A Wicked Gay Idol

Since finishing second in the 2004 season of Australian Idol, Anthony Callea's career has headed in some surprising directions. It's a topic that will not go away. There are few interviews Anthony Callea has completed in the past two years in which it has not been mentioned. It is, of course, the 25-year-old's decision to attempt to launch a career in the music business through Australian Idol.

Callea was the star of the show's second season. His performance of Andrea Bocelli's The Prayer ranks as arguably Idol's all-time musical highpoint. The performance stunned the judges and the television audience, and proved both groups had underestimated him through the competition. And yet he didn't win.

In the four years since finishing as runner-up on the program, Callea has forged an interesting and varied career, releasing two albums for Sony Music, touring sporadically and, this year, taking on a role in the local production of the Broadway musical Wicked. As he begins to think about recording a third album early next year, Callea will play his first and only pop gig of 2008, on Saturday at Crown.

Behind the scenes, the performer has dealt with a bitter and costly change in management. And then there was his most courageous career move yet, the decision finally to come clean about those persistent rumours about his sexuality. Gossip alleging he was gay dogged Callea's time on Idol and the period immediately after, even as he became the favourite of young girls and grannies across the country. Finally, and with little fanfare, he wrote a statement confirming he was gay and posted it on his website last year. His partner, former Home and Away actor Tim Campbell, will perform with him at Crown this week.

"You really have to be comfortable with yourself before you make that step," Callea says, explaining the delay in confirming what so many people had long suspected. "Everybody has an opinion. People say, 'You should have been up front about it', but you need to be comfortable. "You don't want to get to 30 or 40 and be dealing with your sexuality. I wanted to do it my way. I didn't want my label or management to be a part of it, I wanted to write my own statement and express what I've gone through and dealt with."

There was a view that for anyone to come out while a contestant on Idol would be career suicide, but Callea says the impact on his career has been minimal. "If you make it an issue, it becomes one," he says. "Being gay is a part of me, not who I am. I want to be known as a singer." But when asked if you have to be straight to win Australian Idol, he laughs nervously. "I don't think so. There will always be a minority of people who have an issue with homosexuality," he says. "You have to have a thick skin sometimes. If you display an attitude that you're not affected by it, it shows people dealing with their sexuality that you can deal with it and still do what you love."

Source: Andrew Murfett, The Age