He was the runner up of the Australian Idol and on his journey he won the hearts of many girls around the country because of his good looks. He's the father of two, a farmer and comes from a little country town called Condobolin. He is....Shannon Noll! 

Shannon Neil Noll was born on 16th September, 1975 and raised in a small New South Wales country town called Condobolin, often called Condo. Before idol the 28-year-old worked as a wheat, sheep, oats and barley farmer on his farm. He is engaged to his long-time girlfriend Rochelle (it has been rumoured that these two are getting married in November of this year!) and they have two boys, Cody, 2, and Blake, eight months. They have been through one of the worst national droughts that has been recorded. The reason that he entered the competition was so that he could create a future for his family because with the way the farm had been going since his dad (who Shannon describes as his Idol and King) died two years ago (he had to rent part of it so he could feed his family) it didn't look like they had much of a future.

Shannon is a bit of a clown and loves to make everyone laugh and says that he has been having a blast during the Australian Idol competition. The worrying about whether or not you're gonna get through gets pretty intense sometimes and he often lightens things up by giving everyone a few laughs.

He says he has no airs or graces and can't stand arrogance. He reckons that if anything good comes out of the Idol experience he's gonna increase his motorbike collection by buying a couple of new ones (recently he was given a Honda motorbike to ride for 12 months by Honda in exchange for advertising there stuff!) before getting a house with a pool and tennis court!

For about three years now Shannon has been in a cover rock band called Cyprus with his brothers Adam and Damian as the lead singer and he loves it. There are five members in total and they play at large country towns around NSW and he reckons one of the stupidest/worst decisions he made was not trying to start a music career ages ago but he's definitely making up for that now!

Because of being in a band he says that he prefers live audiences to cameras. The reactions of the audience tends to give him confidence. He loves showing off on stage but reckons he actually not that good a dancer. He thinks he needs to get someone to give him a few pointers!

If Shannon hadn't got into Idol, he might even had tried his hand as a pro footballer, cos he's pretty good on the field! Good thing he didn't, I think I prefer him as a singer!

When Shannon was a kid he spent most of his time on motorbikes chasing his brothers around but despite many accidents he's never actually broken any bones. To get to school he and his brothers used to have to travel on a school bus for over an hour each way. But the kids never got bored, singing and creating plenty of mayhem. It was a typical country lifestyle.

The school that Shannon attended had only eighty kids in the entire school with Shannon in a class of seven! Shannon and his mates were on every sporting team whether it was basketball, footy, tennis, volleyball or swimming. Shannon would volunteer for any sport just to get out of school!

When he’s not toiling away at the land, Shannon spends his time with either his family or playing golf, which he’s recently started. His attitude in life is basically to treat people well and to treat them as you would have them treat you. He says that he'd like to have a career in music but "...at the end of the day I'd love to live on the farm - just without the money worries."

And get a career he did! BMG signed him up and his single "What About Me" is due to be released on January 26th (Australia Day) and I personally can't wait! His debut album "That's What I'm Talking About" is coming out on February the 8th which includes his single and a bonus limited edition disc with his version of Angels Brought Me Here and With Or Without You.

Of his album Shannon says "They are all songs from all over the place. There is one from Nashville, one from New York, a couple from London and Bryan Adams wrote one. It is a pretty good mix on there I reckon." He even wrote one of the songs on their "The Way That I Feel" with his brother Damien.

Recently he also packed up his family and moved to Sydney. "With all of the work down here in Sydney it was just way too hard to not be here," Shannon says. "If I end up buying a house here with a decent yard I am going to chuck some chooks in there - that's for sure. At least then I will be able to go outside and collect the eggs and feel a bit like I am on the farm. But it is unlikely that he will ever return to the farm permanently.

Like the other contestants Shannon was part of the Australian Idol Tour. To see what songs he sang check out the 'Songs Shannon Sang On Australian Idol' link. He has also made other public appearances including promotion for his album, Celebrate! Australia Day Live and the Allan Border Medal presentation.

Songs Shannon Sang On Australian Idol