With a top five placement and a Karaoke World Champion under our belts, we were ready to take on the world again!

The search to find Australia’s next Karaoke World Champion began in venues around Australia in February, 2007. Nearly 60 venues took part in this exciting event. Eventually, the talent pool was narrowed down to seven singers for the Grand Final.

The final was again held in the showroom at Twin Towns Services Club on Saturday, 4th August, 2007. The atmostphere was electric as singers from Qld took to the stage for the Qld State Final moments before the Grand Final. After several hours, the judges had made their decision. Julie Walter-Sgro, an Operations Manager for a coffee house who had entered the competition by chance during the last few days of her honeymoon, was to be our new Australian Karaoke World Champion. Within four weeks, Julie was on her way to Thailand.

After narrowing down her reportoire to just five songs, disaster struck a week before she was due to leave when she broke several bones in one of her feet. Julie was insistant that her injury was not going to stand in the way.

She threw her crutches away and flew to Melbourne to appear and perform live in the studio on Channel 10′s 9am with David & Kim hours before her departure to Thailand. A quick trip home to collect her bags and Julie was on her way to make Karaoke World Championships history.

The Thailand finals took place in the Suan Lum Bangkok Night Bazzaar – a shopping mecca for tourists and and audience of thousands for the singers. Julie shone through in her first four elimination rounds to make it through to the top five. Eventually she separated herself from the group and went on to collect first prize. Australia had done it again. Two world champions in a row!

Reigning Karaoke World Champion, Australia’s own Mark Wilson, was also in Thailand to hand over his crown to the new male champion, Malaysia’s Kelvin Lu Hee Wah.

Monday morning saw Julie and KWC organiser, Kate Kelly, up early and off to a television studio for a live satellite broadcast from Bangkok to Channel 7′s, ‘The Morning Show’ with Larry Emdur and Kylie Gillies in Sydney.

The rest of the day included phone interviews with newspapers and radio stations around the country including Triple J with Robbie Buck.

After a few days rest in Bangkok, Julie was winging her way back to Australia for a studio appearance on the ‘Morning Show’.

As the reigning champion, Julie flew to Finland in October, 2008 to perform as a special guest artist and hand over her crown.

Julie’s advice to the future KWC Champions and competitors
It’s about enjoying music more than anything else…more than money, stardom or exposure – if you do not love your music, you’ve lost the reason why you might sing in the first place.