Shannon Noll

His music career is less than five years old but already multi-platinum selling rock star Shannon Noll has been dubbed an icon.

It's not hard to see why. Over the course of three albums, Shannon has re-written Australian chart history by notching up 10 consecutive top 10 singles on the ARIA charts, including five ARIA #1 chart awards.

In addition to walking off with the MTV VMA award for Best Male Artist three years running, beating the likes of Robbie Williams and Justin Timberlake, Shannon was also voted his home country's Favourite Australian at the Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards.

His debut album "That's What I'm Talking About" went five times platinum and was a fixture on the top 100 albums chart for almost a year. In fact, the combined success of all three albums has made Shannon a platinum selling artist 11 times over.

Among his most recent accolades was a successful stint treading the boards as Parson Nathaniel in Jeff Wayne's musical adaptation of War of the Worlds. Following rave reviews in Australia, he will reprise the role for UK audiences next year, opposite Jennifer Ellison.

His extraordinary talent may have fast tracked him to the big-time but, for Shannon, these achievements pale in comparison to the impact his music has on his fans.

Shanon's #1 hit single "Lift" earned the prestigious award as the Most Performed Work in 2007. It also prompted a thank you letter from a fan who credited the song for saving his life. These are the real achievements for Shannon.

Born and raised in the tiny Australian outback town of Condobolin, (with a population of 3500) Shannon's childhood was a happy one, spent with his two older brothers, Adam and Damian, on their parents' isolated 4,500 acre sheep farm.

Sheep shearers on the farm by day, Shannon and his brothers formed a band, rehearsing in the shearing shed. In their free time, the trio and would travel hundreds of miles to play in small pubs across the vast New South Wales territory.  But Shannon was caught between two ambitions. Although being a musician appealed to him, the teenager was on the verge of becoming a professional footballer.

Overnight all dreams and plans vanished when his father, Neil, was killed in a farming accident. Days later, the close-knit family was further devastated when the bank foreclosed on their drought-stricken farm. They were forced to sell the property that had been owned by the Noll family for more than 100 years.

Years later, as a fledgling song-writer, Shannon would write one of his most emotive tracks, "Now I Run" in tribute to his father. It was a difficult task, as Shannon explains:

With the Noll family reeling and close to destitute, it was not a hunger for fame that led Shannon to audition for the first season of Australian Idol. He had one goal - to earn enough money for his family's survival. Catching the judges' attention from the start, Shannon made it all the way to the final, coming in runner up to winner Guy Sebastian.

Like other post-Idol contestants, Shannon struggled to be taken seriously as a musician at first. But critics soon fell silent as his popularity grew and he continued to top the charts, making him one of the few Idol contestants outside the US to maintain a successful career away from the show.

The runaway success of his songs can be marked not only by chart awards. His hit single "Shine" has been the official theme song for the UK's "Cricket on Five" since 2005. Another hit single "LOUD," has been played in stadiums and ball parks across the US from the National Football League to Major League Baseball games. A favourite of sports fans, the song was also the chosen anthem for Australia's National Rugby and National Football Leagues' final championship games last year.

"LOUD" is the first single from Turn It Up, the star's third album, on which he collaborated with multi-Grammy nominated producer Luke Ebbin and Bon Jovi guitarist, Richie Sambora.

It doesn't matter what label he's given, the reason for his continued success is simple: Shannon Noll is the genuine article.