Australia's Got Talent 2012 - Seven West Media
Australia's Got Talent 2012 - Seven West Media
Australia's Got Talent 2012 - Seven West Media
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INTRODUCTION<br />
The nation’s most watched program of 2011, AUSTRALIA’S GOT TALENT,<br />
makes its anticipated return in <strong>2012</strong> on Monday 16 April at 7:30pm.<br />
A massive 2.98 million Australians watched as 14 year-old<br />
Jack Vidgen was crowned last year’s winner and judges<br />
DANNII MINOGUE, KYLE SANDILANDS, BRIAN MCFADDEN and<br />
host GRANT DENYER have hit the road across the country to<br />
find this year’s new crop of super-stars.<br />
Judge Dannii Minogue says of the auditions this year: “Just when<br />
we think we’ve seen it all something or someone comes out of<br />
no-where and does a truly amazing performance. A star walks on<br />
the stage and wows us. When the whole audience just floats to<br />
their feet after a performance and the rest of the stage seems to<br />
melt away, you know you have just witnessed the birth of a star”.<br />
Kyle Sandilands says “The talent is, as always, diverse. What’s<br />
different this year is that some of the acts we have previously<br />
said no to are back after going away and re-working their<br />
performance. Of course some are still terrible, which of course a<br />
part of me loves, but some have taken our comments on board<br />
and have worked harder to transform their idea and selves into a<br />
proper act. I think the people at home will be blown away by the<br />
weird things that Australians can do!”<br />
After the flood of exceptional talent last year Brian McFadden<br />
firmly believes “that this year is the best talent we have ever had.<br />
We’ve got everything from amazing guitarists, world-class bands,<br />
phenomenal dance troupes and acrobatics. And just to keep<br />
us on track, some jelly wrestling midgets who take Kyle on for<br />
good measure!”<br />
Australian viewers will once again determine the winner of the<br />
$250,000 grand prize. Following the achievements of past winners<br />
Mark Vincent, Justice Crew and Jack Vidgen, along with the<br />
recent local success of Timomatic and Cosentino, the stakes<br />
are high.
HOST<br />
GRANT DENYER<br />
Grant Denyer could almost be a contestant with his many talents -<br />
Sunrise weatherman, Dancing with the Stars champion, motor racing<br />
driver and original AUSTRALIA’S GOT TALENT host.<br />
Grant started driving cars at the age of seven on his family’s<br />
Riverina farm in New South Wales. While he desperately wanted<br />
to become a racing driver, he settled for go-karts and qualified<br />
in the Top Ten for the Australian National Class Go-kart titles at<br />
Geelong, qualified on pole for the NSW State Titles at Grenfell<br />
before winning the NSW Go-kart Country Classic Championship<br />
in 1997. Now, he has realised his V8 dream, driving for the Ford<br />
Rising Stars V8 Supercar development series team as one of the<br />
country’s hottest upcoming talents, winning ‘Rookie Of The Year’<br />
and ‘Motorsport Personality Of The Year’ in his first season.<br />
Not just content with life in the fast lane, Grant embarked on a<br />
career in the media, securing a position at Prime TV in Wagga<br />
Wagga as a journalist. In 1999, Grant became a full-time news<br />
reporter for Network Ten. Thanks to his racing background and his<br />
obvious talent on camera, he was soon given the opportunity to<br />
work on the station’s V8 Supercar coverage as a pit reporter.<br />
At the start of 2003, Grant joined the Channel <strong>Seven</strong>’s breakfast<br />
program Sunrise as a weather presenter. Not one to shy away<br />
from adventure, his role on Sunrise has seen him set five official<br />
Guinness World records, including setting the largest tandem<br />
bungee jump record by jumping out of a helicopter on Bondi<br />
Beach. He has tried out to be a rugby league cheerleader,<br />
travelled in the weather wagon around Australia for an<br />
entire year and was the first journalist to report from Innisfail’s<br />
devastated cyclone zone in 2006.<br />
During his time on Sunrise, Grant was able to branch out, hosting<br />
shows such as The Guinness Book of Records and Greatest<br />
All-time Aussie Bloopers. He even commented for the Sydney<br />
Olympic Games in 2000.<br />
He surprised many with his dancing skills during the fourth series of<br />
Dancing with Stars, beating world boxing champ Kostya Tszyu to<br />
become the series champion.<br />
Recognising his extraordinary talent since his dazzling victory on<br />
Dancing with the Stars in 2006, Grant went on to host It Takes Two<br />
in the same year. He also fulfilled his life long dream of becoming<br />
a V8 Supercar driver and earned ninth position at his first Bathurst<br />
1000 at Mount Panorama.<br />
In 2010, Grant returned as a fulltime member of the Sunrise family,<br />
resuming his role as the shows weatherman.
JUDGE<br />
BRIAN MCFADDEN<br />
Cheeky ex-pat Irishman Brian McFadden rejoins the judging panel<br />
and has the goods to back it up, boasting a multi-faceted career as<br />
a hugely successful singer, songwriter and television host.<br />
Brian McFadden was destined for big things when he won a spot<br />
in the Irish boy band <strong>West</strong>life, signed to BMG by Simon Cowell and<br />
managed by UK X-Factor judge Louis Walsh . <strong>West</strong>life went on to<br />
have 14 number one hits in the UK charts alone.<br />
Brian left <strong>West</strong>life to pursue a solo career, with his first single “Real<br />
To Me” going straight to number one in the UK. Australians were<br />
first introduced to Brian through “Almost Here”, a duet recorded<br />
with pop princess Delta Goodrem, which became an Australian<br />
smash hit and ARIA chart topper. In 2007, Brian signed to Island<br />
Records through Universal and released the album Set In Stone,<br />
which included the Gold single “Like Only A Woman Can”. More<br />
recently, Brian released Wall of Soundz, which included the<br />
#1 smash “Just Say So”, selling over 100,000 units.<br />
Multi-talented Brian has also had a number of hits as a songwriter<br />
for such well-known groups as Il Divo and Girls Aloud and also<br />
co-wrote the theme song of the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth<br />
Games “Together We Are One”.<br />
The last few years have seen Brian venture into television, hosting<br />
FOX8’s Football Superstar before appearing on Australian Idol in<br />
2009 as a guest judge and mentor.<br />
In 2010, Brian signed on to his largest TV task yet, joining the<br />
AUSTRALIA’S GOT TALENT juggernaut. He said: “I love AUSTRALIA’S<br />
GOT TALENT; I enjoy everything about it – not only getting to meet<br />
everyday people but uncovering all the hidden talent out there<br />
in Australia”.
TV JUDGE ICON, AGE 58<br />
DANNII MINOGUE<br />
AUSTRALIA’S GOT TALENT alumni DANNII MINOGUE’S CV is as long as she<br />
is tall (5ft 2in to be exact!). A natural performer, Danielle Jane Minogue’s<br />
33-year career has traversed television, music, theatre and film since<br />
the age of seven.<br />
Dannii remains the AUSTRALIA’S GOT TALENT’S beloved – and only<br />
original - judge. Dannii also worked simultaneously on the UK’s<br />
highest-rated television programme, The X Factor in 2007, 2008,<br />
2009 and 2010 and was hailed a ‘national treasure’.<br />
It was in 2007 that Dannii first decided to flip the coin, stepping<br />
off the stage and into the judge’s chair to launch AUSTRALIA’S<br />
GOT TALENT. Her natural rapport from behind the desk caught the<br />
eye of Simon Cowell, who snapped her up to judge and mentor<br />
on UK’s The X Factor. Dannii’s final series of The X Factor in 2010<br />
was the most successful ever with an incredible final audience<br />
peaking at 19.4 million viewers. In a winning end to the decade,<br />
Dannii was also named TV Personality of the Year, Style Icon and<br />
Celeb of the Year.<br />
Dannii has also launched her own fashion label - Project<br />
D - lovingly co-designed with Brit and best friend Tabitha<br />
Somerset-Webb in the UK. In Australia, she has most recently<br />
become the global face of ModelCo’s ‘Fibrelash’, the latest<br />
eyelash enhancing product on the market and is contributing<br />
editor to UK’s Glamour magazine.<br />
As one of Australia’s biggest female exports, Dannii is no<br />
stranger to the music charts. A million-selling artist, Minogue<br />
possesses an incredible anthology of 21 smash-hit singles and<br />
five studio albums.<br />
Outside the world of showbiz, Dannii continues her charity work<br />
as ‘Ambassador for Young People’ with the Terrence Higgins Trust,<br />
the UK’s leading HIV and AIDS charity. She also accepted Olivia<br />
Newton-John’s personal invitation to become an Ambassador<br />
for the Olivia Newton-John Cancer and Wellness Centre Appeal.<br />
The charity is raising money to replace the old cancer wards of<br />
the Austin Hospital in Melbourne with a brand new building to be<br />
named the Olivia Newton-John Cancer and Wellness Centre.
AFL JUDGE SUPERSTAR, AGE 31<br />
KYLE SANDILANDS<br />
With a number one rating radio show already under his belt,<br />
Kyle Sandilands returns again to the small screen to tell it how it is.<br />
When Kyle joined the judging panel of Australian Idol in 2004,<br />
audiences quickly fell for his no-nonsense honesty and unique<br />
humour. As one of our country’s most popular broadcasters, Kyle<br />
is one half of the number one rating FM Sydney breakfast duo,<br />
“The Kyle and Jackie O Show”.<br />
Back in 2000, Kyle joined Jackie O on the Hot 30 Countdown,<br />
which subsequently morphed into a nightly national institution<br />
with unprecedented ratings across Australia. They went on to<br />
host the national drive time slot before moving into breakfast<br />
on the Austereo network in 2005. It was during this time that this<br />
inimitable radio star propelled 2Day FM from eighth place to<br />
be the number one FM station.<br />
The Kyle and Jackie O Show has dominated the ratings as the<br />
number one breakfast show since 2005.<br />
Kyle and Jackie began hosting mcm media’s nationally<br />
syndicated chart show, ‘The Hot Hits’ in 2000, broadcasting<br />
to more than 1 million people every week of the year until<br />
November 2009; then, in January 2010, Kyle and Jackie O<br />
became only the third ever hosts of Australia’s biggest national<br />
countdown, Take 40 Australia.<br />
Kyle and Jackie O also host the Hour of Power nationally around<br />
Australia every week night on the Austereo network.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT CHANNEL SEVEN MELBOURNE<br />
KELLY BLACK T 03 9697 7766 M 0422 991 600 E KBLACK@SEVEN.COM.AU<br />
LISA BERGER T 03 9697 7761 M 0438 777 459 E LBERGER@SEVEN.COM.AU