How is life after The X Factor TV show?
We are all so excited! Can’t Wait!
How are you adapting to the ‘celebrity world’?
It’s so weird, I’m still adjusting. But I am very grateful to be where I am.
What was your favourite performance during the competition?
Heartless and Scream.
What are you looking forward to most about the X Factor Live Tour?
Reliving moments from the show and being with all the contestants.
Tell us about the support you get from your fans.
My supporters are the best in the world. I am so lucky and grateful.
When did you know you wanted to audition for The X Factor?
I’d always loved the show and I decided to go last-minute, thanks to my parents.
Who is your favourite artist?
Beyonce.
Who did you become closest to on the show?
Nathaniel, Fourtunate, Bella, Angel, The Collective and Jason.
Which state are you most looking forward to visiting on the tour?
Perth! My hometown.
We chatted to the gorgeous Samantha Jade this week in Sydney, and she chatted to us about music, and life after winner The X Factor!
She told take40.com ‘I always hoped I’d be experiencing everything that’s going on right now, but I wasn’t sure I would. Especially when I gave up music, I didn’t think this would happen… so I feel very lucky to be where I am.’
The 2012 X Factor winner’s song ‘What You’ve Done To Me’ has been a raging success since it was released at the start of this month, and we wanted to know what we can expect from the music video!
Sammi revealed ‘People can expect that it’s pretty extreme… it’s a really beautiful video… there are different elements… it shows a bit of rain, a bit of fire. There’s quite a lot going on in it.’
We also asked her to clear up those Guy Sebastian collaboration rumours, and she admitted ‘I would love to collaborate with Guy. I did talk to him the other day (and asked him) and he was like ‘oh yeah!’ so hopefully if there’s time.’
It’s only been a few weeks since pint-sized singer Samantha Jade took the crown as the winner of ‘The X Factor Australia’ and she’s already risen to the top of the pops with a platinum-selling single!
MTV Australia talked exclusively with Australia’s newest pop star last week about taking out the top spot, meeting Guy Sebastian in a Swedish recording studio and some of the secrets behind the upcoming ‘X Factor Australia Tour!’
MTV: Congratulations on winning ‘The X Factor’! Has it sunk in yet or is it still feeling pretty surreal?
SAMANTHA JADE: I think it’s finally sunk in! It took a while, it was so unexpected and then it was so full on, I was on cloud nine! But it’s finally sunken in and I’m just loving it, and so grateful to be where I am.
MTV: Queuing up on audition day, did the thought ever go through your mind that you would take the whole thing out?
SAMANTHA JADE: No. Not at all, not once! My family are all from Perth and they would fly over in the first few weeks [of the live show] because we didn’t think I’d get that far at all. So after that first bottom two my mum came that second week, my dad came the third – I was like, “You guys better get out here!” because you never know when it’s your time to go. So it was shocking [to win].
MTV: You were friends with your mentor Guy Sebastian before the show – how did the two of you meet?
SAMANTHA JADE: I actually met Guy in a recording studio when I was working in one of the rooms and he was working in the other room. I went out into the lounge … and I saw this afro and I was like “Oh my gosh, Guy Sebastian!” Of all the places to meet the Australian Idol, in Sweden! It was so funny! And he’s just so lovely and down to earth, and he was like “Let’s keep in touch!” and I was like “I voted for you!”
MTV: Do you think being friends with Guy made it easier or harder to have him as a mentor?
SAMANTHA JADE: You know what, I think it was a totally different dynamic because we hadn’t worked together like that so it was very different. But Guy’s a very professional person and he takes his work very seriously so for him to ever have given me a little extra boost, he would never have done that. So I think it was the same as everybody else. He did expect a lot from me because he knew me and he knows that I’ve done a lot, but that was good for me because I had to work hard and I know that you don’t get anything without hard work!
MTV: What’s the most important thing he’s taught you?
SAMANTHA JADE: You know what he said to me that was really good for me to hear was “You’re here because of you. I couldn’t have put you through, there’s three other judges, and it’s up to the public every week.” So he was like, “You just have to believe in yourself and put your nerves away because this is what you do. And once you put your nerves away you can start enjoying it, and once you enjoy it then everyone enjoys it with you.”
MTV: Any plans to collaborate with Guy?
SAMANTHA JADE: Oh my gosh, I would love to collaborate with Guy! If I can do a duet with him I would do it in five seconds. I’m going to ask him!
MTV: Our MTV Style Me’host (and Guy’s wife) Jules Sebastian has styled outfits for you – is it quite a collaborative effort in choosing your outfits? Or do you let her take control?
SAMANTHA JADE: She’s so amazing at styling so I let her completely take the reins because I know that she knows me so well and she’s very open to ideas. She’s not the kind of stylist that goes, “That’s what you’re wearing and that’s it!” She’s very, very sweet and lets me be involved every step of the way. So I guess it is a bit of a collaborative thing, but she brings all the outfits to me and she always brings more than enough, she’s such a great stylist!
MTV: You must be working hard in the lead up to ‘The X Factor Tour’ – can you let fans in on any secrets of what we can expect from the shows?
SAMANTHA JADE: Well there are going to be a few group songs, that’s going to be exciting, because I thought we were all just performing solo but I’m so happy we get to relive some of those moments as a group again. But what’s so great is that the top six, we’re all so different, so it’s totally different genres of music packed in to one little show so it’s going to be really fun.
MTV: Will you be heading back to LA now that you’ve got a number one single under your belt?
SAMANTHA JADE: I think I’m in Australia for a while now. I will definitely go back there and write, you know, do some music. But I would never go back to live, I’m so happy to be home and I’m staying here!
Voted in the bottom two for consecutive weeks during the series, the pint sized singer fought back to take out the reality show in stunning style.
“It’s weird because I’m actually getting recognised on the street,” she tells Confidential.
“People are coming up and calling me Sammi – which is what my family call me so it’s pretty amazing – I feel like I have all these new friends out there.
Samantha is set to get talking to a lot of those new found friends when she blogs with adelaidenow readers from 12.30pm and then, heads to Westfield Tea Tree Plaza for an in store performance at 4pm.
“The most common thing fans say to me is `wow, you’re short’,” she laughs, adding at least that won’t be an issue over the internet.
“But it’s going to be great to talk to the people who supported me throughout the show. It should be a lot of fun.”
The singer’s head is still spinning after her win on the show – particularly from recording her self titled debut album in a whirlwind two days.
“It was a pretty crazy experience,” she says. “It was great to relive all those moments again.”
As for album number two – which has proved difficult for reality TV singers in the past – Samantha says she’s keen on sticking to the pop realm that won Australia’s vote.
“I’m a big pop fan she says. I’ll be sticking to that and I’m really looking forward to writing with different people and being creative.”
X-Factor winner Samantha Jade’s new DNA produced single What You’ve Done To Me turned platinum in five days. It was also the 100th single to enter the ARIA charts at #1, says the Gavin Ryan Report.
It is also the 42nd Australian track to do so. The first was Midnight Oil’s Species Deceases EP in 1985, the latest was Guy Sebastian & Lupe Fiasco’s Battle Scars. In between were the likes of Silverchair’sFreak (1997), Missy Higgins’ Scar (2004), Kylie Minogue’s Spinning Around (2000), Madison Avenue’s Who The Hell Are You (2000) and Delta Goodrem’s Lost Without You (2003). Minogue has the most top ended chart debuts with 7, then Goodrem and Sebastian with four, Shannon Noll with three, and Silverchair and Missy Higgins with two apiece. 23 owed this success to being part of a reality TV series.
X-Factor 2012 winner Samantha Jade debuts at No.1 on the Take 40 ARIA Singles chart this week with the pop-dance track “What You’ve Done to Me”, selling/downloading gold in its first three days of release (released 9:30pm Tuesday 20th November). Samantha also achieves the 100th No.1 debut in Australia since Midnight Oil first did it back on the first week of December 1985 (almost 27 years ago to the week) with their “Species Deceases” EP. Plus Samantha is the 20th ‘Australian’ reality-singing-show contestant (of this decade) to land a No.1 single, and it’s’ the 28th such track to do so. This time last year Reece Mastin was the winner of X-Factor and since then, he has scored a second No.1 single, plus we’ve added one more Guy Sebastian track, and new names such as Karise Eden and Justice Crew to the No.1 reality singers tally.
“What You’ve Done to Me” is the 434th No.1 single for ARIA (1983 to 2012). It’s the nineteenth number one for Sony Australia, and Samantha becomes the eighteenth Australian Solo Female singer to hit the top since Olivia Newton-John first did it back in 1971. Samantha’s big entry from last week, “Heartless” is still within the Top 40, sitting at No.29 this week.
If Samantha Jade hadn’t claimed the top spot this week, it would have gone to Seattle rapper Macklemore and Ryan Lewis with “Thrift Shop”, which climbs up two places to a new peak of No.2, pushing last weeks number one “Don’t You Worry Child” by Swedish House Mafia down two places to No.3 this week. Sam & the Womp continue to rise, up two places to a new peak of No.4, and after his performance on X-Factor last week, Guy Sebastian’s new track “Get Along” leaps up twenty-nine places to No.5 to become his eleventh Top 10 hit, and fourth from his current album “Armageddon” (TW-4), the first time ANY of his albums have achieved this feat.
PSY is down four places to No.6 with “Gangnam Style”, and Bruno Mars is down two places to No.7 with “Locked out of Heaven”. Holding their peaks are “I Knew You Were Trouble” by Taylor Swift and “Little Things” for One Direction at No.8 and No.9, whilst their albums “Red” and “Take Me Home” are at No.5 and No.1 respectively Lastly Ke$ha tumbles seven places to No.10 with “Die Young”, peaking last week at No.3. Rihanna loses her Top 10 placing of “Diamonds”, down a single place to No.11, whilst her new album “Unapologetic” debuts at No.8 this week.
After jumping back into the Top 20 last week, “She Wolf (Falling to Pieces)” (HP-11) for David Guetta and Sia is up again five places to No.13, not far from its original peak position from early September. Up one spot to a new peak of No.23 are Mumford & Sons with “I Will Wait”, and right behind them at No.24, up seven places are Icona Pop with “I Love it”. Owl City performed “Good Time” on the X-Factor Grand Final and that has helped the track to return to the Top 40 at No.33, whilst Adele’s “Skyfall” also re-enters the Top 40 at No.34 thanks to the Bond film opening around the country on Thursday the 22nd of November.
Debuting at No.21 is Ludacris featuring Usher and David Guetta on the song “Rest of My Life”, and it’s the first taste of the new Ludacris album “Ludaversal” The last big Ludacris track we saw on the charts was as guest vocalist on the David Guetta track “Little Bad Girl” which hit No.15 in August of 2011.
The last two entries deal with the final Twilight film “Breaking Dawn Part 2”. The love theme from the final films returns in two versions this week. “A Thousand Years Part 2” features vocals as a duet with Christina Perri and Steve Kazee (a Broadway actor who won a Tony Award in 2012 for ‘Once’), which debuts at No.39, whilst the original version by just Christina jumps back into the Top 50 and lands at No.37. The soundtrack to the film this week is sitting at No.16, and the film grossed just under thirteen million in Australian in its first weekend (15-18 Nov.).
