Liam Anthony "William" Singe (born 2 July 1992) is an Australian
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
r, singer, songwriter, and producer. He is most notable for his online videos on
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
and
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
.
Singe started his career as a member of
The Collective, an Australian
boy band
A boy band is loosely defined as a vocal group consisting of young male singers, usually in their teenage years or in their twenties at the time of formation. Generally, boy bands perform Love song, love songs marketed towards girls and young ...
which was formed during the
fourth season of ''
The X Factor Australia
''The X Factor'' is an Australian television reality music competition, based on the original UK series, to find new singing talent. The first season of the show premiered on Network Ten on 6 February 2005. Ten dropped ''The X Factor'' after ...
'' in 2012, finishing in third place. The Collective subsequently signed with
Sony Music Australia
Sony Music Entertainment Australia is the predominant record label operated by American parent company Sony Music Entertainment in Australia. SMEA also formerly published and distributed video games in Australia & New Zealand on behalf of Sony ...
and released seven singles and a self-titled album. They disbanded after Singe left the group in 2015.
In 2014 and 2015, Singe recorded numerous R&B, pop, reggae, hip-hop and rap covers in his bedroom. In less than a year, he accumulated over two million Facebook fans, reached a number one position on
Spotify
Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...
, 20 million Spotify streams, and earned more than 500 million video views and 2.6 million subscribers on
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
.
Early life
William Singe was born and raised in
Forestville, aka 'Forry', a suburb of northern Sydney. He is of
Māori
Māori or Maori can refer to:
Relating to the Māori people
* Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group
* Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand
* Māori culture
* Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...
descent.
William began recording music as a child, drawing inspiration from his father, a singer and songwriter from
Ngāti Porou
Ngāti Porou is a Māori iwi traditionally located in the East Cape and Gisborne regions of the North Island of New Zealand. Ngāti Porou is affiliated with the 28th Maori Battalion and has the second-largest affiliation of any iwi in New Zealand ...
,
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
.
He was a student at
St Augustine's College in
Brookvale and worked as a bank teller at the
Commonwealth Bank
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), or CommBank, is an Australian multinational bank with businesses across New Zealand, Asia, the United States and the United Kingdom. It provides a variety of financial services including retail, busines ...
in
Dee Why
Dee Why is a coastal suburb of northern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia, 18 kilometres north-east of the Sydney central business district. It is the administrative centre of the local government area of Northern Be ...
.
Career
In 2011, Singe auditioned for ''The X Factor'' in season three and made it to the end of the
bootcamp stage.
In 2012, he auditioned for the fourth season singing Justin Bieber's "
One Less Lonely Girl
"One Less Lonely Girl" is a song by Canadian singer Justin Bieber. It was written and produced by Ezekiel Lewis and Balewa Muhammad of The Clutch, and Sean Hamilton, John "J.R." Harris and Hyuk Shin of the production team A-Rex. The song was relea ...
" (with added rap lyrics that Singe wrote himself) and received positive comments from the judges.
He progressed to the
super bootcamp stage.
2012–2014: The Collective
After Singe did not to make it into the top six of the Under-25 Boys category during super bootcamp, the judges decided to put him together with Trent Bell, Julian De Vizio, Zach Russell and Jayden Sierra to form a boy band named
The Collective. On 20 November 2012, it was announced that The Collective finished in third place.
On 22 November 2012, The Collective signed a recording contract with
Sony Music Australia
Sony Music Entertainment Australia is the predominant record label operated by American parent company Sony Music Entertainment in Australia. SMEA also formerly published and distributed video games in Australia & New Zealand on behalf of Sony ...
.
The group's self-titled
mini album
A mini-LP or mini-album is a short vinyl record album or LP, usually retailing at a lower price than an album that would be considered full-length. It is distinct from an EP due to containing more tracks and a slightly longer running length. A ...
, ''
The Collective'', was released on 14 December 2012.
The album debuted at number 11 on the ARIA Albums Chart and was certified gold.
In 2013, Singe was featured on fellow ''X Factor'' contestant
Bella Ferraro
Bella Ferraro (born 1994) is an Australian singer most notable for finishing fourth on the fourth season of ''The X Factor Australia'' in 2012.
Early life
Ferraro was born and raised in Sydney, Australia. She began singing as a child. At age f ...
's single "Forgot You" which peaked at number 75 on the ARIA Singles Chart.
On 18 February 2015, Singe announced on
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
that he had left the group to pursue his solo career.
The remaining members of The Collective disbanded that same month to also pursue solo careers.
2015–present: Solo career
As a solo performer, Singe recorded cover tracks of contemporary singers, from
Justin Bieber
Justin Drew Bieber ( ; born March 1, 1994) is a Canadian singer. Bieber is recognized for his genre-melding musicianship and has played an influential role in modern-day popular music. He was discovered by American record executive Scooter ...
and
Adele
Adele Laurie Blue Adkins (, ; born 5 May 1988), professionally known by the mononym Adele, is an English singer and songwriter. After graduating in arts from the BRIT School in 2006, Adele signed a reco ...
to
Drake
Drake may refer to:
Animals
* A male duck
People and fictional characters
* Drake (surname), a list of people and fictional characters with the family name
* Drake (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name
* ...
,
Fetty Wap
Willie Junior Maxwell II (born June 7, 1991), better known by his stage names Fetty Wap or Harlem Fetty, is an American rapper, singer and songwriter. He rose to prominence after his debut single "Trap Queen" reached number two on the U.S. ''B ...
and
The Weeknd
Abel Makkonen Tesfaye (born February 16, 1990), known professionally as the Weeknd, is a Canadian singer, songwriter, record producer, and actor. Known for his sonic versatility and dark lyricism, his music explores escapism, Romance (love), ...
. He sang in his bedroom and uploaded the videos to Facebook and YouTube. Starting 2015 with 6 cover videos and around 20 thousand followers on his Facebook page, Singe grew to more than two million followers by the end of the year with 44 additional cover videos.
Singe announced on 14 October that he signed to
Paradigm
In science and philosophy, a paradigm () is a distinct set of concepts or thought patterns, including theories, research methods, postulates, and standards for what constitute legitimate contributions to a field.
Etymology
''Paradigm'' comes f ...
, a US entertainment agency representing
Ed Sheeran
Edward Christopher Sheeran (; born 17 February 1991) is an English singer-songwriter. Born in Halifax, West Yorkshire and raised in Framlingham, Suffolk, he began writing songs around the age of eleven. In early 2011, Sheeran independently r ...
,
Coldplay
Coldplay are a British rock band formed in London in 1997. They consist of vocalist and pianist Chris Martin, guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman, drummer Will Champion and creative director Phil Harvey. They met at University Col ...
,
Sia
Sia Kate Isobelle Furler ( ; born 18 December 1975) is an Australian singer and songwriter. Born and raised in Adelaide, she started her career as a singer in the acid jazz band Crisp in the mid-1990s. In 1997, when Crisp disbanded, she rel ...
and
Black Eyed Peas
Black Eyed Peas (also known as The Black Eyed Peas) is an American musical group consisting of rappers will.i.am, apl.de.ap, Taboo (rapper), Taboo. The group's line-up during the height of their popularity in the 2000s featured Fergie (singer ...
, among others.
In September and October,
One Direction
One Direction, often shortened to 1D, are an English-Irish pop boy band formed in London in 2010. The group are composed of Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, and previously Zayn Malik until his departure from the gr ...
's
Liam Payne
Liam James Payne (born 29 August 1993) is an English singer. He rose to fame as a member of the boy band One Direction. Payne made his debut as a singer in 2008 when he auditioned for the British television series ''The X Factor''. After being ...
and the singer
T-Pain reached out via Twitter to connect with Singe, expressing interest to collaborate with him.
Singe covered
Drake
Drake may refer to:
Animals
* A male duck
People and fictional characters
* Drake (surname), a list of people and fictional characters with the family name
* Drake (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name
* ...
's song "
Hotline Bling
"Hotline Bling" is a song recorded by Canadian rapper Drake, which serves as the lead single from his fourth studio album ''Views'' (2016). The song is credited as a bonus track on the album. It was made available for digital download on July 31 ...
" on 24 September. It became his most popular video to date. In less than a month, the video earned close to 25 million views on YouTube and Facebook, reaching a number one position on
Spotify
Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...
's US Viral 50 chart.
Singe co-wrote "What You Want" for and with
Samantha Jade
Samantha Jade Gibbs (born 18 April 1987) is an Australian singer and songwriter. She has written tracks for artists including JoJo and Ashley Tisdale. In 2012, Jade won the fourth season of ''The X Factor Australia'', the first woman to win ...
, included on her album ''
Nine
9 is a number, numeral, and glyph.
9 or nine may also refer to:
Dates
* AD 9, the ninth year of the AD era
* 9 BC, the ninth year before the AD era
* 9, numerical symbol for the month of September
Places
* Nine, Portugal, a parish in the ...
'', which was released in 2015.
Noting Singe's success,
Capital Xtra
Capital XTRA (formerly Choice FM) is a Global Media & Entertainment, Global-owned radio station that broadcasts on 96.9 FM broadcasting, FM and 107.1 FM in Greater London. Nationally, it is heard on Digital Audio Broadcasting, DAB Digital Ra ...
concluded: "YouTube sensation William Singe is a star in his own right, having racked up millions of views across his phenomenal covers of
Fetty Wap
Willie Junior Maxwell II (born June 7, 1991), better known by his stage names Fetty Wap or Harlem Fetty, is an American rapper, singer and songwriter. He rose to prominence after his debut single "Trap Queen" reached number two on the U.S. ''B ...
's '
679
__NOTOC__
Year 679 ( DCLXXIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 679 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar ...
,'
The Weeknd
Abel Makkonen Tesfaye (born February 16, 1990), known professionally as the Weeknd, is a Canadian singer, songwriter, record producer, and actor. Known for his sonic versatility and dark lyricism, his music explores escapism, Romance (love), ...
's '
Earned It
"Earned It", alternatively titled "Earned It (Fifty Shades of Grey)", is a song by Canadian singer the Weeknd. The song was released as the lead single from the soundtrack to the 2015 film ''Fifty Shades of Grey'' and was included on the Weeknd' ...
' and now
Drake
Drake may refer to:
Animals
* A male duck
People and fictional characters
* Drake (surname), a list of people and fictional characters with the family name
* Drake (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name
* ...
's '
Hotline Bling
"Hotline Bling" is a song recorded by Canadian rapper Drake, which serves as the lead single from his fourth studio album ''Views'' (2016). The song is credited as a bonus track on the album. It was made available for digital download on July 31 ...
.' The 22-year-old Aussie singer-songwriter completely makes the song his own and it sounds incredible." The Fern Events, a South Sydney-based event solutions company, also commented that Singe was "just phenomenal, his perseverance is really paying off."
On 29 July, Singe announced that he had officially signed with
RCA Records
RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also A ...
. His debut solo single was released on 3 February 2017, titled "
Rush
Rush(es) may refer to:
Places
United States
* Rush, Colorado
* Rush, Kentucky
* Rush, New York
* Rush City, Minnesota
* Rush Creek (Kishwaukee River tributary), Illinois
* Rush Creek (Marin County, California), a stream
* Rush Creek (Mono Cou ...
".
On 5 May 2017, he appeared on the
Jonas Blue
Guy James Robin (born 2 August 1989), known professionally as Jonas Blue, is an English DJ, record producer, songwriter, and remixer based in London. He is known for recruiting young artists for his dance-pop and tropical house productions, wh ...
single "
Mama
Mama(s) or Mamma or Momma may refer to:
Roles
*Mother, a female parent
* Mama-san, in Japan and East Asia, a woman in a position of authority
*Mamas, a name for female associates of the Hells Angels
Places
*Mama, Russia, an urban-type settlement ...
", which became a top 10 hit in many countries, including Australia, UK, New Zealand, Germany, Norway, Denmark and South Africa.
On 13 June 2017, he reached 2 million subscribers on YouTube.
In January 2018, "Mama" was nominated for two Brit Awards. The ceremony would take place
the following month.
Concert tours
In January 2016, Singe embarked on ''The Introduction Tour'' across Australia, Asia, the United States and Europe. In February, March and April 2017, Will toured the United States with
Alex Aiono
Martin Alexander Aiono (; born February 16, 1996) is an American singer, record producer, and actor from Phoenix, Arizona. Aiono is known for his videos on YouTube, which have amassed over 1 billion views, and his social media presence with upwa ...
on the "Changes Tour".
Discography
Singles
As lead artist
As featured artist
Notes
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Singe, William
1992 births
21st-century Australian singers
Australian male rappers
Australian people of Māori descent
Singers from Sydney
The X Factor (Australian TV series) contestants
Living people
21st-century Australian male singers
Australian male singer-songwriters
Australian singer-songwriters