The fate of the eight remaining acts on Australia's Got Talent now lies with the public.
Performing on last week's grand final were singer/ songwriter Joe Moore, acrobatic group Odyssey, beat boxer Genesis and stripper Dylan Yeandle.
At the beginning of the show, former boy-band member and cancer survivor Andrew De Silva, country band the Wolfe Brothers, dance troupe Kookies N Kream and quick-change act Soul Mystique were voted through from last week's finals showdown.
Next week, one act will receive the $250,000 prize, and the glory of being crowned the winner.
Judges Kyle Sandilands, Brian McFadden and Dannii Minogue were impressed by all the acts but it appears the frontrunners are gravity-defying troupe Odyssey and De Silva.
"I think that AGT this year is a straight-out dogfight between you guys and Andrew De Silva," McFadden said.
The grand-final decider of Australia's Got Talent airs Wednesday at 7.30pm on Seven/GWN7.
au.news.yahoo.com
Andrew De Silva's history in the Australian music scene goes back further than most…
De Silva's performance career started professionally as front man and primary song-writer for Melbourne R&B group CDB at the age of 19 but being born into a musical family saw his musical education begin much earlier at the age of 8 years old. As part of CDB, Andrew De Silva received an ARIA for highest selling single in 96 (Let's Groove went Platinum), while the subsequent album Glide With Me achieved Gold Sales.
Today, De Silva looks upon his time with CDB fondly but with an eye to the future, his current sound is an updated version of the pop R&B that defined him during the nineties and is a sonically mature offering that couples honest song writing with genuinely soulful delivery. Never forgetting the era that defined him as a commercial artist, Andrew De Silva draws influence from the nineties musings of Lenny Kravitz, Terrence Trent Darby and Prince.
As a song writer, live performer and a session musician, Andrew De Silva is constantly busy. In the hard to penetrate local music industry De Silva's vocal diversity is an in-demand asset that has seen him work with some of the biggest names of the Aus music landscape, across various genres and projects. This, along with his command of the guitar and bass guitar has served to cement De Silva's reputation as an all-round musician.
Healing music
THE year was 1996 and rock ‘n’ roll superstar Michael Hutchence and band INXS headlined the ARIA awards in Sydney.
Dandenong’s own pop star, Andrew De Silva, was struggling with a battle of his own.
He was diagnosed with cancer at 22 years of age, but is now making a comeback on Channel 7's Australia’s Got Talent.
Most will remember the tune ‘Let’s groove’ by CDB as it topped the charts in the 1990s and even won an ARIA for the highest selling single for their cover, but singer/song writer Andrew was hiding in the shadows because he was embarrassed by a stutter.
Andrew, now 37, grew up in North Dandenong, and started singing at three years old, inspired by his father who was “a bit of a pop star back home” (in Sri Lanka).
The former Nazareth College student speaks highly of his childhood in ‘Dandy’, saying that the culturally diverse region exposed him to different music styles.
“There was a lot of RnB and hip hop around there,” he said.
“There were lots of dance crews, rappers and it was all happening around the area.”
After three years with CBD, a cancer diagnosis forced him to leave the group.
Although he says he was “one of the lucky ones”, making a full recovery, Andrew turned to music to aid his recovery.
“It really helped me work out where I was because when you write something, you crystallise a feeling,” he said.
“It just plays back as well, so you can hear your thoughts and emotions and you’re just writing what’s in your heart.”
Over a decade later and working as a wedding singer, Andrew took a leap of faith and auditioned for Australia’s Got Talent.
Andrew spent many sleepless nights worrying that the public would laugh at his stutter - and even went to the show producers to pull out.
Needing to share his story with Australia, Andrew decided to face his fears.
After auditioning for the show, Andrew attended a four-day intensive course to help eliminate stutter and he gained the confidence to continue.
Andrew has progressed to the finals of Australia’s Got Talent, winning over the hearts of the judges and reducing them and the audience to tears with an original song ‘Beautiful Things’.
The inspiration for the song evolved from the difficulty of going through cancer.
“Sometimes, the difficult things in life; they can end up being beautiful things,” he said.
starnewsgroup.com.au
0 Comments
faqi says:
Jul 23, 2012 at 12:47 amSemi Finals AGT Show - Andrew de Silva
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuRpscfgBHk
David Wilks says:
Jul 25, 2012 at 01:03 pmI am very happy to report that Andrew has won Australia's Got Talent.
follow this link to the story
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/entertainment/tv-radio/andrew-de-silva-wins-australias-got-talent/story-e6frf9ho-1226435183172