Australian Idol singer Drea Onamade hits back at trolls

Booted Idol contestant Drea Onamade, who has Nigerian and Jamaican heritage, fears “if who Australia is seeing doesn’t look like them, they’re not going to connect.”

Idol contestant Drea Onamade fears that “if who Australia is seeing doesn’t look like them, they’re not going to connect.”

The West Australian contestant and a judge’s favourite, who has Nigerian and Jamaican heritage, didn’t secure enough of the six millions votes cast this week to make it into the top 6.

The talented r&b and soul singer, who had been one of the top performers of the 2024 season, was saddled with a tough sing of Ariana Grande’s No Tears Left To Cry.

She said she’d hope her difference in sound and look would take her to the semis.
But social comments left her wondering “what I’m doing wrong” as her friends were forced to fight off trolls on her behalf.

Drea Onamade with Idol top 6 contestant Amy Reeves. Picture: Richard Dobson

“I experienced that first-hand quite severely, especially in the comments and stuff … and that really shook me a bit because I was like, I don’t know what I’m doing wrong,” she said.

“I started to take more notice about the comments, and it would be like on other people’s platforms and be like, ‘Oh, I don’t like this person because of this’ and a lot of my comments are just like, ‘I don’t like her’ without saying what they really wanted to say.

“And then somebody did say it and then they copped it from all my friends.”

Onamade was already working professionally before she went on Idol, performing more than 60 gigs in the past year including opening for the legendary Billy Ocean.

She went on Idol “as a step between where I’m at now and then going nationally” and will continue on working up her songs in readiness to release new material.

Idol contestant Kiani Smith is hoping she gets a recording deal out of Idol. Picture: Supplied

The finalists have a long wait before they can take their next steps. Sony automatically signs the winner, with options to pick up other finalists on the show.

But doing new artist signings can take months and the show’s singers have to wait until Sony releases them before they can pursue other deals.

Kiani Smith, the 17-year-old singer and songwriter from Bribie Island who was also booted out this week, is crossing everything “Sony reaches out.”

She said she had songs ready to go but couldn’t afford to spend $10,000 to hire a studio to record them to a professional standard.

“I’m definitely hoping that Sony will reach out to me because that’s kind of one of my main reasons going into this competition,” she said.

“So I’m really hoping for that. But otherwise, if that doesn’t happen, I’m still pursuing music. And I got a lot of other plans to keep at being a serious songwriter and get into a studio.”