Dan Sultan
Dan Sultan is an Australian singer and songwriter. Sultan plays what he calls "country soul rock‘n’roll". Daniel Leo Sultan was born in 1983 and grew up in the inner suburbs of Melbourne. His father was Irish and his mother, Roslyn Sultan, was Aboriginal from the Arrernte and Gurindji people. Sultan's father, a lawyer, worked for the Aboriginal Legal Service and as a result the family also lived in Yuendumu (300 kilometres north-west of Alice Springs) in the Tanami Desert, as well as Cairns in Queensland. He started playing guitar aged four and wrote his first song at ten. With Scott Wilson he has released an album called Homemade Biscuits with the help of John Butler’s Seed program. Sultan won the Single Release of The Year at the 2007 Deadly Awards for his song "Your Love is Like a Song". His second album, Get Out While You Can, was released in November 2009. It reached #1 on the independent Australian charts and was a Triple J feature album. His band is made up of Wilson (vocals and guitar), Joshua Jones (bass), Peter Marin (drums), Gina Woods (keyboards), Steven Veale (horns) and Ben Veale (horns). Sultan made his screen debut in the 2009 film Bran Nue Dae, together with Geoffrey Rush, Missy Higgins and Jessica Mauboy. Sultan and his band have performed at most major Australian music festivals. Paul Kelly invited Sultan and Wilson to contribute to the Kev Carmody tribute album, Cannot Buy My Soul, as well as the concert of the same name at the Sydney Festival 2008 and Queensland Music Festival 2009. Sultan is a member of The Black Arm Band, a collection of many of Australia's premier Aboriginal musicians. Sultan received the 'Best Independent Blues and Roots Album' as well as 'Best Independent Artist' at the Australian Independent Record (AIR) Awards for his album Get Out While You Can. On 2 November 2010 Sultan won his first ARIA Music Award for Best Blues and Roots Album winning over contenders such as John Butler and Ash Grunwald. On 7 November 2010 he won an ARIA for Best Male Artist.
