NATHAN FOLEY ‘WHY I REALLY LEFT HI-5’
THE FORMER CHILD PERFORMER TURNED THE VOICE CONTESTANT OPENS UP ABOUT HIS MOST DIFFICULT DECISION
If anyone is familiar with the double take, it’s Nathan Foley. The 39-year-old singer is used to inquisitive stares in public after starring as a member of popular kids’ group Hi-5 from 1999 to 2008.
“Still to this day I get inundated with inbox messages on Instagram and my Facebook,” he tells New Idea.
Signed onto Hi-5 at the age of 18, Nathan says it was a difficult decision leaving the group which made him famous.
“It was a beautiful, beautiful job,” he says.
“I left Hi-5 because I just felt like it was my time. Ten years I put in – I put in all the hard yards.
“I got to the point where I was just like, you know what, I kind of missed doing my solo shows and having control of my own destiny.”
After departing Hi-5, Nathan appeared on Channel Ten’s reality series I Will Survive, hosted by Hugh Sheridan in 2012.
While he’s never stopped performing – spending much of the past 10 years aboard cruise ships, Nathan says he’s nervous to return to the public eye in Australia following his prior reality TV experience.
“I had all these fears,” he admits. “When I did I Will Survive, there was a bit of backlash online, saying, ‘Why is he doing this show? he’s loaded, he doesn’t need money.’
“But honestly, when you think about it... Hi-5 to the Wiggles, we were very different entities. The Wiggles owned their product, we were employees of Hi-5, so even though we were the front of it, they looked after us, but we weren’t the owners, so as soon as you finish, you don’t get paid anymore.”
Taking the blind audition stage this week, Nathan hopes The Voice will allow him to return to work in the music industry at home in Australia.
“Still gotta pay the bills,” he laughs.