Damien Leith

Damien Leith is a singer/songwriter who won Australian Idol in 2006 as shown on Network Ten television.

Damien was born on the 18th January 1975 in Ireland and now resides in Australia with his Australian wife, Eileen Stapleton. They also has a son named Jarvis.

Early Life 

Damien was born in Dublin, and was raised in County Kildare, Ireland. His father travelled quite a lot as part of his job as an engineer, and their family lived in many countries including Libra & Botswana.

As a teenager Damien formed a family band called Leaf, with his sister Aine and brothers Paul and Darren. Leaf recorded in New York and then again later under the new name Releaf, which made an appearance in the Irish Top 100.

After moving to Sydney, Australia Damien played in a number of high profile venues across Sydney, as the front man for the band Revelate. His first Australian performance was at The Basement in Sydney's Circular Quay.

Leith worked in Sydney as a chemist with Pharmalab prior to auditioning for Australian Idol, utilising the Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Chemistry he obtained from Trinity College, Dublin and his work with the Metallosupramolecular Research Group in the College's Chemistry Department.

Australian Idol Journey

Only following determined coaxing by friends, Leith auditioned for the 4th series of Network Ten's Australian Idol along with some 25,000 other contestants.

Leith was selected by the judges as one of the final 24 contestants, and was the first person voted into the competition's top 12 as the result of a nationwide viewer vote. He was praised by the show's judges for his falsetto technique, which he used regularly in performances.

Despite adverse comments from judges Mark Holden and Kyle Sandilands in relation to Leith's appearance, Irish origin, and a performance of Kool and the Gang's "Celebration" on the "Disco" theme night, which drew ridicule from Holden, the judges' assessments of Leith's performances were usually positive. His renditions of Roy Orbison's "Crying", Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game", Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" and Puccini's "Nessun Dorma" each earned Leith a "Touchdown" from Mark Holden, a gesture which has come to be regarded as Holden's ultimate accolade for an excellent performance. Sandilands also stated that the family of Roy Orbison had contacted the Australian Idol producers requesting a copy of Leith's performance of "Crying".

At age 30, Leith became the oldest winner of any Idol series in the World, and in respect of the Australian contest, the only non-Australian citizen to have won, and the first winner that was not in the centre of the official top 12 poster.

Post Idol

Leith signed a recording contract with Sony BMG and his debut single, "Night of My Life", was released as a paid digital download from Bigpondmusic soon after the conclusion of the grand finale, with an official CD release on November 28, which included an original composition written and produced by Leith titled "Come to Me". The single was certified "Gold" (35,000 copies sold) within 72 hours of its release. On December 3, 2006, the single debuted at #1 and has continued to stay in that position for 3 weeks, having Platinum accreditation (70,000 copies shipped) awarded in the first week of release. It was the fastest-selling debut single released during 2006, and also the most added song to radio.

The video of "Night of My Life" debuted on national television on Saturday December 9, 2006. Set in the urban streets of Chippendale, Sydney, the video was produced by Cutting Edge Productions.

Although with an official release date of December 9, on December 6, 2006, Leith's CD/DVD pack entitled The Winner's Journey with all his Idol performances and two original tracks, began appearing in non-ARIA accredited stores. The release debuted at #3 with Platinum accreditation (70,000 copies shipped) on the ARIA Album Charts released on Sunday, December 10, 2006, and rose to #1 on the following week, while certified platinum four times (280,000 copies shipped).

There is a planned release of "Night of My Life" in Ireland.

It has been stated that his debut studio album will be released in early 2007.