 10 of the Australian Independent charts for 6 weeks. In 2006, Worrall participated in the quiz show Australia's Brainiest Idol, and was the winner. 2007 saw Marty form a band called "Inalight" and record an album with Daniel Jones of Savage Garden fame. Band politics saw Marty split in early 2008. He now works as a solo artist and songwriter, his co-penned track "Here She Comes" was recorded by Canadian rocker Jonas Tomalty and was the opening track on his album "Suite Life" which made the top 10 of the Canadian Albums Chart in 2006. Marty also runs team-building songwriting workshops with his company "Songstart" which he owns with his wife Helen.
Marty lives in Newcastle and is a singing teacher at Rosie's School Of Rock, located in Newcastle.
He is currently one of 3 backing vocalists with the house band for Channel 9's The Voice, along with Azli Ozdogan and Rachelle Medley.

Ricki-Lee Coulter

Ricki-Lee Coulter, was eliminated on 11 October 2004, placed seventh. She had been one of the favourites to win the series from the Top 12 until the Top 7 where she gave a poor performance and was eliminated. Like Daniel Belle, who was eliminated the week before her, Ricki-Lee had never appeared in the Bottom 3 or 2 until her elimination.

Daniel Belle

Daniel Belle was the fifth contestant to be voted out of the competition, on 4 October 2004.
Daniel was never in the bottom three until his elimination week.

Em Rusciano

Emelia "Em" Rusciano was placed ninth, being eliminated on 27 September 2004. She gave an outstanding performance of Alicia Keys' "If I Ain't Got You" on the wild card show, resulting in her being the judges choice to join the Top 12.
Em joined Mark Trevorrow for the Adelaide Cabaret festival in late 2004 for his highly acclaimed I-Bob show and received rave reviews for her performance. She then went on to work for SAFM filling in for the "Milly and Lehmo show" and doing a number of live performances around Adelaide. Emelia impressed Austereo bosses so much that she was offered a full-time breakfast hosting role in Western Australia. In 2006, she participated in the quiz show Australia's Brainiest Idol.
Em went on to host breakfast radio for the Austereo network in Perth for 4 and a half years. Her first co-host was Michael "Wippa" Wipfli from 2006–2008 after Wippa left to host drive for Nova FM in Melbourne Sam Mac moved to Perth to co-host the show, Em was fired in 2009. While in Perth Em also guest starred in "Hair the tribal rock musical" alongside Idol alumni Cosima De Vito and Rob Mills.
Em now lives in Sydney with her husband Scott and her two daughters Marchella and Odette. Em regularly presents on channel 10's The Project and The Circle. Em also has a popular blog called and is a contributes to popular women's website She hosts 2day FM Breakfast, with Ed Kaverlee and Grant Denyer

Amali Ward

Amali Ward was placed tenth in the competition, being eliminated on 20 September 2004. Auditioning in Hobart, Amali was one of only two people chosen from Hobart to progress to the Sydney theatre rounds. Born to an English father and a Sri Lankan mother, and the sole finalist from Tasmania, she was also one of the youngest participants, at 16 years old, attending The Friends' School in Hobart.
After the competition, Amali moved to Sydney and released her debut, self written and produced EP. The Daily Telegraph commented "taking her time has paid off" and Amali won a MusicOZ award that year. Since the release of her EP, Amali has toured Australia playing shows including the East Coast Blues & Roots Music Festival, The Southern Roots Festival and 2009 Rosemount Fashion Week for designer Kirrily Johnston. She has supported local artists such as The Bamboos, Paris Wells and True Live and international acts such as Naturally 7, whom she opened for at the Enmore Theatre.
Amali has also done significant co-writing, both locally and internationally, with writers and producers such as Jack Splash, Cristyle and Warryn Campbell. Her song 'Ten Things To Prove' was featured in the Sony Pictures film.
Amali has also appeared in television commercials for US department store Mervyns, AAMI, Optus, Commonwealth Bank, Outback Steakhouse, Bonds, KFC, Mazda and was chosen as a brand ambassador for Rexona Girl, appearing in a nationwide print and television advertising campaign. In 2011/12, Amali hosted the television series Save Point on One HD, discussing video game releases and gaming news.
April 2012 saw Amali selected as the support act for Seal on his 2012 Australian 'Soul 2' Tour.
In the lead up to the release of her debut album, Amali released several live versions of the songs on her YouTube channel, including the songs 'Handbag', 'Upside Down' and 'Knock You Out', the latter winning the John Lennon Songwriting Contest Lennon Award, in the R&B category.
Amali announced that she recorded her debut album in Los Angeles with producer David Ryan Harris and members of John Mayer's live band, with mixing and mastering by Grammy winner S. Husky Höskulds. October 2012 saw the release of her debut single Leave Me Alone. In February 2013, she released second single Knock You Out. March 2013 saw Amali win the Australasian Performing Right Association Stephen Schwartz Songwriting Award as part of APRA's Professional Development Awards.
On 5 May 2013, Amali released her debut album, Back In Time. The Sydney Morning Herald described Amali as a "soulful singer with a Motown heart on her sleeve." In June 2013, Amali supported David Ryan Harris on his Australian club tour dates and completed an Australian east coast tour to promote the album.
In September 2013 it was announced that Amali would guest star on 3 episodes of long running Australian soap opera Neighbours, appearing as herself in a storyline with character Paul Robinson, played by Stefan Dennis.

Dan O'Connor

Daniel "Dan" O'Connor, was eliminated on 13 October 2004, placed eleventh.

Angeline Narayan

Angeline Narayan was placed twelfth in the contest. Auditioning for Australian Idol in the Gold Coast, she performed Disco Inferno by The Trammps which blew the judges away with her soulful, R&B voice. In the semi-finals, she performed Aretha Franklin's Chain of Fools and the judges said it was the best performance of that night and she was the first contestant from her group voted through to the Final 12 the next night. At the first Final 12 live show, she performed A Touch of Paradise by John Farnham, which left the judges a bit disappointed by her performance. Angie told them that she has been suffering from the flu. She was eliminated the next night.
Angie, like Dan O'Conner, was not featured on the season 2 finalist's cast album. Why only the Final 10 were featured on the album is unknown.
Since her elimination, Narayan has released several demo singles and written many new songs, and has produced an album named 'Undeniable' through an independent record label called 'Locus Records', in which she covered Aretha Franklins' "Chain Of Fools".

Elimination chart