Matt Gresham’s appearance on the ninth series of The Voice Australia in 2020 was charged with emotion. For two years before that, the Perth singer thought that his burgeoning music career was over following the post-traumatic stress disorder that he suffered because of a personal tragedy.
After the suicide of his best friend, Luke Liang, in August 2018, Gresham’s mental health went into freefall. For nine months he was unable to leave his house without having a panic attack, such was the effect of the trauma he had suffered. The promising music career that he had steadily built up after first finding international acclaim in 2014 with his song “Whiskey” was apparently over. But, in 2020, that all changed when Gresham bravely entered the Blind Auditions of The Voice Australia.
Gresham entered the competition with an emotional cover of “Bruises” by Lewis Capaldi. Three judges hit the buzzer for his performance, with Boy George the only judge not to. Delta Goodrem was so enamoured with Gresham’s voice that she even blocked rival judge Guy Sebastian from being able to mentor him. There was then a moment of drama as Sebastien dropped a bombshell.
Sebastian, clearly upset about the block, revealed that Gresham was actually “an old mate” of his. In fact, they had met when Sebastian was a judge on X Factor Australia. Gresham entered the competition in 2013, but dropped out mid-series as he was frustrated by the lack of creative freedom on the show. Knowing his friend’s potential, Sebastien had been desperate to mentor him. Goodrem could only apologise, but the block had to stand. Gresham then joined Team Delta for the competition.
Gresham battled Stellar Perry in the Battle stage with the Miley Cyrus song “Slide Away”. He was eliminated from this round, but was saved by Sebastian, whose team he then joined. In the Playoffs, Gresham sang Dean Lewis’s “Half a Man”. Finally, in the Showdown he performed his own 2018 track “Who Am I Now”. Having reached the final 20 of the competition, Gresham was then eliminated.
However, despite not winning, Gresham’s appearance on the show proved to be a massive boost for his career. Both the song “Who Am I Now” and the 2018 album by the same name trended in the charts, with the single reaching number 1 in the Australian Indie Chart and number 3 on the on the Australian Digital Sales Chart. His album, meanwhile, got to number 6 in the Australian Independent Record Labels Association charts.
Since then, Gresham has released two more singles with the songs “Hotel Floors” and “Let Your Light Out”. If you would like to see more from Matt Gresham, you can subscribe to his YouTube channel or follow him on Facebook.