AUSTRALIA – Jaguar Jonze won the jury vote but it’s Sheldon Riley won the public vote and with three points only took the ticket to Turin.

ABOUT SHELDON

Sheldon Riley Hernandez, who performs as Sheldon Riley, (born March 1999) is a Filipino-Australian singer and fashion model. He has competed in various TV talent shows, The X Factor Australia (2016), The Voice Australia (2018 finishing third, and 2019), and America’s Got Talent (2020).

Riley, as Sheldon Hernandez, took part in the eighth season of The X Factor Australia in 2016: initially as a solo artist for the “Under 22” category. He auditioned with “Circle of Life” and after being stopped prematurely, “Ordinary People” originally by John Legend. Judges were Guy Sebastian, Iggy Azalea, Adam Lambert and Mel B. He was sent home at the “Bootcamp” round by Lambert, the mentor of the Under 22s category. However, Azalea, the Groups category’s mentor brought Riley back when forming a four-piece boy band, Time and Place: he was joined by Sami Afuni, Matthew McNaught and Leon Kroeber. Azalea had nine bands in her category, Time and Place were selected as one of her top 3 for live shows, performing “You Don’t Know Love” by Olly Murs and “Ride” by Twenty One Pilots. They were eliminated at the first live show upon receiving the fewest public votes. As quadruple eliminations in that round, the members finished 9th to 12th overall.

THE JURY RESULTS

Two years later, in 2018, Riley was a contestant on the seventh series of The Voice Australia. He auditioned with “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me” turning all four-judge chairs (Delta Goodrem, Kelly Rowland, Boy George and Joe Jonas). He was mentored by George. In “The Knockouts” he performed “Believe” by Cher and in the “Battle rounds” he did “Diamonds” by Rihanna qualifying in both. In the live shows, he sang “Creep”, “Scars to Your Beautiful” and “Born This Way” always qualifying by winning the public vote. In the semi-final, he sang “Rise” by Katy Perry to reach the final where he performed “Young and Beautiful” by Lana del Rey and the Eurythmics’ hit “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” as a duet with his mentor Boy George, finishing third behind runner-up Bella Paige and winner Sam Perry.

COMBINED RESULTS

In the eighth series of the show, in June 2019, Riley returned as part of the All-Stars, artists who had appeared on previous seasons of the show, or on The X Factor Australia or Australia’s Got Talent. Riley auditioned with “Frozen” by Madonna, with both Sebastian and Goodrem turning their chairs. The other two judges, George and Rowland, had their teams full and were ineligible. Riley became part of the Delta team. In the next round, he sang “Call Out My Name” and “Praying” and was dropped by Delta in favour of team contestant Jordan Anthony. Riley was eliminated after the “Battle round” on 17 June 2019.

In July 2020 Riley auditioned for season 15 of America’s Got Talent. Dressed in an avant-garde black ensemble and concealing his face with a glittery chain mask, he sang Billie Eilish’s “idontwannabeyouanymore”. Judges Howie Mandel, Sofia Vergara and Simon Cowell all voted yes, sending him to the “Judge Cuts”. Heidi Klum was not present that day. He advanced to the quarter-finals though the verdict was not televised. Riley performed Kylie Minogue’s “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” via satellite from Luna Park in Sydney. He did not receive enough votes to advance to the semi-finals and was eliminated.

After the habitual releases of performances in The Voice, Riley released his own single “Fire” in 2018 based on his exposure in The Voice. After taking part in America’s Got Talent, he returned to Sydney releasing his single, “More Than I”. in collaboration with Australian producer Sam Sakr. He also released an accompanying music video. He is preparing an album based on a small book of notes he has kept.

CODEC News: