John Farnham

John Peter Farnham (born 1 July 1949) is a British-born Australian singer. He was a teen pop idol, billed as Johnny Farnham from 1967 to 1979. Farnham subsequently forged a career as an adult contemporary singer. He mostly performed as a solo artist, although he replaced Glenn Shorrock as lead singer of Little River Band from 1982 to 1986. In November 1986, his solo single "You're the Voice" peaked at No. 1 on the Australian singles charts. The associated album, Whispering Jack, held the number-one position for a total of 25 weeks. Both the single and the album had international top-ten chart success, including the album at No. 6 in the United Kingdom and No. 1 in Sweden. Whispering Jack is the third-highest-selling album in Australian history and as of May 2023 remains the highest-selling album in Australia by any Australian artist. Farnham became one of his country's best-known and most popular performers and is the only Australian artist to have a number-one record (album or single) in six consecutive decades (echoing the achievement of Cliff Richard in the UK), with singles including "Sadie (The Cleaning Lady)" (1967), "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" (1970) and "Age of Reason" (1988) and albums Whispering Jack (1986), Age of Reason (1988), Chain Reaction (1990), Then Again... (1993), 33⅓ (2000), The Last Time (2002) and Two Strong Hearts Live (2015). He has toured with numerous artists, including the Seekers and international acts Stevie Nicks and Lionel Richie. He released collaborative albums with Tom Jones on Together In Concert (2005), Olivia Newton-John on Highlights from The Main Event (1998), Highlights from Two Strong Hearts (2015) and Friends for Christmas (2016). Farnham has been recognised by many honours and awards, including 1987 Australian of the Year, 1996 Officer of the Order of Australia, and 22 ARIA Music Awards, including his 2003 induction into their Hall of Fame. Starting in 1969, he was voted by TV Week readers as the 'King of Pop' for five consecutive years. Aside from his recording career, Farnham as an actor performed on stage with lead roles in Australian productions of Charlie Girl, Pippin and 1992's Jesus Christ Superstar. He starred in his own TV series and specials, including It's Magic (with Colleen Hewett), Bobby Dazzler, and Farnham and Byrne (with Debra Byrne), and as a guest on numerous other popular shows The Don Lane Show, Countdown and Hey Hey It's Saturday. In August 2022, a cancerous tumour was discovered in Farnham's mouth, which was removed in an operation involving jaw reconstruction. In May 2026 Farnham issued a statement, "because of the surgeries to my mouth and face over the past few years, singing on stage is not something I can consider again".

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