While most 17-year-old boys spend an average day slogging away at school or bunking off with their mates, baby-faced Australian singer Jai Waetford’s life is a little different.
Discovered at only 15 years old when he auditioned for The X Factor, it wasn’t long before Jai had dropped out of school and was on the road performing whenever and wherever he could.
These days it’s not uncommon for him to be jumping between the recording studio, meet and greets with his fans and spending time with his celebrity friends.
“It’s funny because it is amazing and I know it’s amazing but you kind of don’t think about that when it’s your life, it’s just what you do,” he tells Woman’s Day during a whistle-stop publicity tour in New Zealand.
“I can sit there and be there, ‘oh I had such a long day at work today,’ and someone will ask what I did an it’s like, ‘I jumped off the Sky Tower and went on a jet boat ride and did some interviews,’ which is all really fun!”
Check out our quick fire questions with Jai in the video above
Jai Waetford takes a selfie at the 2015 ARIA Awards in Australia. Photo: getty.
The Shy singers journey to stardom has seen him reach some amazing milestones, including performing in front of thousands of adoring fans.
“That’s always incredible, coming off stage and people have been singing your songs. I’ll never get sick of that feeling.”
“I love meeting my fans, I’m meeting some of them today actually. They normally say ‘oh my god, I love you’, and I say, ‘oh my god, I love you too!’ And I take thousands of selfies. You try and be happy all the time but when you’ve just come off a 15 hour flight and someone says, ‘I love you’, I’m like, ‘but what does that mean? Do you really?’”
For the past couple of months, Jai, and his mum Alana, have been based in LA, where the young star has been working on new material.
“I was in LA for like six months last year, we spend heaps of time there now. My mum travels everywhere with me and we just stay with friends, managers, Air BnB, hotels, we’ve been pretty lucky. I spent heaps of time in the studio, just pumping out songs.”
To read the full interview, including details about Jai’s new role on Neighbours and what he really thinks about all the Justin Beiber comparisons, check out our next issue.
The singer is set to star on hit TV show Neighbours. Photo: getty.
