5Q4 > Guy Sebastian

The inaugural Australian Idol unearthed a music teacher from Adelaide, whose singing experience included his church worship band. Winning Australian Idol changed his life, but he is determined it will not change his faith and will perhaps give him greater opportunity to promote Christian music.

1 What contact have you had with your church since winning Idol? > I sang on our church album just four weeks ago. So that was really cool. That’s pretty much unheard of as far as a signed artist being able to do that. When there was contract negotiations I negotiated quite a bit back and forth and it went into my contract, because it’s important to me.

2 How has your win impacted your life? > It’s totally changed my life. The core stuff is still the same, but every physical part of my life has changed. I’ve moved from Adelaide to Sydney. That in itself is a huge difference. I miss the little things I guess—playing indoor cricket with my friends, going fishing with my brothers and those little things you kind of take for granted when you’re living a normal life.

3 How do you maintain your faith? > I’ve grown up in church. I’ve grown up with an incredible family, great parents, a really good upbringing—strict but good. My upbringing has shaped me as person. I’ve been trained all my life to think positive and take what you get and make the best out of it. I guess spiritually, it’s been good because growing up in church I was so involved. I’d go to church four or five times a week for rehearsals, fellowships and everything else. I kind of got into this complacent mode—where you personally aren’t keeping in touch—and then suddenly I’m whipped out of that and have to maintain my faith for myself.

4 What do you see the role of Christian music being? > I think Christian music plays a big role in the music scene and I’d love to see it play a much bigger role. I think there’s a bit of a lack here. It plays a great role for Christians, but I’d like to see it play a greater role for everyone and be accepted as good music.

5 Have you been pressured to compromise your beliefs? > I took a firm stance at the start and contractually. Sometimes when I was given songs, I wouldn’t sing them. Management from BMG [Guy’s record company] were going to kill me. We had two weeks left of the show, had to have an album done in six days, and I’d picked only four songs because they were sending me songs that just weren’t me, both musically and morally. So we ended up with an album that I’m proud of, despite the time it took.