Kate DeAraugo

Bendigo Victoria

Katherine "Kate" Jenna DeAraugo (November 5, 1985), is an Australian singer, and was the winner of the third season of Australian Idol in 2005. She was born to Portuguese migrants in Australia. 

Kate's DeAraugo debut single "Maybe Tonight" debuted at #1, staying in this spot for two weeks and was awarded platinum before third place winner Lee Harding interrupted her and knocked her off to #3 after his debut single "Wasabi/Eye of the Tiger" was released. The single stayed in the top 40 for thirteen weeks and the music video was extremely popular on Australian music video shows such as Video Hits and Rage. In September 2006, "Maybe Tonight" was nominated for an ARIA Award for "Highest Selling Single", but lost to "Flaunt It" by TV Rock.

DeAraugo joined three other Australian Idol contestants including Emily Williams, Ricki-Lee Coulter and Paulini Curuenavuli for a national tour. To promote the tour, the four released a cover of the Donna Summers hit classic "This Time I Know It's for Real" under the name Young Divas. This single was released on May 6, 2006 and proved to be a success debuting at #7 and peaking at #2, the single has gone platinum and been in the top 30 charts for twenty-two weeks. Originally a music video was not to be included but after much demand and the popularity of the single, a music video was released. They appeared on television shows such as Sunrise and the Australian version of Dancing with the Stars to also promote the single and tour. The Young Divas' tour has been extremely popular and more shows had to be added than originally planned.

Since the single and tour has been so popular, the Young Divas recorded an album of remakes of classics from around the world. Their self-titled album was released on 18 November 2006, and their second single is a cover of Lonnie Gordon's disco classic "Happenin' All over Again" which debuted at #12. Even though the Young Divas are releasing the album, it has been stated many times that they will also keep their solo careers and DeAraugo announced in Australian magazine Woman's Day that she is currently working on her second solo album. Young Divas album debuted at #4 on the Australian ARIA Charts. This is the highest album debut for DeAraugo.

DeAraugo also took part with the Young Divas to record a song called "2000 Miles" for the compilation album Home: Songs of Hope & Journey by various Australian artists to raise funds and bring attention to beyondblue, an Australian initiative against depression. For this campaign DeAraugo gained Honorary Membership of The Coterie in the 2007 membership list.

ARIA Success

Kate DeAraugo is the only female Australian Idol contestant to have every release chart within the ARIA Chart top 10. The next female to have similar success as this was Ricki-Lee, the only dissappointment was that her album only went top 30 and her single "Breathe" only went top 20, if these had have both gone top 10 she would be equal "Most successful female contestant". Both her debut album 'A Place I've Never Been' and the singles 'Maybe Tonight' and 'Faded' placed in the ARIA chart Top 10. This success has continued when Kate joined the Young Diva's with both the album and first two singles 'This Time I Know It's For Real' and 'Happening All Over Again' Top 10 hit's. Though the last song released by them only made the top 40. Despite this, there is criticism that she was not as successful as previous Idol contestants directly after winning the series, and her single sales are no where near those of Guy Sebastian and Shannon Noll.