The new season of Channel Nine reality TV show The Voice Australia is bringing back many familiar faces from the likes of Jack Vidgen and Prinnie Stevens.
And fans were left gobsmacked when they saw children’s entertainer Nathan Foley return to the stage.
Watch the Hi-5 star wow Delta Goodrem, Boy George, Kelly Rowland and Guy Sebastian with his The Voice Australia Blind Audition. with Footloose.
The singer, who was in Hi-5 from 1999 to 2008, has spoken about leaving the band.
The 39-year-old Australian singer admitted he still gets inquisitive stars in public.
“Still to this day I get inundated with inbox messages on Instagram and my Facebook,” he told New Idea.
Nathan signed with Hi-5 when he was 18-years-old with co-stars Charli Robinson, Tim Harding, Kellie Crawford and Kathleen de Leon Jones.
“It was a beautiful, beautiful job. I left Hi-5 because I just felt like it was my time. Ten years I put in – I put in all the hard yards.
“I got to the point where I was just like, you know what, I kind of missed doing my solo shows and having control of my own destiny.”
After departing Hi-5, Nathan appeared on Channel Ten’s reality series I Will Survive, hosted by Hugh Sheridan in 2012.
While he’s never stopped performing – spending much of the past 10 years aboard cruise ships, Nathan says he’s nervous to return to the public eye in Australia following his prior reality TV experience.
“I had all these fears,” he admits.
“When I did I Will Survive, there was a bit of backlash online, saying, ‘Why is he doing this show? he’s loaded, he doesn’t need money.’
“But honestly, when you think about it… Hi-5 to the Wiggles, we were very different entities. The Wiggles owned their product, we were employees of Hi-5, so even though we were the front of it, they looked after us, but we weren’t the owners, so as soon as you finish, you don’t get paid anymore.”
Taking the blind audition stage this week, Nathan hopes The Voice will allow him to return to work in the music industry at home in Australia.
“Still gotta pay the bills,” he laughs.
Speaking to 9Honey, 39-year-old Nathan revealed it feels great to finally achieve recognition as a solo artist.
“I’ve been a soloist since I was 10 years old, but I didn’t get the opportunity to showcase that as I was always Nathan from Hi-5.
“I really wanted to get up on stage to prove myself and say this is the real me and show Australia who I am.”
And he’s not the only Australian icon attempting a comeback on Nine’s hit reality TV show.
Ex Australian Idol finalist and Wasabi singer Lee Harding also caused a stir late last month with his performance of Rage Against the Machine’s Killing in the Name which won him a chair turn from each of the four judges.
Hot on Nathan’s heels, onetime Australia’s Got Talent winner Jack Vidgen stunned viewers and judges alike with his rendition of Adele’s smash hit Hello in Monday night’s episode.
The Voice Australia continues on Channel 9 this Sunday at 7pm.
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