When most of my female peers were gunning for Anthony Callea to take out the Australian Idol crown in 2004, I had my money on Casey Donovan. She’d moved me all season with her performances that were honest and mature beyond her years, and I was thrilled to see her take out the title.
Needless to say, I wasn’t so happy with the way she struggled to get the industry support of previous winner Guy Sebastian, or need I say it, Mr Callea. I’m proud though that Casey has kept the dream alive and found her feet as an independent artist. She’s wrapped up a critically acclaimed tour with the musical The Sapphires, which saw her perform at the Daegu International Musical Festival in South Korea.
She’s also preparing to embark on her Big, Beautiful & Sexy tour next month to coincide with the saucy single of the same name, which will get a digital release on August 7. Tour dates have been announced for New South Wales and Queensland with more expected to follow soon.
Until then, these are the places you can see the incredible Casey Donovan.
7 August 2010 – Rooty Hill RSL, Rooty Hill
20 August 2010 – Slide, Darlinghurst
21 August 2010 – Wentworthville Leagues Club, Wentworthville
28 August 2010 – Lizotte’s, Kincumber
29 August 2010 – Lizotte’s, Newcastle
16 September 2010 – QUT Festival Theatre @ Brisbane Powerhouse, Brisbane
Good for Casey, I’m pleased she’s now mature enough to realise you have put in all the hard work that Guy Senastian and Anthony Callea did immeadiately after their Idol seasons.
That those two got ‘industry support’ is because they did every thing and more that was asked of them, and were willing to work flat out to solidify their fan bases.
I usually enjoy your blog immensely, but were I fan of Sebastian or Callea I think I would take umbrage at the tone of this article. They both earned what they recieived and it is no fault of theirs, especially ‘Mr Callea’ , who often seems to be made a convinent scapegoat to explain Casey’s fall from grace, that she did not enjoy that support.
Taz, I definitely don’t mean to suggest that Anthony Callea and Guy Sebastian don’t deserve every success. They’re both very talented guys. And you may very well know more about the way Casey conducted herself after her win than the rest of us do, but I’m certainly not the first person to suggest Casey wasn’t nurtured by Sony as other artists were. It’s easy to make a direct comparison with Anthony as they were both Idol graduates in the same year. To anyone who didn’t know, it’d have been easy to mistake him for the winner; he was everywhere and Casey was nowhere to be seen.
At the end of the day though, they’re all plotting out their own course. I’m thrilled Casey has come into her own, and Anthony too for that matter. I’ll bet Sony never imagined he’d take that musical theatre route. So it’s all good.
Taz,
Please don’t assume that Casey’s lack of success post-Idol was due to not putting in the ‘hard work’. Casey did everything that was asked of her – singing and songwriting lessons, getting more performance experience, learning to talk to the media etc. You don’t win Australian Idol by having a poor work ethic.
And please don’t assume that because Casey hasn’t featured prominently in the public eye that she hasn’t been working at her craft in the meantime. Casey has put in the hard yards including working as a receptionist to fund her EP ‘Eye 2 Eye’ and taking a ‘grass roots’ approach by working at the markets. As well as this, she has continued to do gigs, feature on indigenous TV and radio and promote Aboriginal events and programs. No one can say that Casey hasn’t ‘earned her stripes’ as the saying goes. Many people had written her off. Do you realise how much work and determination has gone into maintaining her focus to get where she is now?
Sony’s reason for dropping Casey was that she ‘wasn’t the image they wanted to promote’. Not because she didn’t work hard, not because she failed to sell enough cds. In a nutshell, she was hard to market and Sony put her in the too hard basket. This was also compounded by family problems – perhaps you may recall reading in the newspapers about an incident where Casey’s biological father assaulted her after one of her gigs? The resultant court case made for negative publicity giving Sony an excuse to drop her. Casey’s size has always worked against her in the image stakes – now she’s using it to her advantage; hence ‘Big, Beautiful and Sexy’.
Not to take anything away from Guy and Anthony (both older and more experienced btw) who are very talented and worked hard but they did have advantages that Casey didn’t. Guy had the huge advantage of being first when the novelty factor was at its highest. Casey’s cds sold very well but not as much as Guy and she was dubbed a failure because of it. It was, in fact, the start of a trend with every Idol since selling progressively less than she – the exception was Damien Leith with ‘The Winner’s Journey’ – the first of a complilation of Idol performances instead of the rushed winner’s album.
And then there’s Anthony – no rushed winner’s cd for him – instead of a week, he had several weeks to make his album. No awful winner’s single for Anthony but his standout performance from AI. Anthony and Casey had the same manager – how’s that for conflict of interest? Anthony got the more prestigious events – maybe he got them because he was more in demand and more ‘marketable’. That’s not Anthony’s fault but neither is it Casey’s and it’s certainly not evidence of her not putting in the ‘hard work’. Anthony eventually broke his contract this particular manager and paid thousands of dollars for the privilage. Casey didn’t have the funds to do this and had to wait for the contract to expire – three long years.
Casey certainly wasn’t treated the same way as Jessica Mauboy who was in a similar position. Jessica was ‘nutured’ and allowed to take her time. She was also consulted about the kind of music and the kind of image she wanted to promote.
I don’t know any Casey Donovan fan who blames Anthony or Guy. But they do see the difference in the way they were treated. It always comes down to the bottom line and they were no doubt easier to promote and they already had a level of experience and maturity that Casey didn’t. But never, ever, say that Casey didn’t work hard. She worked damn hard.
I loved both Anthony and Casey, and could not have thought of two more deserving finalists. However my bet was on Casey to win because she and her voice were unique not the everyday generic pop sound that everyone else appears to be.
I was really disappointed in the fact that once Casey recorded the Idol song she was not given the same exposure by Sony as she did not fit their mould. Casey Donovan is a winner I have just seen her perform in The Sapphires and that girl is magic, not only can she sing she has brilliant comedic talent as a actress, she blew the audience away. Casey is a true champ she will be around for a long time to come.
In reply to Kristine Collins
You are quite correct – Callea had more than one week to record his album…he had 2, and that not in one block, but in days here and there in between travelling to and preforming on the Idol Tour. Yes, he got to record ‘The Prayer’ – but had he won he would have released his recorded version of ‘Listen With Your Heart’, the B side being his live Idol performance of The Prayer…Sony had no intentions of letting that Song slip out of their grasp.
As for Mangement , they stifled and pigeon holed Callea until he felt he had no choice but to break his contract, something that cost him not just ‘thousands of dollars’ but hundreds of thousands of dollars , most of the money he had made in fact, but he was so unhappy with the situation he found himself in that he preferred to lose it all and start again rather than stayed trapped.
I have no knowledge of Anthony’s schedule post-Idol but suffice to say he did not record his album in one concentrated block over the course of a week.
As for ‘The Prayer’ being the B side of ‘Listen to Your Heart’ we will never know because it didn’t happen. But if I were Sony I would have released ‘The Prayer’ as the second single. Why waste a good song on a cd that is going to sell well anyway? My guess that the B side would have been the truncated version of whatever Anthony sang on the Up Close and Personal episode, the same as Casey. The song Casey sang for the finale ended up on her album. Never let it be said that Sony would miss an opportunity to wring as much money from the public as possible.
I agree that the management was awful. Both Anthony and Casey had cause to want out. Anthony was fortunate that he could afford to buy out the contract – it may have left him broke but at least he was free. Casey didn’t have the money to do that. For three years she had a manager who did next to nothing but still claimed a share of her earnings. And having them both as clients was a conflict of interests. If a prestigious gig came up, how could she act in the interests of both?
As I said, nothing against Anthony or Guy. Every ex-Idol had their challenges. Some got it worse than Casey – Natalie Gauci for one. But I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that Anthony had it better than Casey and that Anthony was favoured over her. I’m not saying it wasn’t justified as far as Sony was concerned – they are, after all, in it to make money – Anthony was easy to market, Casey was not. Personally, I think Sony were short-sighted and it would have cost them nothing to give Casey time to develop but they didn’t and there’s no point crying over it now – and especially now that things are looking so good for Casey.
But just as I don’t blame Anthony, I also don’t like Casey to be blamed for the situation. She was sixteen and with little experience but she worked hard and did what was asked of her. Sony’s reason for dropping her was about image. She absolutely ‘put in the hard work’. That the industry didn’t give her support has everything to do with how much money they thought they could make, and nothing to do with Casey’s commitment to her career.
We supported Casey at The Sando in Newtown recently. She was AMAZING! Her talent and stage presence are incredible. In my opinion Casey’s is a true artist that will eventually experience great success. On top of that she is a down to earth, lovely girl. MUSIC is heard, not seen. Unfortunately there are many shallow, narrow minded people in the industry who bow down to the dollar rather than support true talent. What do you expect from a TV show that was conceived purely to make a select few people lots of money by cashing in on the general public’s total sheep-like behavior.
I seconded everything Kristine Collins commented on. Casey has gone through the ranks, not necessarily easy at times. She ploughed on even though people many times told her to give up. Casey is a lovely girl with alot of passion, endurance, and most of all very talented. I have had the pleasure to see her perform many times at different venues. Everytime I have come away totally blown away. The hairs on the back of my neck just stand on end.