Still Rockin' It - Cheryl Lee
Join Cheryl Lee That Radio Chick on Still Rockin' It for news, reviews and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musicians.
What are they up to at the moment? Let's find out .......
Still Rockin' It - Cheryl Lee
What has Jordan Anthony been up to lately? OR Reality TV didn't break him, it booked his flight to Los Angeles
Join Cheryl Lee - That Radio Chick on STILL ROCKIN' IT for news, reviews, music and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musicians
A seven-year-old writes a song to survive the schoolyard, and that melody becomes a map. We sit down with Jordan Anthony to trace the line from first piano lessons in Perth to The Voice at fourteen, to a last-minute airport call that sent him to Junior Eurovision, and finally to an American Idol audition that reshaped his future. It’s a story about momentum, but more than that, it’s about the mindset that lets momentum become mastery.
Jordan opens up about how reality TV can be a catalyst if you define your why, how standing beside world-class vocalists forced a leap in technique, and how a bout of illness before an international final turned into a lesson in grit. We unpack the call from producer Paul Clarke, the backstage talk with his dad, and what it felt like to step onto a world stage with an original song, “We Will Rise.” Then we fast-forward to LA: producer calls at 1am, an audition in Katy Perry’s hometown, collaborations with Ajii on “Cherry,” and the quiet daily work that turns attention into a career.
At the heart of the conversation is “Hurt Me Sooner,” Jordan’s new single shaped by his first breakup. He takes us inside the lyric—those intrusive thoughts after love ends, the reflex to label time as wasted, and the steadier truth that growth needs friction.
You’ll hear how influences like Adele, Sam Smith, Lewis Capaldi, and Ed Sheeran inform his tone without swallowing his identity, and why this track finally feels like him.
Between sessions and shows, he stays grounded with soccer runs, FIFA, and family FaceTimes, and shares plans to reset at home before the next surge.
If you’re chasing a creative dream, this one brings practical insight and real heart: use pain as material, treat opportunities like training, and build a support system that keeps you human.
Stream the full conversation, share it with a friend who needs a nudge, and leave a review to help more listeners find stories like this.
What has Jordan Anthony been up to lately? Let's find out!
Get out when you can, support local music and I'll see you down the front!!
Visit: ThatRadioChick.com.au
Welcome to the Still Rockin' It podcast where we will have news review and interviews from Australian artists. All the way, actually, from LA. Jordan Anthony. Yay. Thanks for joining us.
Jordan Anthony:Hello. Thanks for having me, Cheryl. I appreciate it. I'm very excited to talk to you.
Cheryl Lee:We've done a good job coordinating the time zones. We might go back a little bit before we go forward. You grew up in Perth. Mum and Dad enrolled you in piano lessons at the very young age of five.
Jordan Anthony:They did indeed. And you know, they they always said, um, growing up, they were like, you'll thank us one day for for doing this. And you know, now, you know, now that I'm 20 and it's kind of what I do for a living, playing piano and singing and writing songs, I do thank them. Yeah, they pulled me into lessons super duper early. And yeah, here we are playing piano for for a living. So it went.
Cheryl Lee:They had good foresight.
Jordan Anthony:Yep, kids. That's the message. They had good foresight, that's for sure.
Cheryl Lee:Just a couple of years later, at age seven, you wrote your very first song.
Jordan Anthony:I did indeed. Yeah. I um I had a I had a tough time at school growing up. I was always the bigger kid when I was at school and growing up. The fat kid that sings, I guess, was, you know, kind of a bit of a target for bullies in the playground. But for me, I wasn't a kid that really expressed their emotions much. For me, songwriting was was my way of doing that. Yeah, when I was seven, I wrote I wrote my very first song. I'll never forget, you know, when I wrote that song and it was called Wait, and it was about me getting bullied and stuff like that. But that's kind of how it all began. And after I wrote that first song, I was like, this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. And haven't really looked back since.
Cheryl Lee:It's a great message in that song. Music is so therapeutic as well. And writing that song obviously helped you through a little bit of a tough time.
Jordan Anthony:Absolutely, and still does now. That's kind of what music does for me, and I'm sure like a lot of other people. It really, it's an escape from everything, and it's kind of it's so healing writing about situations and then hoping that those songs resonate with with someone out there. That's that's all I really want.
Cheryl Lee:Absolutely. Just seven years later, in 2019, you stepped into the spotlight, top four finalist in the voice. You hear good and bad, but how was your experience on that reality show?
Jordan Anthony:Honestly, I don't have a bad word to say, to be honest. I think the key thing is when it comes to reality TV shows, especially singing shows, is just your mentality going into it. You know, I was going in there as a little hungry 14-year-old, didn't know anything else but singing, and and just knew that I wanted to pursue it as a career. And mum and dad were like, You should go on the voice. And I was like, All right.
Cheryl Lee:Was Mum and Dad's idea?
Jordan Anthony:It actually was. Yep, it was their idea.
Cheryl Lee:See, listen to your parents.
Jordan Anthony:I feel like this is the underlying message right now, really. They've done a pretty good job. So yeah, and I went into it with little expectations and ended up turning a chair, and I was on Team Delta, ended up making it all the way to the top four, the grand finale, and you know, I didn't win it, but it was such a blessing to be on that show. And having an experience like that at a really young age, it can either be very positive or very detrimental. And I was super lucky that it was the prior. It was amazing, and it really set me up for a lot of other stuff that I've done.
Cheryl Lee:So 14 is so, so young. I'm glad that you had a great positive experience from it. You probably learned, you know, your learning curve would have been off the chart.
Jordan Anthony:Yeah, it was. I was surrounded by so many incredible singers, and 14 is such a malleable age. So for that reason, I feel like I was learning a lot about my own voice and getting better and how to have better runs and how to look after my voice better. And yeah, I learned so much through that experience. It was really cool.
Cheryl Lee:That was a big year for you, Jordan, because you also, congratulations, represented Australia at the Junior Euros and Song Contest and with an original, no less.
Jordan Anthony:I did, yeah, it was amazing. I actually remember I was sitting at the airport, it was the day after the voice grand finale, and I was sitting at the airport waiting to board my flight back to Perth, back home, and it was Paul Clark, and Paul is responsible for all of the Australian representatives for junior Eurovision and Eurovision. He was like, Hi, Jordan, we have, you know, we've heard so much about you and we've watched your journey on the voice. And I'm not sure if you heard of junior Eurovision, but we would love for you to represent Australia this year in Poland. And I was like, wow, okay. Like I I'd grown up watching Eurovision and loving it, and I feel like that's like one of the most prestigious stages to perform on representing your country. It's like singing Olympics, you know. It was super special. So that November, after the voice, I went on and my original song that I wrote, We Will Rise, I got to sing that on the world stage. So yeah, it was it was it was special, it was really cool.
Cheryl Lee:Finishing eighth internationally, that is amazing at such a young age as well.
Jordan Anthony:Thank you. Yeah, it was it was really cool. It was uh it was so fun, and I have friends all over the world now because of that experience.
Cheryl Lee:So yeah, it was really and I bet lots of good lessons learned there as well.
Jordan Anthony:Totally. I actually got funnily enough really sick before the final performance, and there was a moment there where I was backstage and I wasn't sure if I was gonna be able to perform, you know. And I it me and my dad had a talk in the green room, and he was like, you know, you can pull out or you can go up there and just leave it. Give it your best shot. Right, and get on a plane tomorrow knowing that that you did it. And so I did and ended up placing eighth, and that was an amazing, an amazing experience. It was bet.
Cheryl Lee:Congratulations. Five short years later, still so young, you were invited to compete on American Idol, and that's why we're speaking to you now from LA.
Jordan Anthony:Yep, absolutely. I it was so funny because the time I got asked to do American Idol was a similar time that Australian Idol was doing their casting. And I was like, you know, I think I'm done with the Aussie reality TV shows now. I think it's time for me to just grind and release music and build a fan base and an audience. And so Mum sends me a screenshot of this email. I just skimmed over it and read American as Australian. I was like, Mom, like we spoke about this, like I'm not doing Australian Idol or anything. And she was like, Did you actually read it? And I reread it and it was like American Idol. And I was like, wow, okay, this is kind of a different cup of tea now because the following on for these American TV shows are just insane. And America is where I wanted to pursue music for the forever. So it felt like the right fit. And I I hopped on a call with them the next week. The producers sang them a couple songs. It was 1 a.m. Australian time, like Perth time, because of the time difference. And I'm and I'm like, wake up, sing for these producers, and they're like, Can you be here next week to audition for the judges in Katy Perry's hometown? And I was like, Yup. Mom was like pinching me on the side, she was like, and I was like, let's do it. And so, yeah, had the American Idol experience, and that's kind of what led me to being able to now pursue it in in the States in LA full time. So it's really cool.
Cheryl Lee:Damn, good on you, mum. You've collaborated, haven't you, with one of your fellow idol friends. How do I pronounce their name? Ajii?
Jordan Anthony:RG, yes.
Cheryl Lee:Ajji!
Jordan Anthony:Yep, that's him. So we yeah, after American Idol, we collaborated on a song Cherry Together. Yeah, it was so much fun. I mean, Archie's just one of the best humans. He's such a great guy, and it was a very different kind of song for me, that one. But it's one that I'm really, you know, I'm proud of, and I love that song, and I'm I'm happy that we got to kind of share that together. So yeah, it's a good one for sure.
Cheryl Lee:So you had a couple of pretty powerful singles that follow, Reckless and Tell Me. That I think brings us to Hurt Me Sooner, this new one. So this one's got a little bit of a message too, hasn't it?
Jordan Anthony:Yeah, I wrote this one last year after American Idol, and you know, it was funny because throughout the whole American Idol experience, I was going through a breakup at the same time, which which kind of happened, like coinciding with that, uh, which is really hard. And it was my first relationship. So I I had never experienced that before. But the breakups tend to result in some good songs sometimes, which is a positive takeaway, I guess. Yeah, I kind of wrote Hurt Me Sooner about that feeling that I had immediately after the breakup of like that kind of intrusive thought of you thinking that you wasted your time and and wanting to have it back. And obviously, now upon reflection, everything happens for a reason and it's all a learning curve and you learn so much. But yeah, I wrote Hurt Me Sooner about that kind of initial feeling after the breakup of like, wow, I've I wasted all this time, you know, why why did I do that? Even though that, you know, is it isn't always necessarily the case, but it's definitely a really special song for me. It's a very vulnerable song, I feel like, and one that I hope someone out there relates to. I'm really excited about this one. And I feel like just sound-wise, it just feels like me, and which is cool, and it's taken me a while to get to that point.
Cheryl Lee:So it's a really lovely song, and we'll play that. I feel like, as with all those musical-related experiences that have brought you to where you are at the moment, it's the same with love. These experiences are going to eventually bring you to the love of your life.
Jordan Anthony:Totally. Yeah, totally. It was hard to see it in that moment, but you're 100% right. It always leading you to the one. So, yeah.
Cheryl Lee:Like you said, you got a great song out of it on the way as well.
Jordan Anthony:Absolutely, you gotta take the wind, you know? I'll take it.
Cheryl Lee:Yeah, exactly right. Was it the long distance that was the tricky part?
Jordan Anthony:Yeah, there was a lot of factors that kind of contributed to it. Yeah, American Idol and the prospect of me moving to the States definitely put a lot of strain on the relationship. And you know, there were some other things that happening, it just kind of wasn't working like it did, you know. Ultimately, I think it I think it was for the best. And in hindsight, really allowed me to focus on that experience of American Idol and now pursuing my craft full time out there. So meant it to be, yeah, and it's all part of growing up, absolutely, it it is, and yeah, I learned a lot from from that relationship and from the heartbreak and whatnot. So yeah, just let us hear.
Cheryl Lee:So, you know, exactly, it's all good. The artist that inspired you, Jordan. Yeah, you've got Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith, Bruno Mann, some of the obvious ones, but Adele is in there.
Jordan Anthony:I mean, yeah, Adele, Louis Capaldi as well, especially was a big inspiration for this song in particular. But I mean, those are the guys that I just grew up idolizing, you know. Adele and Ed Sheeran were my first ever concerts. I remember that so vividly, and I just grew up loving them as artists. I think especially Ed, he he makes being an artist feel possible because he's just such an ordinary guy. I just I just love all of those artists and I look up to them all when I'm making the music and just sonically and sound-wise, they're definitely some of the ones that I look up to the most.
Cheryl Lee:It just seems so approachable and normal.
Jordan Anthony:Totally. And I think that's why people love him, is because he's just very human. He has that just human feel about him, which is so nice. Love it.
Cheryl Lee:Just aside from music for a moment, you love sushi, PlayStation, Beach Days, and soccer. Are you getting much of an opportunity to play soccer over there in LA?
Jordan Anthony:I actually have played a couple times. There's some like casual kind of pickup games. So I've played a couple times. I get my fix when I need to. And then, you know, if I can't actually play, I'll play FIFA on PlayStation. That's probably the less healthy version of playing soccer, but you know, I play soccer nonetheless. But yeah, it's always good having a run around and playing soccer. Like I grew up playing soccer with all my cousins and everyone, so it's still such an important like part of my life. Yeah, for sure. I get my fix when I need to, you know.
Cheryl Lee:Good. Are you in LA on your own or is there any other family members with you, Jordan?
Jordan Anthony:It's just me, flying solo. You know, it's it has its days, it's it's tough sometimes, and I'm so fortunate to have a family that just backs me one million percent. And you know, arguably sometimes it makes it harder because I miss them so much and love them so much, but they are really like they champion me every day, and I wouldn't be out here without them. So yeah, very lucky to have such an amazing support system. But it's hard. I'm coming home soon though, at the end of November. So I'm excited to get some home time and reset.
Cheryl Lee:Stay for Christmas, yeah.
Jordan Anthony:Yep, so I'll be home for my birthday and Christmas and then new year, and then yeah, just reset, get my family fix and get fired up for 2026 and whatever that has to do. Which is crazy though. Absolutely, yep. That's the plan.
Cheryl Lee:At least we have the technology so you zoom FaceTime, so you can catch up with all the release on the internet.
Jordan Anthony:Yes, all that good stuff, you know, get the FaceTime with everyone and yeah, show face. So it's it's it's good.
Cheryl Lee:Would you like to say hi mum and dad? I'll see you soon, and then introduce your new song for us.
Jordan Anthony:Sure. Hi, Mum and Dad, and whoever else is watching, thank you all for watching. Make sure you, you know, follow along, Jordan Anthony, on social media. And this is my new song, Hurt Me Sooner, and I hope you love it.
Cheryl Lee:Thank you so much for that and for some spending of some of your busy day with us. We'll let you go write another hit song.
Jordan Anthony:Absolutely. I I will try. Thank you for your time. I appreciate it. It was so lovely to meet you.
Cheryl Lee:It's a pleasure. I'll see you down the front when you're performing in Australia next.
Jordan Anthony:We're working on a tour, so stay tuned. Yeah.
Cheryl Lee:Excellent. You heard that first here.
Jordan Anthony:Absolutely.
Cheryl Lee:All the best musically, and uh, you're such a lovely young man to speak to. We wish you all the success in the world.
Jordan Anthony:Thank you. That means the world. So nice to speak to you, Cheryl. Have a good day.
Cheryl Lee:Thanks you too, Jordan. Bye for now.. You're with Cheryl Lee, that radio chick. Thank you so much for joining me on the Still Rockin' It podcast. Hope to catch you again next time. Get out when you can, support Aussie music, and I'll see you down the front.