Poor Natalie Gauci; we'd hoped - for her sake rather than for the sake of her whoopy R&B stylings - that she wouldn't fall prey to the curse of the female Australian Idol winners (i.e. sinking without a trace), but it looks like that's precisely what the fates have in store for her.

Her "album", The Winner's Journey (a rush-recorded comp of all the covers she performed on Idol) hasn't even made the top ten, offering a grim forecast for whenever Sony BMG deign to release her real debut album, which will hopefully have even more originals inspired by backpackers than her single's b-side.

Despite heavy promotion on one of the year’s most-watched programs, the souvenir CD The Winner's Journey only managed to make it to number 12 on the ARIA chart, with sales of of 11,489 units in its first week of release.

By comparison, last year’s winner Damien Leith sold 89,257 copies of his debut CD in its first full week on sale.

If that wasn't bad enough for The Gauch, Sony BMG have now confirmed that Dicko and Andrew G's "special announcement" that the label would only sign the winner was a total ruse, and in the most gobsmacking announcement since Miriam revealed she'd wasn't all woman, they've signed Matt Corby!

Meanwhile a Ten insider admitted Sony always had Matt in their sights. "You would think they would be silly not to sign him. He is definitely the marketable (of the final two)," the source said.

The label exercised its 30-day option on Matt, beating out a slew of other recording companies to wrap up the prettyboy from Cronulla who will ink his contract today and is expected to hit the studio as soon as possible.

Natalie should really start looking into those lucrative appearance deals at Twister, Discovery and Rooty Hill RSL real soon; we hear they're much nicer places to play than the cold, lifeless stadiums and arenas that Matt Corby will no doubt be mournfully dragging himself to, muttering all the way, "Do I haaaave toooo?"

 

Tags: au | australian idol | matt corby | natalie gauci