MUSIC SAM SMITH: GLORIA THE TOUR
Sam Smith has recently enjoyed an extended holiday in Australia, but the non-binary star will return later in the year for their Gloria tour, in support of their fourth album (which goes by the same name) released on January 27. “I feel like I’ve got my faith back in my job,” Smith says. The ‘Stay With Me’ star will perform across Australia and New Zealand in October and November. For ticket info, go to frontiertouring.com
Ricki-Lee ‘THIS SHOW CHANGED MY LIFE’
THE AUSTRALIAN IDOL HOST TALKS RETURNING TO THE STAGE WHERE IT ALL STARTED
Stepping back on to the Australian Idol stage almost 20 years after she first auditioned for the show herself, Ricki-Lee Coulter admits she felt something stir inside her. “It was just so surreal,” she tells WHO ahead of the relaunch on Channel 7 later this month. “Memories just came flooding back. I hear the Idol theme music and it’s just like I get this twitch.”
The 37-year-old joins the reboot of the hit reality series as a host, taking a new flock of young singers under her wing. “I want them all to win,” she says of the contestants. “I want them all to go out there and smash it when they go onstage. So it’s great that I can kind of help be a mentor to them. I’m kind of like a stage mum – it’s really fun!”
What were your thoughts about getting involved in the reboot?
I mean, when they asked me I was like, first of all I’m so excited that it’s coming back. And, of course, I wanted to be involved because this show literally changed my life. I think I auditioned in 2004 and the show started in 2003, so it’s going to be 20 years since it first kicked off that we’re coming back. This show is such an iconic show and it’s been such a huge part of so many people’s lives. Like on the daily I still have people coming up to me in the street, when I’m doing my groceries or at the gym. And they’re saying that they were or they voted for me on, or they couldn’t go to school after I got voted off like, “I cried for weeks when you got voted off!” So you know, for it to be coming back is incredible. It’s such an amazing opportunity for these young singers and also for me to be part of it.
