Jai Waetford Australian Singer Born 1999 in Campbelltown

Early life

Jai Waetford was born on 25 January 1999 in Campbelltown, a suburb in the south-west of Sydney, New South Wales. He taught himself to play guitar by watching videos online. He attended Campbelltown Performing Arts High School and left in 2014 after completing Year 10; the records also list the Sydney Distance Education High School among his schools.

Career

Waetford came to public attention in 2013 on the fifth season of The X Factor Australia. He auditioned with Jes Hudak's "Different Worlds" and an original song, "Don't Let Me Go", and then worked through the show's super bootcamp stages, where his song choices included David Guetta's "Titanium" and Taylor Swift's "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together". He was placed in the Boys category, which was mentored by Ronan Keating, and sang Elvis Presley's version of "Always on My Mind" at the home visits stage. He reached the grand final, in which he was the last contestant to be eliminated. Taylor Henderson finished as runner-up and Dami Im won.

Soon after the series ended he signed a recording contract with Sony Music Australia. His first single, "Your Eyes", had been prepared as the winner's single and was released the same day. It reached number six on the ARIA Singles Chart and was certified gold. In late 2013 he took part in The X Factor Live Tour with other contestants from the season, and on 6 December 2013 he released a self-titled debut release that reached number 21 on the ARIA Albums Chart.

A second release, Get to Know You, came out on 28 March 2014, and its title track peaked at number 32 on the singles chart. In April 2014 he was the supporting act on Justice Crew's #HypeTour around Australia. He followed with a third release, Shy, which consisted of six cover versions and one single.

In February 2016 Waetford joined the cast of the Australian soap opera Neighbours as Angus Beaumont-Hannay, with his first episode airing on 2 May. That same month he put out the single "Living Not Dreaming", and on 3 June 2016 he released Heart Miles. Videos were made for both, along with a promotional film for the release. During May and June 2016 he travelled to cities in Europe, Indonesia and Thailand to promote the music. He also appeared as a support act on tours by Little Mix and Selena Gomez in 2016.

After a gap of about a year, he returned in October 2018 with the single "Lost in You". He followed it with "Get Over" and "Friends", the latter co-written with producer James Agnus. He described "Friends" as a song about the online and offline worlds colliding. He headlined the "Drunk Together" Tour in 2017 and the "Friends" Tour in 2019.

Waetford works mainly in pop. Besides singing, he plays guitar and writes his own songs, and he has named Justin Bieber, Bruno Mars, Guy Sebastian, Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley and Stevie Wonder as influences.