Nikki’s set for school role

Alex Ward

PUTTING on a school uniform for her first feature film role felt strange for Nikki Webster. Now 23, many remember her as the cute, curly blonde-haired girl who flew through the air at the Sydney Olympics opening ceremony in 2000.

“I think a part of me will always be that little girl at the Olympics,” she said. “It’s why I’m here today and it was such a wonderful experience and more people remember that about me.”

Ms Webster was excited about her role as one of the “exclusives” at the school in Short Beach. “It felt freaky putting a school uniform on again,” she said of her film role. “Feature films are something very new and exciting for me and it came out of the blue.”

Ms Webster has many projects including her dance school and talent and modelling agency on Parramatta Rd, Stanmore.

“We opened the talent agency over a year ago and we’ve got 32 clients aged 0-17,” Miss Webster said.

She said her film experience will feed back into the agency, which she started with her brother, Scott, and agent Cimone Grayson. “Getting hands on experience allows me to give feed back to my clients and tell them what I’ve learnt on set,” she said.

“I’m also writing lots of music with different writers and producers.”

The dance school has seven teachers and the business is continually growing.

“I’ve been so busy since I was 13 so I’m very used to being busy,” Ms Webster said.

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
2000 Performed in the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games opening ceremony.
2001 Her first pop single, Strawberry Kisses, opened at No. 2 and was nominated for an ARIA in the highest-selling album and single categories.
2001 Starred as Dorothy in Australian production of Wizard of Oz.
2002 Released second album Bliss.
2005 Participated in TV dance show Dancing with the Stars.
2007 Starred in musicals Hair and Rent.
2008 Opened dance studio with brother Scott.
2009 Opened talent and modelling agency.

Visit: dancenikkiwebster.com.au or talentnikkiwebster.com.au

Source: The Inner-West Courier (digital edition)

I’m on top of the world!

The Olympic sweetheart is flying high after a proposal she will never forget, writes LUCY CHESTERTON.

The golden curls and sweet smile are just the same, but there’s something new about Olympic sweetheart Nikki Webster – a sparkling engagement ring. Smiling lovingly at her fiancé Matthew McMah as the couple sits down for an exclusive chat with Woman’s Day, it’s clear the next chapter of Nikki’s life is set to be a beautiful love story.

“I can’t wait for the rest of our lives together,” she smiles.

Nikki, 23, and Matt, 31, met on a blind date on Australia Day last year, and while Matt doesn’t believe in love at first sight, he told Nikki he would call her the next day – then set his alarm for 8am to make sure he kept his promise.

It was a solid start to a romance that would see the couple gradually fall in love over rounds of putt-putt golf, cooking and movie dates. Matt took the plunge and proposed to Nikki on a romantic trip to Fiji in January this year.

“I had no idea!” Nikki giggles. “I thought Matt had booked the trip because it was our one year anniversary!” Instead, enterprising Matt had secretly brought Nikki’s engagement ring from Australia and hidden it behind a false wall in their shared safe at the resort. Then, sneaking it into his pocket, he nervously went to dinner with Nikki.

“I had my hand in my pocket all night and Nikki kept asking why,” Matt says. “I told her I was just scratching my leg.”

On the way back from dinner, the pair stumbled across a lone hammock in the dark and Matt knew the moment had arrived. “We were on the hammock when Matt got down on one knee and I said, ‘Seriously?’, thinking he was just mucking around,” Nikki remembers. “It was pitch black so I couldn’t see he was holding a ring!”

Only when Matt lit up the small box with light from his iPhone did Nikki realise he was definitely serious – but at that moment the skies opened and fierce tropical rains began beating down on the couple.

“It was raining and raining,” Nikki says, “And over the noise Matt was yelling, ‘You have got to answer me’.”

“I said, ‘Yes!’ and we started running. I didn’t even look at the ring – we just kept running back.

“It wasn’t until we stopped we suddenly thought, ‘Did this just happen?’.”

With a few days left on their idyllic island, Nikki wanted to ring home immediately with the happy news but Matt had already beaten her to it. He’d asked her parents’ permission before proposing. “They said, ‘We were wondering when he was going to do it’,” Nikki grins.

Now both families – in particular, Nikki’s older brother Scott, and Matt’s sister Jen, who set the pair up on the original date – are excitedly planning for the nuptials, likely to be held next year.

“I thought Nikki was stunning as soon as I saw her,” Matt remembers. “The more time I spent with her, the more time I wanted to spend with her and I knew within the first couple of weeks that this was it for me.”

Matt, who works for an airline, wasn’t familiar with Nikki’s special role in Australian sporting history or her success as a businesswoman. In fact, he had to Google her after fans kept approaching her in the street.

“I knew very little about Nikki’s career because at the time of the Olympics, I was living in Europe,” he explains. “I knew Nikki was a celebrity. I knew she was in the public eye. I knew what she had done, but I actually had to go home and look her up online the night we met to see it for myself.”

While Matt didn’t know much of Nikki’s history, he was certain of one thing – he had found “the one”.

“It is great that Nikki is the person she is,” Matt says. “If I have ever had any questions or there was something I wasn’t sure about or that upset me, I know I can always talk to her because she is so transparent with me. We don’t hide anything from each other.”

And Nikki agrees she has finally met her perfect match.

“I am very guarded, but there was something about Matt that wouldn’t allow me to do that and I didn’t want to do that, as well,” she says.

“For me, it is someone I can laugh with and have fun with and who makes me feel on top of the world.”

Source: Woman’s Day
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Nikki Webster 10 years on – It’s still my favourite frock

The darling of the 2000 Sydney Olympics shares her memories with Lucy Chesterson.

Holding the pink frock that made her famous, Nikki Webster marvels to think how it became one of the most enduring symbols on the Sydney Olympics Opening Ceremony in 2000. She can hardly believe she once fitted into the miniature outfit. “I was 13, but I looked about nine!” she laughs.

Indeed, Nikki seemed an impossibly small figure when the world saw her skip to the centre of the Olympic Stadium, in front of the 110, 000-strong crowd filling the venue, and the 3.8 billion watching her on televisions around the globe.

“It still feels like yesterday,” says Nikki, now 23. “I remember every detail of every position I had.”

Nikki stayed tight-lipped about being chosen over 12, 000 others for the role as Hero Girl in the ceremony, which helped Australia take the world by surprise when she soared through the sky. The little girl swimming among the fluoro sea creatures became one of the most fondly remembered moments.

“Everything was on target, despite the fact there was such a lot that could have gone wrong!” Nikki says, with relief that’s obvious even 10 years after her adventure. “The only small thing was a jellyfish bumped into me in the sky and I thought, ‘what’s that doing there? That’s never been there before!’”

But when Nikki’s feet left the earth, the young performer couldn’t have known she’d touch down in a world very different from the one she had left behind. Her flawless performance saw her become Australia’s new media darling. The instant she returned to earth, her young life changed forever.

“It was insane,” Nikki says. “I did my first ever interview at 6am the next morning, and from then on it never stopped.” Reporters from all over the world wanted to meet Nikki. “When I got home there was international media already camped out,” she recalls. “There were people everywhere at my house – on the front lawn, in my bedroom, in the lounge room.”

Over the past 10 years, the spotlight that shone on Nikki has never faded. The performer is now capitalising on her expertise by running a dance school and talent agency in Sydney – Dance @ Nikki Webster and Talent @ Nikki Webster – where she helps other kids realise their dreams.

Stroking the dress, Nikki says, “There’s a replica in a museum, but I keep the real one in a box. People always say I should have it framed, but I never have. It meant so much to so many people. It’s amazing for me to know I can still get it out and hold it in my hands.”

Source: Woman’s Day
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I’m back on top again

The Sydney Olympics sweetheart tells LUCY CHESTERSON how she bounced back from a string of career disasters

Catapulted into fame at the age of 13, Nikki Webster knows more than most about the highs and lows of being a child star. Nikki’s performance at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games opened plenty of doors, but it also brought the glare of the public eye – not easy for a girl who had only just entered her teens. With that sort of experience, she’s decided to put her career on the backburner in the hope of fostering a new generation of talent while protecting them from unscrupulous operators.

“There are a lot of sharks out there,” says Nikki, who is only 22. “I’ve been through a lot and my eyes have been opened to what this industry is about.”

For the past two years, Nikki has run successful Sydney dance school Dance @ Nikki Webster. She is not expanding it to include the boutique children’s talent agency, Talent @ Nikki Webster.

“We’re not trying to make a quick buck or flaunt these kids,” she explains. “I just want to use everything I’ve learnt to help steer them in the right direction.”

Nikki has had her share of lows, including a brush with depression last year when she found a close confidante had secretly siphoned her money into their own account.

She also endured a lonely trip to the US, where she “kept hitting brick walls” and would cry down the phone to her family – before heading home to start again. Nikki also endured cruel jibes about her fluctuating weight before settling back into her naturally tiny size-six shape.

“There are times in your career when you become very successful and there is a lot of work and everyone around you is happy,” Nikki says. “Then there are times when you’re not getting jobs, and that’s the hardest to cope with.

“I still have a passion for performing, and I miss it, but I’ve focused on the dance studio and the agency, and that’s my choice now. I’m on the phone to the kids in my agency night and day, talking about how they can advance their careers and making sure they don’t get swept away.

“That’s the thing I learnt. Stay true to yourself, and even though other people might want you to do something, unless you’re 100 percent comfortable then forget it.”

There’s no doubt Nikki, who counts Bert Newton among her industry friends, has her hands full with her talent agency and the hundreds of kids she is “mum” to at her dance studio. So for now her own bright star will have to dim a little to help those around her shine brighter.

Source: Woman’s Day
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Stars sign up for Relay launch

By Bianca Martins

NIKKI Webster was catapulted to stardom at the age of 13 when she performed at the opening ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.

She recently came back into the spotlight after releasing her single Devilicious in June.

But it’s not all about showbiz for the pop sensation.

Webster, 22, will help host Fairfield’s Relay for Life launch at Siena’s Italian Restaurant in Wetherill Park on Saturday along with Adriana Xenides.

“I do a lot of charity work. I’m an ambassador for the Paint a Rainbow Foundation and I help out with Camp Quality,” Webster said.

“I wanted to help out with Relay For Life because I enjoy giving something back to the community.”

The launch will feature a dinner and auction and organisers hope to raise more than $15,000 for the Cancer Council.

Items to be auctioned off on the night include a violin signed by the Three Tenors and Grease memorabilia signed by John Travolta and Olivia Newton John.

“I’m really looking forward to it … I hope people dig deep,” Webster said.

This year’s Fairfield Relay for Life will be held at Brenan Park, Smithfield.

The launch event will will be held at Siena’s Event Centre, above the restaurant at The Horsley Drive, Wetherill Park on August 8 from 6.30pm.

Tickets cost $100 a person and include a three-course meal and drinks.

Bookings: 0409 644 491.

RELAY FOR LIFE

The Fairfield Relay for Life is a 24-hour walkathon to raise money for the Cancer Council.

Participants form or join teams and join in the walk. Teams can camp out on site and enjoy entertainment, food and prizes on offer.

This year’s event will be held at Brenan Park, Smithfield, from September 26-27. Visit www.relayforlife.org.au.

Source: Fairfield Advance

Take40 Interview

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On what Devilicious means: “To me it just means girl power and having fun, and being a little bit cheeky but in a good way, and being a little bit devilish, and really being positive about self-image and being a girl in a nightclub, dancing away and getting rid of your fear.”

“I’m excited, I’m nervous, I’m you know worried about what’s gonna happen with it, but most of all it’s just great to finally be out and for people to be able to download it and start getting feedback.”

On the feedback: “It’s mixed and it was always gonna be mixed and I’m not gonna lie and say, ‘Oh my god it’s all positive!’ But I think we’re definitely breaking some ground. People are really listening to the track for what it is. It’s been four years since anybody’s really heard me sing and I think this track does what it’s supposed to: it showcases my vocals great and shows that I’ve progressed and I’m a pop diva, pop artist now! So it’s good fun.”

“I’m so lucky to have a huge gay following, and you know, one of my dreams is to get a float at Mardi Gras so [laughs] I think it’s great, and I think the great thing about doing pop-dance is you can get different DJ’s to remix the track and it sounds completely different. So I really wanna hit the clubs and start performing this track. I can’t wait to tour.”

Looking back on the young girl that appeared in the opening ceremony, what advice would you give to her if you could talk to her now?

“I’d probably say, ‘Surround yourself with good people.’ And… yeah, I guess I’d say that but I don’t think I’d say anything else because I think the great thing about what I did was the fact that I wasn’t media fed. It was innocent. Everything I did was innocent. There was no, I’ve said it before, there was no handbook, there was no ‘everybody knew what they were gonna do, this is stage-by-stage’. We were just flying, like we had sunglasses on, no-one knew what was coming next. ‘Okay, they called, let’s do that, let’s do that! Okay cool, that sounds fun, why don’t we do that?’ And we just went with it. If we made mistakes, we did, but I don’t live with regret, so I probably would just say, ‘Go out and have a good time and do what you do best and entertain.'”

What do you think about songs like Strawberry Kisses now, these days?

“I love it! I wish I wrote the track! [laughs] The great thing about it is it doesn’t matter how old people are, they still remember the chorus, and to me that’s a great sign of a pop song. I can be out with my friends and young guys will come up and they’ve had a few drinks and they’ll be singing Strawberry Kisses, and yeah they don’t know all the words, but they know the tune, and it amazes me! I’m like, ‘How do you know the tune? It so wouldn’t have been cool when you were 14, 15 to like Nikki Webster.’ So, I mean they’re taking the piss out of me when they’re singing it to me but I kinda get in there and sing it with them and go, ‘This is great!’ So I think it’s one of those songs that has been passed down in generations for some reason. At my dance studio I have five year olds singing it to me and they weren’t even born, so it’s obviously been passed down. It’s a good song.”

Source: Take40.com
Watch the video here!

Now & Then – Nikki Webster

The little girl from the Sydney Olympics is all grown up now – like it or not!

Sydney 2000 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony
“I’d been performing in musical theatre since I was five. It was a dream for me to be an entertainer, but I never thought it would come true at the age of 13! I went through five or six months of auditions and got the role of Hero Girl just 15 days before the event. Flying through the air was great fun. I was mainly trying to dodge the flying fish and jellyfish – I actually hit a jellyfish on the night. I wasn’t thinking about all the people watching on TV. Maybe it was a good thing, because I might have freaked out!”

Dancing with the Stars
“This is when I got eliminated [in 2005, after receiving a score of one from judge Todd McKenney]. I didn’t talk to Todd afterwards. Ian Roberts went up and gave him a stern word, and Todd ran away! Sasha (Farber) and I went out for a while, but that’s all in the past. I guess you get caught up in what goes on in the show. They’re such sexual, sensual dances… and you’re spending seven days a week with this person, eight hours a day. It’s inevitable, really. It’s definitely something that, if I was married, I wouldn’t want my husband doing!”

Devilicious
“My single ‘Devilicious’ is a really fun track – so for the promo shots, we wanted to do something a little bit fun, a little bit on the edge. Everyone around me was going, ‘You look great!’ I was like, ‘But it’s bloody uncomfortable!’ I love my shoes in it. I got them in LA after I recorded ‘Devilicious’. With the song coming out and the new shots, people on the street stop me and say, ‘Aren’t you still 12?’ It’s funny. People are always going to have that image, and I don’t want them to forget that – I just want them to accept who I am now as well.

Nikki’s single ‘Devilicious’ is out now.

Source: TV Week
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Nikki Webster Q & A

Our Olympic pop sweetheart is pushing her boundaries, writes Cameron Adams.

What has been the reaction to your comeback single Devilicious?
I’ve been working on this track for so long, writing it, contacting the producers, building it up. When you finish it you can’t wait to get it out, but just before that you think, “Oh no, what’s going to happen?” It’s had a mixed reaction, but the people I want to like it are liking it. Everyone else can have their own opinion.

Do you find a lot of people review you before they’ve even heard the new single?
Absolutely. There’s a stigma attached. As soon as some people hear “Nikki Webster” it’s like “Don’t worry about bringing her in” or “We don’t want to play that”. Radio play hasn’t been supportive, but radio interviews have been great.

It must be frustrating, hitting that wall.
Totally, but what am I going to do? All I can do is keep trying other ways and prove – not just to them, but to myself – that I’m an entertainer. I’m not just singing other people’s songs, I’m creating music now. I’m a singer and a songwriter and everything in between.

Is there an easier option?
To break it overseas first. I had that option with the producers I wrote this track with. They were like, “Why do you want to go back?” I said, “I don’t care if they don’t like me, it’s my home. It’s where I represented my country”. I feel Australia is ready for new music from me.

Have you ever wondered why there was such animosity towards you in Australia?
I’ve thought about it long and hard and I have no answers. Maybe I’m too straightforward and simple and they have to create drama. I’ve cried about it, laughed about it, joked about it. I’m at the point now where I don’t really care. I just want to make music and entertain.

You seem a lot more confident now.
I am. That’s from escaping (to LA) for four years and surrounding myself with people who believe in me. The only reason Devilicious is out is because I hunted down people to work with. I sent out emails – “I love your work, do you want to work with me?” – there’s no shame in that. I had to find finance. It’s all me. I’ve always had a record company or someone else to fall back on. Now it’s me saying “Push yourself, Nikki”.

Presumably there’s no baggage being Nikki Webster when you meet producers in America.
That’s refreshing. Sometimes producers Google me – they see it but don’t understand the tall-poppy syndrome. We embrace sports stars; Americans embrace all their talent. They love success. When you meet someone who’s behind you there’s no stopping them. In Australia people are more laid-back. I did Devilicious with Mike Rizzo, who’s a huge DJ in America, and Peter Rafelson, who wrote Open Your Heart for Madonna and has worked with Kylie and Britney. They were really behind this, and that’s really great for your confidence.

You’ve been writing songs. Are there dark moments when you vented against the haters?
I’ve spent four years writing, but a lot of it is self-therapy. I’ll listen back and go “Wow, I was really negative” or “That was when I broke up with that person”. I needed a light-hearted song and that’s where Devilicious came in. Being older helps. I was always 13 or 14 in the studio with producers; we had fun but I was always the kid. Now I’m an adult, I’m dealing with adults.

Can we clarify you are singing “taste my apple, take a bite” in the song?
Yep. I like to push the boundaries a little bit. It’s a little tongue in cheek.

When the video was released, were you surprised that people said you were suddenly sexy? Some people obviously want to freeze-frame you as a little girl from the Olympics.
I’m 22. I’m up against Britney, Lady Gaga and Pussycat Dolls. If I was dressed in a little pink sun-dress singing Devilicious or even Strawberry Kisses, people would say, “Who does she think she is? She’s 22, grow up”. I can’t win. I just have to do what I feel comfortable doing. When I was 18 or 19 I wouldn’t have felt as comfortable being… not as sexy, but as edgy as I am now. I’m a woman now.

Are you still haunted by posing for FHM?
I’m kind of over the question. It wasn’t a porn video but it’s obviously something I’m going to be questioned about forever.

Was it a mistake?
It was a growing thing. It wasn’t Playboy. It did what it needed to do, stirred up some kind of conversation and made people go “Oh, she’s not 13 any more”. It’s not something I’d do again.

You were one of the first celebrities to change their status on Facebook to single and see it become a story in the gossip pages.
I know. I was a virgin to Facebook, I just changed a status and all of a sudden it was in the gossip pages: “Nikki’s had her heart broken!” That was hard to deal with. My friends said, “If you put anything up on Facebook it’ll end up in the press”. I guess the positive is that I’d get Google alerts when I was in LA that people were still writing about me. It was kind of reassuring. I realised people were ready for something new from me, I could still do something in Australia other than RSL clubs.

Source: The Herald Sun
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Darling Nikki

Dakota Fanning, Macaulay Culkin, Lindsay Lohan, Miley Cyrus… these are the child stars we have come to know and love. Nikki Webster is also part of this pantheon, but her status as a former child star is one often treated with contempt. After all, we as a nation seem to hate anyone who even remotely appears to be a tall poppy, and with her strawberry good looks, her outright luck and wholesome manner, Webster was a perfect candidate.

Not that she’s fallen from grace. It’s unlikely she ever well. But her media breeding seems to be her downfall – people complain that she’s too ‘nice’… whatever that means. But now that she’s grown up – or 22 at least – Webster seems all set to step into the role of a young woman making a name for herself… and how.

In the clip for her new song, Devilicious, Webster can be best described in one simple word: smoking. She’s part Christina via that Dirrrty faze and a whole lotta sassy siren. But the most surprising thing is not her new look – which is very eye catching – but her mature and incredibly developed voice. She may not look yet like a woman completely, but she sure sounds like one.

‘I worry that I’m not edgy enough, because it always seems to end up in the media that you’ve got to go to rehab to make it, which is just horrible,’ Webster told OUTinPerth in a moment of reflection. ‘I think people think I’m very, very nice or very media trained. But that’s just me: I’m real. I find it hard to lie about things. I’m quite open, straight up and off the ball. I am worried though about how the media is skewed and how the only thing that ends up on the front page are horrible images of artists.’

It’s the film clip that has everyone talking since it was leaked on YouTube a month ago, and with just cause too – it’s simply amazing. Not in a technical way, but in a party-happening-right-there-on-your-screen kinda way. ‘I think the good thing about the new film clip is that we never had a story line. So basically all I gave the director and the choreographer was that I wanted a huge warehouse with heaps and heaps of dancers and everybody hot and sweaty.

‘But I didn’t want a love interest and I want everybody mixing with everybody and it just to be full on about dancing. That was the only description and synopsis we had and it just grew from there. Of course my choreographer, William Forsythe, the genius that he is just threw in 120 dancers. It was really incredible to walk into that warehouse and see that many dancers there supporting me.’

So is it a secret ambition for Webster to see herself vying for the tiara as one of pop’s newest princesses? ‘Of course it’s a secret ambition. I want to dominate the music world! But more than anything I just want to have fun. I think I’ve learnt a lot being in the media for so long and being able to take a step back. I’ve learnt to appreciate a lot of things and learnt now to take so many things for granted and not get pushed around either.

‘I don’t know any different,’ she continued. ‘It’s been my life. I’ve been involved in musical theatre and performing since I was five and obviously thrown into the limelight at the age of 13. It is my life and I don’t know any different and I think that’s why I’m so determined to make it work, because I can’t see myself sitting behind a desk. There’s highs, there’s lows. I’ve thought about not coming back quite a few times. It’s been a tough couple of years but I think I’m in a really positive place at the moment. And it’s good and I’m going to run with it as long as I can.’

Scott-Patrick Mitchell

Quick questions with Nikki Webster.

Favourite destination?
Denmark.

Favourite designer?
I’ve been wearing a lot of Master / Slave lately. They make a lot of one offs for me.

Who would your ‘lesbian love lock’ be with?
I think I would have to say that it’s a toss-up between Lady Gaga and Katy Perry.

Maybe both at the same time?
Why not! Let’s do a threesome I say.

Source: Out In Perth

NIKKI WEBSTER

How did you get your start in the music industry?
I guess I would have to say the Sydney 2000 Olympics Opening Ceremony.

Best part of the job?
Is that everyday is different. Getting to meet interesting people, and making music.

Worst part of the job?
The extreme highs and lows of the entertainment industry.

Any interesting experiences you can share?
Mmm, where do I start? I’ve been lucky enough to live a pretty exciting life and travel all around the world. One of the most interesting/fun experiences would have to be when me and my girlfriend party crashed an Oscars pre-party at Les Deux in LA last year. Once we got in and realised what party it was, we couldn’t stop laughing. We had the best night and by the end of the night, had all the pretentious LA people up on the dance floor!

Favourite CD of all time and why?
‘Rent The Musical Live Recording’ – Anytime I’m driving and feeling down, I pump up the volume and belt out the tracks to myself :)

Tell us about the best live show that you ever saw?
I think it would have to be a tie between the band “Five” (as I was in love with Scott from the band hahah) and Kylie’s show.

Favourite bars/clubs/pubs to hang out in?
Any thoughts?

What advice would you give to someone looking at getting involved in the music industry?
Always be true to yourself.

Take us through a typical “day in the life of Nikki Webster”.
It begins with answering numerous emails, dealing with the day to day running of my dance studio (Dance @ Nikki Webster), teaching my students singing, a few events, a little bit of singing, and ends with answering more emails.

Any news or final comments?
Well I think this is the point I get to give the shameless plug about my new single ‘Devilicious’ released on the 12th of June, haha! I’m really proud of this track. I had an amazing time writing it and the film clip was so much fun.

© Danny Canak

Source: SydneyUnleashed.com