Damien Leith

	Damien Leith at the St. Patrick's Day Parade in Sydney 2007
	Chart positions ; Explanation of the data
	Albums
	The winner's journey
	Where We Land
	Catch The Wind: Songs Of A Generation
	Remember June
	Roy - A Tribute To Roy Orbison
	Now & Then
	Songs From Ireland
	Singles
	Night Of My Life
	22 steps

Damien Leith (born January 18, 1976 in County Kildare , Ireland ) is an Australian singer and songwriter.

Life

Leith grew up as the son of an engineer in the Irish city of Newbridge until the local employer got into an economic crisis and the family moved to Libya in 1982 in search of work . Three years later they went to South Africa, then Botswana and Kenya with short stays in Great Britain and Ireland. In 2001 Leith went on vacation to Australia and, after later marrying a local, decided to settle there and take Australian citizenship. He lives in Sydney with his wife and three children .

Leith made his first experience as a musician when he founded the band Leaf with his siblings as a teenager (later also under the name Releaf). After moving to Sydney, he fronted the band Revelate in local nightclubs. He earned his living as a chemist. In 2006 he applied as one of over 25,000 candidates for the fourth season of Australian Idol and reached the final. With songs like Wicked Game and Hallelujah , to which he accompanied himself on the guitar, he prevailed against the runner-up Jessica Mauboy and won the competition.

Shortly after the finale, Leith released the pop song Night of My Life on Sony BMG , which was written for his and Mauboy's appearance on Australian Idol (Mauboy performed it in a different version). The song is an example of Leith's falsetto technique, which was one of the reasons for his success in the competition. The single became a number one hit in Australia in December 2006 and stayed at the top for four weeks. The song Come to Me , written by Leith himself, was published on the B-side . Both songs were also tracks on his debut album, The Winner's Journey , which was released afterwards , which also contained live recordings of twelve of his 16 competition appearances - mainly cover versions and the original title Sky . The album also reached number 1 on the Australian charts and four times platinum status. It was named the best-selling album of the year at the ARIA Awards 2007.

In 2007, Leith was able to continue his success with his second album Where We Land , regardless of the idol marketing, it became a number one hit and sold well (platinum). The most successful track out of it was the cover song 22 Steps (original by Andy Stochansky), this was able to place itself at number 11 in the Australian charts. The album also contains a number of self-composed songs (e.g. All I Want Is You ) and a version of the Irish ballad Danny Boy .

Leith's subsequent compilation, Catch the Wind: Songs of a Generation (2008), with covers of folk hits from the 1960s / 1970s (e.g. Wild World , The Times They Are a-Changin ' ), on the other hand, fell off a bit but placed in second place on the charts and won a gold record. His third studio album, Remember June , was released the following year and entered the charts at number 25, where it remained for two weeks.

The 2010 tribute album to Roy Orbison brought Leith more success . His widow, Barbara Orbison, worked as executive producer on the album. Roy: A Tribute to Roy Orbison came second on the Australian charts and went platinum. It contains 14 cover songs from the various stages of Roy Orbison's thirty years of work, including Only the Lonely , Oh, Pretty Woman and I Drove All Night .

After Leith had released his fourth studio album, Now & Then , with Sony in 2012 , he released Chapter Seven for the first time, an album independent of the major label, in the following year . In 2015 he returned to Sony with Songs from Ireland . On this album he performed traditional Irish songs such as Molly Malone and The Star of the County Down . It features guest posts by Sharon Corr ( Black Is The Color ) and Sharon Shannon ( Galway Girl ). Similar to Now & Then , the album just missed the top 10 and stayed in the charts for a good month.

In addition to his records, Leith also publishes fiction. At HarperCollins have appeared to Australia in Nepal gambling thriller One more time (2007) and the Irish father-son story Remember June (2010).

Discography

Albums

2006: The Winner's Journey , Sony
2007: Where We Land , Sony
2008: Catch the Wind: Songs of a Generation , Sony
2009: Remember June , Sony
2010: Roy: A Tribute to Roy Orbison , Sony
2012: Now & Then , Sony
2013: Chapter Seven
2015: Songs from Ireland , Sony

Singles

2006: Night Of My Life , Sony

Web links

Commons : Damien Leith - collection of images, videos and audio files

swell

personal data
SURNAME	Leith, Damien
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Australian singer
DATE OF BIRTH	January 18, 1976
PLACE OF BIRTH	County Kildare , Ireland

[charts-1] Damian Leith at australian-charts.com

[2] The World in Sydney - Damian Leith. Report to ABC from November 18, 2009

[3] Biography at Allmusic

[4] Review of The Winner's Journey at Allmusic

[5] ARIA Charts - Accreditations - 2006 Albums

[6] Aria Awards 2007

[7] Review of Roy: A Tribute to Roy Orbison at Allmusic