An Australian-New Zealand recording artist, actor and television personality.
Background
Stan Walker was born on 23 October 1990 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia to parents Ross and April Walker. He is of Māori descent and is from the Tuhoe and Ngati Ranginui tribes in New Zealand.
Walker grew up on a marae in Mount Maunganui, New Zealand. In New Zealand, he attended Fairfield Intermediate and Hamilton Boys' High School. Walker has compared his early life to that portrayed in the 1994 New Zealand film, Once Were Warriors, which tells the story of an urban Māori family and their problems with poverty, alcoholism and domestic violence. His father was repeatedly jailed for beating his wife, April, and five children, including Walker. This led to Walker smoking marijuana and thieving. Walker was also sexually abused by a relative over a nine-month period. His parents were drug dealers and both have spent time in jail for drug offences.
At the age of 15, Walker started going to church, after hearing a testimony of a girl who had a similar family background to his. Walker says his passion for music and church made him a "good boy" again. After several violent episodes, Walker and his family moved back to Australia in Coolangatta, Queensland. In 2009, Walker lost a daughter when his then-girlfriend suffered a miscarriage. He had planned to call his baby, Ataahua, which is Māori for "beautiful", and wears her name as a tattoo on his neck.
Before Walker had entered Australian Idol, he was a shop assistant at a menswear shop in Coolangatta.
Career
In 2009, Walker auditioned for the seventh season of Australian Idol, singing John Legend's "Ordinary People" at his Brisbane audition. He received praise from the judges and progressed through to the theatre rounds receiving more recognition from the judges, with Kyle Sandilands saying, "You're the only person after the auditions that I ever told anyone about; family, friends other people that I run into. I only told them about you." After all three theatre rounds were over, it was announced that Walker had made it into the top twenty four semi-finals. Walker was a part of the first group to perform in the semi-finals. The following evening, it was announced that the first two contestants to be put through to the final top twelve according to viewer votes, were Walker and fellow contestant Kate Cook.
Throughout the season, Walker was praised continually for his voice and for the daring choices he took with his song choices. One of his most highly praised performances on the show was of the Prince song, "Purple Rain", which received a standing ovation from the judging panel and the audience. The grand final was held on 22 November 2009 at the Sydney Opera House. After the viewer votes had been tallied, it was announced that the winner was Walker. He is the first person of New Zealand descent to win Australian Idol. After coming out of Australian Idol as the winner, Walker signed to Sony Music Australia and received an artist's development fund worth $200,000. During this time, he established his own company called, Stan Walker Music Pty Ltd, which is run by his mother, April. The company was set up in order to negotiate his contract with Sony Music and not end up like past Australian Idol contestant Damien Leith, who claimed he did not make any money from his Winners Journey release.
In April 2010, Walker flew to Haiti to help Compassion Australia's relief effort of the 2010 Haiti earthquake as an ambassador.
In November 2010, Walker served as a support act for the Summerbeatz tour in Australia, touring alongside Flo Rida, Jay Sean, Akon and Ciara, among other artists. He performed at the Parachute music festival in January 2011.
In February 2011, Walker held his first headlining tour in New Zealand.
Walker's debut single, "Black Box", was released digitally following his win on Australian Idol on 22 November. The song peaked at number two on the ARIA Singles Chart and was certified double platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), for selling 140,000 copies. It also peaked at number one on the New Zealand Singles Chart and was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand (RIANZ), for selling 30,000 copies.
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