Star Maker May 27, 2008

The most successful and prestigious talent search in Australia for country music singers is Star Maker. BAL Marketing, a division of Radio 2TM, started Star Maker in 1979. Along with this, they were also already in charge of the Australian Country Music Awards. With the start of the talent quest, they wanted to focus on giving emerging artists a chance to emerge and enhance their talent and move away from recognising already established artists. It is now held on the first weekend of the festival in January at the Tamworth Regional Entertainment Centre. The winner receives 12 months of promotion, both to the fans and music industry. This promotion includes their own 2 track CD that is released through ABC Music, a chance to perform at major country music events, and since 1998, Toyota, the sponsor of Star Maker, gives the winner a new vehicle for those 12 months. Many winners go very far in the country music industry. Some of the winners from past years have included Keith Urban, Lee Kernaghan, Gina Jeffreys, James Blundell, Beccy Cole, Brendon Walmsley Grand Junction, and many others.

Star Maker sounds very similar to Australian Idol and Nashville Star in the United States that was previously discussed by Rachelle, but yet just a shorter process. When Rachelle talked about Nashville Star she stated that she was surprised there wasn’t anything like this in Australia and I don’t believe anyone else respond saying that there was. Since a festival that is very similar to these TV shows is so popular and successful, I think that it would also be very successful as a TV show.

It was also very interesting to me that it isn’t more well known, at least as far as I know, since so many major country artists have come from this show, like Keith Urban who is a huge success all over the world.

‘History of Star Maker’, History of Country Music in Australia.

http://www.historyofcountrymusic.com.au/starmaker.html

-Natalie Boyce