Stan Walker

The New Zealand-raised R&B auteur of Māori descent Stan Walker (born on 23 October 1990 in Melbourne, Australia) has been enchanting Antipodean audiences with his soulful pop since 2009. That year, he reached the summit of Australian Idol, scored a deal with Sony Music Australia, and released a chart-topping single, “Black Box.” The hit song peaked at Number 2 in Australia and went double platinum in both New Zealand and Australia. “Black Box” was co-written by UK hitmaker Wayne Hector, well known for his work with Westlife, and was featured on Stan Walker’s debut studio album, Introducing Stan Walker, which contained several songs he had performed on Australian Idol. His second studio album, From the Inside Out, was released in August 2010, topping the charts in New Zealand. The LP featured popular singles "Unbroken," "Choose You," and "Homesick." He went on to release studio albums at a consistent rate, including 2013's Inventing Myself, 2015’s Truth & Soul, and paying tribute to his late grandmother on 2021 offering Te Arohanui, also taking in a pair of EPs along the way: 2018’s celebratory Stan, written following his recovery from cancer, and 2019’s Faith Hope Love. He has also since notched up a cache of solo singles and collaborative works, releasing his 2020 single "Bigger/Tua" in both English and te reo Māori. He is now the owner of five New Zealand Music Awards, five ARIA Music Award nominations, and has won the Waiata Māori Award for Radio Airplay Record of the Year five times. Stan Walker released his seventh studio album, All In, via Sony Music New Zealand in 2022 and in 2023, shared the "I Am" single for Ava DuVernay's 2023 biographical drama film Origin, based on Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson.