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Nathan Joel Foley (born 27 September 1979, in Liverpool, New South Wales, Australia) is an Australian musician, singer, performer and former member of Australian children's entertainment group Hi-5.
Life and career
Nathan started singing professionally at 10 years old with bands singing jazz, soul, R&B, pop, and rock. During his school years, Foley performed in the Schools Spectacular for seven years and graduated from the Talent Development Project in 1997. In 1998, Nathan joined as the original member of the children’s show Hi-5, and subsequently performed with the group for the next 10 years.
As a solo artist, Nathan has produced and written an album Discovery and two singles Live Your Life and Say You Will. He recently remastered an album recorded when he was 10 years old called Good Times and also recorded a live album Nathan Foley Live At The Starlight.
In 2009, Foley completed a season of Jerry Springer The Opera at the Sydney Opera House and played Kenickie in the Olivia Newton-John Foundation musical Grease on the Beach. He also performed as a soloist in 2009 at The V8 Supercars and World Masters Games and sung the Australian Anthem at the Darling Harbour Australia Day Celebrations in 2010 in front of a quarter of a million.
Nathan performed in the musical Mamma Mia!, touring Australia in 2010 and toured in 2011 with a new show, Acoustic Rhythms. He is also Co-Presenter of a show called Gathering on Foxtel’s Indigenous Network NITV.
Foley was a contestant on the Network Ten show, I Will Survive. During the True Colors episode of this series, performed in Hermannsburg, NT, Foley revealed that he is descended from the aboriginal Yuin people on his mother's side while his father is of Irish and Swedish descent. Nathan currently released his new studio album Now And Forever on iTunes and travelling the world performing at major corporate functions, and a guest entertainer on Cruise liners and television.
In March 2016, Nathan won Entertainer of the year for Princess Cruises being the top entertainer from over 800 entertainers world-wide to compete for the title in the Caribbean and taking home the win being the first Australian ever. Nathan became engaged to Jamaican-Australian model Nicholette Gomez, still in 2018, they got married. Nathan became a contestant in The Voice in June 2019.
In 2020, Nathan announced that a Hi-5 reunion concert is not confirmed yet, because he and the rest of Hi-5 were pretty busy.
Discography
CDs
- Good Times (1990)
- Nathan Foley: Live at The Starlight (2008)
- Discovery (2008)
- Acoustic Rhythms (2011) An acoustic album of covers from popular songs
- Now And Forever (2013) album of covers from popular songs
- At This Moment (2018) album of covers being some songs that are part of the show
Others (Singles/ Soundtracks)
- Live Your Life (2012)
- Say You Will (2012)
- Infatuated (2015)
- Mama (2016) - a collection of some singles and new songs
- The Voice Australia - Single (2019) - A Footloose song performed by him in The Voice live recorded.
Trivia
- Nathan left Hi-5 in December 2008, because he has to concentrate on a solo music career and was replaced by Tim Maddren in January 2009.
- After a long time since leaving Hi-5 in 2008, Nathan met again some of his former Hi-5 colleagues Tim Harding (Hi-5 1999-2007) in December 18, 2015, Kathleen de Leon Jones (Hi-5 1999-2006) in March 2016 and Karla Cheatham Mosley (Hi-5 USA 2003-2006) in 2017.
- In January 2020, he appeared per-show with Original Wiggle "Murray's" Band "The Soul Movers" at "the Wiggles' bushfire relief concert".
Gallery
Click here to view the gallery.