Every Australian remembers where they were that night in 2003, when 22-year-old Guy Sebastian, afro, falsetto and all, won the very first season of Australian Idol.

It was a landmark moment for Aussie pop culture and catapulted him into a career that’s seen him become one of the country’s most beloved musical figures. Over twenty years on, he’s getting ready to release 100 Times Around The Sun into the world. It’s a soulful, heartfelt and joy-filled record that shows he’s still evolving, experimenting, and very much enjoying the ride.

100 Times Around The Sun is a labour of love, over four years in the making, and you can tell: it’s full of passion and sincerity. From dreamy writing camps in Bali to sessions in Nashville and LA, and finally recorded and finished in his home studio in Sydney, it’s been a global journey.

Sitting on the tracks for so long allowed him time to perfect them, but there’s a fine balance between perfection and overthinking.

“You stew over the silliest little things… There were two or three weeks where I was trying to think of this line for a song called Cupid,” Sebastian explains. “There was one line. And then I woke up one day and I went, ‘Ah, his empty quiver won't deliver love for me this time…’ But, you know, it got to a point where I ended up having to just go, ‘Okay, dude, you got to release it now.’ Like, that's way too long. And I'm stoked with it.”

While the record bursts with warmth and optimism, Sebastian doesn’t shy away from heartbreak, an interesting perspective from someone who has been happily married for years—but not all of the stories come from personal experience.

“Sometimes it is just someone very close to me that might be going through something that's really heartbreaking,” he says. “Sometimes, someone will say something and it's a way I've never heard, like when a friend of yours is going through something and you've never heard grief or heartbreak articulated in that way.

“And often, I will write a song and people think it's from a certain perspective, but it's not. So they might think it's from a love perspective, but it actually might be from a relationship breakdown with a family member. But then even then, there's a couple that I changed slightly to be not so specific, because I wanted people to feel like it can be anything."

One of the album’s standout moments is the single Antidote, featuring Aussie singer Sam Fischer. On what drew him to work with Fischer, Sebastian reveals, “Sam, his voice is just amazing. I've always wanted to sing with him. So, on a selfish level, I just love his voice. His voice is so great. On a friendship level, he's an amazing guy. Like, he's just a really good dude.”

The song’s inspiration came from an unlikely source: Sebastian’s drummer’s wedding speech. “He said, ‘Oh, you're just the antidote to all of my problems.’ And I thought, oh, that's such a beautiful thing to say to another human being. And so I went home that night and ended up writing that chorus. And then Sam came over, played it, and he was like, 'I love it.’ He started fleshing out some verses, and we wrote the song together.”

Another unexpected standout on the record is See You There, featuring the insanely talented, LA-based singer-songwriter Riley Biederer.

“Riley sang the demo. She's an artist as well, but she sang the demo. Now, when you hear her sing that song, you try to replace her with someone else. Yeah, I couldn't think of someone else who was going to do that.

:I just kept going through people who might be like an Aussie feature or someone a bit more directly related to me, or someone I've met or just someone that was going to make a bit more sense because I don't know Riley very well, and she’s an indie artist in America. There's no other tie except that she's supposed to sing this song. There's no one else that can sing it. She wrote it.”

Despite the flawless results, Sebastian admits that there were a few bumps along the way, with the titular track being one of the more difficult to get down. “I didn't know whether to modernise it more and make it a little harder, more house and more electronic.” With the help of LA-based Aussie producer Tushar and strings extraordinaire Xander, the track found its balance between emotional depth and sonic exploration.

Then there’s Cupid, which sees Sebastian take a more playful, analogical route. “I just did a bunch of different versions,” he begins.

“I went really down the electronic route of just a lot of little twinkly, arpeggiated synths and stuff, because I wanted it to feel heavenly and mystical, because the concept is very analogy-based. ‘Cupid, you had one job, you clown, not this person! And this person has ended up causing me hell!’ So, it's not the most serious song; it’s a fun, analogy-based love song of just a relationship gone wrong.

“I felt like I had a bit of real estate to just play around with it a bit. But then when I dived into it, I realised that I needed to be a lot about playing as well. So, that one was fun. I played everything on that record, except for bass. I played everything else on the record—drums and guitars and piano, and then just my bass player came in at the end and killed it. So, it was that one I had a lot of fun making, but when it started out, it was way more electronic.”

Ultimately, what Sebastian wants people to feel when they listen to 100 Times Around The Sun is a sense of joy.

“I originally wanted to call the album Feels And Feels Good. Because I thought, there's not many in-betweens… The Keys and Strangers are my two favourite ballads- so it either hits you in the feels or it's kind of got a feel-good vibe to it. And so I think that's what I wanted people to feel.”

He continues, “You know, I didn't want to get super preachy about philosophy or life or my lessons I've learned in the last five years. I wanted to get back to just enjoying life and talking about the importance of just having your crew, having that inner circle that you want to do 100 times around the sun with. And that's what the album is about. It's really just about that circle.”

Reflecting on that surreal Idol win all those years ago, Sebastian admits he never thought his career would turn out the way it has.

“I didn't think any of it was possible,” he admits. “I was like a weird-looking kid from Adelaide. I grew up in Salisbury East, you know, there wasn't a lot happening in Salisbury… And so I think everything that's happened has just been a bonus… I didn't know Idol would make it to TV when I tried it.

“I thought it was just a pilot, and hopefully it'll be received or it'll make TV or something. I genuinely didn't know what it was. And then it became the biggest TV show at the time, and so it was massive. It's a very honest reality TV show cause it was the first one and we didn't know what to expect. Didn't know we'd get signed, didn't know we'd have a record deal. Suddenly, I'm sitting there in track pants, meeting John Howard with Shannon from Condo and Pete the pig farmer. It's so random.”

Two decades into his career, Sebastian is clearly at peace with where he’s landed. While 100 Times Around The Sun marks his tenth studio album, it feels like a fresh chapter: honest, vibrant and grounded.

There’s certainly no denying the impact he has had on Australians music over the last twenty-plus years, but when it comes to his legacy, he shares, “What you consider the legacy you want to leave slowly evolves as you get older, cause what you think is really important to leave isn't as important as some other things that you realise as you get older.

“I just want to get to the end of all of this and know that I never lost me, I never traded me in for anyone or anything else… I don't wanna change and think that I'm something greater than I am or something greater than other people or whatever. That's how I wanna finish. Also, I want to be fat—just eating fried chicken and waffles, that’s how I want to end this thing [laughs]. Old but fat and happy, just drinking scotch and full-fat Coke—no Coke Zero—and just finger buns and meat pies.”

To celebrate the release, Sebastian will be embarking on a massive Australian tour where concert-goers will be treated to the live debuts of many new songs, as well as some older deep-cuts.

He reveals, “There's a few songs that I've written where I'm like, ‘Oh, that one! I don't think I've ever given enough time to that; I haven't performed that one live enough.’ But I know there's some fan favourites as well, that I've never really done live. So I'm going to grab a couple from previous albums. And then obviously there's songs that most people want to hear when they come to one of my shows.”

Guy Sebastian has never strayed far from the qualities that first won over Australia: genuine warmth, vocal brilliance and an unwavering sense of self.

100 Times Around The Sun is a celebration of where he’s been and a clear-eyed, soulful statement of where he is now. It’s the perfect example of how music, at its best, brings people together, tells the stories we sometimes can’t put into words and helps us dance (or cry) through it all. With this record, Sebastian is simply making music that feels good, from a place of honesty, joy and love, and in doing so, he continues to prove exactly why he’s still one of Australia’s most enduring and beloved voices.

100 Times Around The Sun will be released via Sony Music Entertainment Australia this Friday, 8 August. You can pre-order/pre-save the album and secure tickets to Sebastian’s 2026 Australian tour here.