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Australian Singer Judah Kelly Wins An Oscar

Mary Varvaris

Judah Kelly was crowned the winner of 'The Voice Australia' in 2017.

Judah Kelly in 'The Singers'
Judah Kelly in 'The Singers'(Credit: Netflix/YouTube)

Judah Kelly, an Australian singer perhaps best known for winning The Voice Australia in 2017, has taken home an Academy Award.

Last year, Kelly starred in the American short musical comedy film, The Singers. The Sam A. Davis-directed film features a cast of characters found through viral videos and street casting. It follows 19th-century Russian novelist Ivan Turgenev’s story of the same name, showcasing an improvised singing competition by down-on-their-luck patrons in a pub.

The Singers premiered during the Narrative Short Competition at last year’s SXSW Film and TV Festival. Netflix acquired the film’s streaming rights in January, and it was released to a global audience last month.

At the 98th Academy Awards, which took place on Sunday, 15 March, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, and was shown to Australian audiences on Seven yesterday, The Singers tied with Two People Exchanging Saliva for the Best Live Action Short Film award. It marked only the seventh instance of two films receiving a tie in Oscars’ history.

Reacting to the news, Kelly shared a photo of himself and a member of The Dirty Rotten Vipers posing beside a life-size Academy Award. He captioned the post, “We don’t even know how to act! Our film just won an Oscar! IM GOING TO MOVIE WORLD or whatever they say.”

In a recent interview with Variety, Davis explained that the casting process for The Singers was “extremely unconventional.”

He would search for singers by typing in “small town karaoke legend” and “unexpected voice.” As the TikTok and Instagram algorithms changed, he discovered “interesting personalities from around the world who had unique and unexpected voices, but for whatever reason, had never really broken through, at least commercially.”

In the end, The Singers became a “love letter to underdogs”.

Recognised for his country-soul voice, Kelly won the 2017 season of The Voice Australia after receiving mentorship from his coach, Delta Goodrem. He followed up his win with the album Real Good Time in 2018, and in 2018 and 2019, he was nominated for New Artist of the Year at the Golden Guitar Awards.