Hot on the heels of Kylie’s big 4-0 earlier this week, Jason Donovan also turns 40 today!
And while most of the focus tends to be on his former Neighbours co-star and duet buddy, with four UK number one singles, more than two million album sales, and a successful stage career… there’s no denying Jason Donovan’s success as an artist in his own right.
In the late ’80s and early ’90s, JD was a major part of the PWL recording empire, affording the songwriting super-team of Stock Aitken Waterman major chart successes along with the likes of Kylie, Bananarama, Mel & Kim and Rick Astley.
From the classic “Too Many Broken Hearts” to the duet to end all duets “Especially For You”, from “When You Come Back To Me” to “Rhythm Of The Rain” and “RSVP”, Jason experienced 16 consecutive top 30 hits from 1988 to 1992 and two huge UK albums, “Ten Good Reasons” and “Between The Lines”.
More recently, in Australia, we had the Virgin Mobile ads, we’ve seen his autobiography “Between The Lines” released and have been well informed of his voicing of the character “Buzz” for the Playstation2 game of the same name.
Meanwhile in the UK, Jason has been experiencing somewhat of a pOp resurgence, since his third-place finish in the 2006 series of “I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here”. But what we in Australia have not really been privy to is that he’s been recording new material and has been doing a series of live performances throughout the UK, one of which was recorded and released on DVD in November last year (“All The Hits And More” cover art above left).
An ongoing role in the ITV series Echo Beach and a rumoured 2008 album release, and it seems Jason’s career is once again in resurgence.
Let’s have a lookback at FOUR golden pOp nuggets in celebration of Jase’s big b-day;
Happy Birthday JD!
Australia's first stop for pop!