In January 2024, Australian rodeo cowboy and country music artist Wade Forster became the 44th winner of Toyota Star Maker – Australia’s most prestigious country music competition.
He follows in the footsteps of fellow Star Maker winners Keith Urban, Kaylee Bell and Max Jackson.
Wade was born in outback Queensland and raised on both a cowboy lifestyle and country music.
Last August, Cody Johnson, was set to tour Australia with US superstar Luke Combs. He told the media he wanted to win a buckle at an Australian rodeo and Wade reached out to Cody on social media and invited him to the Queensland rodeo circuit.
A few days later they were riding alongside each other in the team roping and steer wrestling at a Townsville rodeo.
Cody returned the invitation for Wade to perform with him at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne where they played in front of 25,000 Luke Combs’ fans.
By June of his Star Maker year, Wade had played his first ticketed sold out show, first time performing and touring with his own backing band, first national tour support, first time national radio airplay for his track Rodeo Romeo, first time performing at CMA Fest Nashville and announced his first time national tour with international artist Tyler Hubbard.
Wade has been building his fanbase through his socials and streaming platforms and in April this year, he had 36k+ followers, 30k+ Likes, 13k+ Insta, 5400+ Facebook, 28000+ Subscribers, 400k+ monthly listeners and 31million streams.