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Template:Infobox musical artist 2 Natalie Gauci (b. 26 November 1981, Australia) is an Australian singer of Italian and Maltese descent. She won the Network Ten music contest Australian Idol 2007, at the Grand Finale at the Sydney Opera House on Sunday the 25th of November, 2007. She is the first wildcard contestant to win Australian Idol.

Biography

Early Life

Gauci studied music at the VCA Secondary School under the tutelage of vocalist Michelle Nicolle. Before Idol, Gauci was a session musician who performed with a few artists including Matt Hetherington and Beven Addinsal. After performing at various venues, she began songwriting and creating her first record, releasing a solo EP on April 2006 titled Take It or Leave It. The EP scored at the Top 500 in the Billboard World Songwriting Contest in 2007. On November 2006, Gauci was invited to Los Angeles as part of the "Oz City Song Circle", where she performed with other Australian artists to the American audience.

Natalie was a part of many bands prior to Idol. She was one half of pop/jazz/soul duo Nat & Cory, featuring Cory Jach on acoustic guitar. The duo had performed their music around Melbourne since 2001. The two also released an EP together in 2004. . She was also a part of many soul/funk/jazz cover bands including Luconada,, SweetAs and KLEIO. The artists the bands covered varied from Ella Fitzgerald, Alicia Keys, The Police, Stevie Wonder and many more.

At around the end of 2006 into 2007, she formed "The Natalie Gauci Band" which featured herself on vocals and keyboard, Kumar Shome on electric and acoustic guitar, Jules Pascoe on electric and double bass and Conrad Tracey on drums and percussion. The band took a soul, pop and jazz style, and have performed at several venues around Melbourne.

Gauci was also a music teacher at the Academy of Mary Immaculate, Fitzroy. She was one of several vocal coaches who offered private tuition to those seeking it at the Catholic all-girls school.

Gauci was unearthed by Triple J radio . Triple J had in the past opposed Australian Idol, yet she was supported on Triple J and on Australian Idol.

Australian Idol 2007

Gauci auditioned in Melbourne, Victoria singing one of her original songs and also "I Will Survive" because the judges requested her to perform a cover track. Judges Ian Dickson and Mark Holden both commented that they thought that Natalie could win the competition, though Marcia Hines warned Natalie that she still had to work hard, as such a comment had always been 'the kiss of death' for contestants in the past. She was chosen by the judges to enter the top 24, but during her semi- final round, she did not gain enough votes to proceed to the Top 12. The two finalists who progressed through in her semi-final were Tarisai Vushe and Lana Krost. She was then called back to perform at the Wildcard Show and once again was not voted by the public into the Top 12, hence the judges chose her and Carl Riseley as the judges choice to be included in the Top 12.

During the Top 12 performances, she received three of Mark Holden's coveted "touchdowns". Her first after her spectacular rendition of Rihanna's song "Umbrella". She later received two more touchdowns in consecutive weeks, one for "Boys in Town" by Divinyls and the last for "How High the Moon" from Ella Fitzgerald.

On 12 November, she was the first to be announced into the Final 2, later joined by Matt Corby, making her the third Australian Idol wildcard contestant to make it to the Finale. Season 2's Anthony Callea was the first wildcard to make it to the Finale, but lost to Casey Donovan. Season 3's Emily Williams was the second wildcard to make it to the Finale, but lost to Kate DeAraugo.

She recorded the winner's single, "Here I Am" along with Matt Corby at Kings Cross studio in Sydney, and performed the song at the Grand Finale after being announced the winner of the competition. The single was released on November 28, 2007. She is the first wildcard contestant to win Australian Idol.

Natalie released the winner's single the day following the Finale. It debuted on the charts at #2 behind Timbaland.

In an interview a few days after the Australian Idol Finale, Natalie explained that she was not expecting to win the competition. She believed that Matt Corby was far too popular with the teenage girls for her to win over him.

Natalie was known to significantly alter songs when covering them, such as Rihanna's Umbrella, Michael Jacksons Man In The Mirror and even on the winner's single "Here I Am". To her fans this is one of the many reasons Gauci became so popular, as it enabled her to demonstrate her artistic flare.

Australian Idol Performances

Post-Idol Career

2007-2008: The Winner's Journey

As the winner of the fifth series of Australian Idol, Natalie went straight to the Sony BMG Studios to record her debut album The Winner's Journey. The album is a collection of most of her performances from Australian Idol that were re-recorded to go with a two disc (CD/DVD) pack that included a 35 minute interview.

The first single from the album was "Here I Am", the winner's single and in its first week on the ARIA Charts it debuted at #2, behind "Apologize" by Timbaland featuring OneRepublic. It was the first debut single from an Idol winner that did not reach #1 in its first week, although it did debut at #1 on the official Physical Singles Sales chart. "Here I Am" sold only 7,463 copies in its first week, lower than all previous Australian Idol winners' singles. The single was certified Gold for shipments of 35,000 in its second week on the chart. However, it reached sales of 19,254. "Here I Am" recieved harsh critisum and therefore, was declared a commercial failure due to low sales.

The Winner's Journey was released on December 8, 2007. After five days of sales, it debuted at #12 on the ARIA Charts on December 17, 2007, selling 11,489 copies. It reached a peak of #11 after 3 weeks, after which time it fell down the charts.

She also was a key performer at the Sydney New Years Eve 2007 Spectacular that was broadcast by Network Ten.

To promote the album and single, Natalie made various appearances around the country. She appeared on Sunrise on December 7th, and performed and signed copies of her album at Westpoint Shopping Centre, Blacktown in Sydney the following day. Natalie then went to Highpoint Shopping Centre in Melbourne on December 9th and visited Mirrabooka Square Shopping Centre in Perth on December 13th. She also appeared at the Dolly Sims Fest in Sydney on December 15th.

Gauci performed at the annual televised event Carols by Candlelight in Melbourne on Christmas Eve 2007. She performed "The First Noel" and "All I Want For Christmas Is You". The show was broadcast by the Nine Network and Natalie joined other Idol favourites such as Guy Sebastian, Paulini, Anthony Callea and Jessica Mauboy who had all previously performed on the show in the past.

On January 2nd of 2008, Gauci began her national Winner's Journey Tour with Idol Runner-Up Matt Corby that lasted just under a month. The tour featured almost every track from The Winner's Journey album, excluding On My Mind and Orange Coloured Sky. Additional original material and a cover of "No One" by Alicia Keys who Gauci had cited as a major inspiration. Gauci also performed a number of original compositions, including All In My Mind (the b-side to the Here I Am single) I'm Ready, Back to Life, Secrets and Free Falling. The tour has been considered a major success, with positive reviews flooding in from fans on her message boards. Gauci said that the tour has been having "loads of fun on the tour and the show is everything I dreamed it would be for a first tour. It's definitely preparing me for what's to come."

Mid-way through the Winner's Journey tour, Gauci also made an appearance at Star City, Sydney at the 'Hits and Stars' party.

Gauci immediately flew out of Perth on January 24th after a performance at the Burswood theatre to perform at the final night of the Malta Song for Europe festival on January 26. After the deal was finalised Natalie was screaming with joy, telling timesofmalta.com, 'this is such fantastic news. I can't wait to be there.' Gauci met briefly with the Tourism and Culture Minister Francis Zammit Dimech who hailed Gauci's success and said she has made Malta and Maltese-Australian's proud. Gauci sung Here I Am and the b-side to the single, All In My Mind. She also dueted with Chiara in singing 'Angel'. The two received a standing ovation afterwards and the host claimed "you had us all in tears".

Discography

The following is an incomplete discography of every album and single released by Australian pop/jazz/soul music artist Natalie Gauci.

In April 2006 Natalie Gauci released an EP named 'Take it or Leave it', which scored in the top 500 in the Billboard World Songwriting Contest in 2007 .

Albums

Singles

External links

• Official Website
• Official MySpace
• Natalie Gauci fansite featuring all of her songs

References

1. "Carl kicked out, Idol down to two". Retrieved November 12. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
2. ^ The Natalie Gauci Band. Retrieved on November 21, 2007.
3. http://web.archive.org/web/20070710145408/www.natandcoryentertainment.com/nat&cory.asp
4. http://www.cdsuite.com/artists/release.php?album=31
5. http://web.archive.org/web/20070710145447/www.natandcoryentertainment.com/luconada.asp
6. http://web.archive.org/web/20070710145434/www.natandcoryentertainment.com/sweetas.asp
7. http://www.kleiomusic.com
8. Paul Cashmere (3 December 2007). "Australia Has Spoken, Idol Sales A Disaster". Undercover. Retrieved 2007-12-03. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
9. Paul Cashmere (17 December 2007). "Idol Album Fizzes". Undercover. Retrieved 2008-01-07. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
10. http://www.nataliegauci.com.au/newsEvents/home.do?newsId=20030829005218
11. http://www.nataliegauci.com.au/newsEvents/home.do?newsId=20030829005213
12. http://www.nataliegauci.com.au/newsEvents/home.do?newsId=20030829005228
13. http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20080126/local/minister-hails-maltese-australian-singers-success/Natalie%20Gauci
14. http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/viewmedia/45030
15. [http://www.ariacharts.com.au/pages/charts_display.asp?chart=1A50. Retrieved December 23 2007.
16. "ARIA Charts - Accreditations - 2007 Albums". ARIA. Retrieved July 3 2007.

• 1981 births
• Living people
• Australian female singers
• Australian musicians
• Australian Idol participants
• Idol series winners
• Maltese people
• Maltese Australians