Magazine Article

Musicians of New Zealand:

Current Popular New Zealand Bands/Musicians: Six60, Stan Walker

2010’s Popular NZ Bands/Musicians: Brooke Fraser, Gin Wigmore

2000’s Popular Musicians: Eminem, Kanye West

Popular New Zealand Bands/Musicians: Pātea Māori Club, Dave Dobbyn, The Mockers

In the Spotlight: Stan Walker

Stan Walker is a New Zealand Musician. He is 31 years old, and first shot to fame when he won Australian Idol in 2009. Before this, Stan Walker came from humble beginnings. Before he came to fame, he was a shop assistant at a mens store in the Australian city of Coolangatta. He was born in Melborne, Australia, however spent much of his young life in Mount Manganui, attending Fairfield Intermediate, followed by Hamiltion Boys’ High School and New Plymouth Boys High. He Grew up in the Bay of Plenty.

Stan Walker first shot to fame after winning Australian Idol in 2009. During the competition, he sang “Ordinary People” by John Legend. He received numerous praises from the judges and continued to progress to through the show, and became one of the top twelve, eventually winning the contest. He received some of the most praises from judges compared to other contestants at the time. After winning, he signed a contact with Sony Music Australia, and received an artists’ development fund worth $200,000AUD.

Stan relapsed a tell all memoir in 2020, followed by a simplified one for young readers in 2022. As alluded to in his book, Stan Walker suffered from a rough child. He suffered from constant abuse from his acholic father, who has also a drug user and dealer. This father often beat his wife and Stan. The constant abuse he copped led him to mental health issues, and even becoming suicided.

Stan identifies as a New Zealand-Australian Singer, and spends his time split between New Zealand, Australia and The Cook Islands. He was diagnosed with and suffered from Stomach Cancer. He was diagnosed with this in 2017 in Australia. He is married, and after his wife suffering multiple miscarriage's, she is pregnant with a daughter, as well as having a much loved stepson.

Music Type: Stan Walker

Stan Walker is best known for, and mostly produces R&B Music, though he is also known to sometimes produce Pop also. R&B stands for “Rhythm and Blues”, meaning the music has rhythm, while containing the smoothening's of the blues.

A great example of Stan Walker using R&B is his song “Start Again”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCZsgMFO3wE&ab_channel=StanWalkerVEVO

The song includes meaningful lyrics, which while aren’t of the caliber blues music would see, are similar.

It’s also contains a verity of rhythms, unlike blues music which contains little to no rhythm, this is the main thing which differentiates R&B Music from Blues music.

Popular Songs: Stan Walker

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWhAoZZh8fc - Aotearoa

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYEqq8bBP0I - Take it easy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZmKOLY-cpw - Black box

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Walker, https://medium.com/@DJBooth/what-is-r-b-music-in-2019-65590deb4c04#:~:text=R%26B%2C%20which%20stands%20for%20Rhythm,become%20somewhat%20of%20a%20challenge., https://www.google.com/search?q=what+songs+are+stan+walker+known+for&rlz=1C1VDKB_enNZ990NZ990&oq=what&aqs=chrome.1.69i59l3j69i57j69i59j69i61l3.4053j0j9&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8, https://top40weekly.com/top-100-artists-of-the-00s/,