Cosima De Vito (born 1 November 1976), also known as Cosima, is an Australian pop and R&B singer-songwriter. Born and raised in Perth, Western Australia, she is best known for her cover version of the Australian single "When the War Is Over" (2004), which reached No. 1 on the ARIA Singles Chart. De Vito won her first talent competition at the age of 9. In 2003 she appeared on the first season of Australian Idol. After reaching the semi-finals, she withdrew from the series due to throat nodules.
During the Australian Idol series, De Vito released her first single "When the War Is Over" and was the first independent artist to reach a platinum certification; whilst being No. 1 on the ARIA charts. Following on from her awards, De Vito went on to record and produce in Los Angeles with songwriter Diane Warren. On 11 October 2004, she released her self-titled debut album which reached No. 2 on the ARIA charts. The album was certified gold on release as it also hit No. 1 on the independent charts. She returned to the studio to record her second album This Is Now. De Vito wrote several tracks on her second album. In addition to her career as a singer-songwriter, she starred in the musical Hair on its Australian tour.She has also performed on several TV shows, and at events including the Prime Minister's Parliament Gala Dinner, the televised Dream Foundations Gala Dinner in Los Angeles, and Channel 7's Carols by Candlelight.
After being voted best new artist for Pop Republic magazine, De Vito launched her single “Right Here, Right Now” on Channel 10, with a live performance in October 2012. Her rendition of the carol "O Holy Night" was released over the 2012 Christmas season, as she performed the single at multiple national Christmas events. Following a number of tours, live performances, festivals, and dance parties, She toured the country performing shows with her band. She was invited to perform the Australian national anthem on various occasions for major sporting events including the Melbourne Cup, State of Origin, Fox Sports and the NBL All-Stars game.
On 5 November 2013, De Vito produced the new single, “Beyond The Horizon”. In addition, she also received another nomination for female artist of the year. The single came from her album, "Power of Love", which officially released in 2017.
Early years Cosima De Vito was born on 1 November 1976 and grew up in Hamilton Hill, a suburb of Perth. Her father, Carlo De Vito, is an Italian-born house painter and contractor and her mother, Maria, is a partner in the family business. De Vito's grandfather was an Italian tenor who sang Neapolitan folk songs and opera. In 2006, De Vito's younger brother, Modesto (born ca 1980), joined his parents' firm as a painter, their younger sister is Sarina (born ca 1985). De Vito entered various talent contests while in primary school – at the age of nine she won a competition. She cited Whitney Houston, Shirley Bassey, Tina Turner and Karen Carpenter as being major influences on her personal style. She attended Murdoch University, and graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce degree – major in finance and banking. Turning to a career in entertainment, De Vito made contact with talent agents who enabled her to travel to Nashville, Tennessee, US in 2001 to record a demo tape and discuss a recording deal but was turned down because of a lack of an Australian fan base. During 2003 De Vito worked as an office administrator in a Perth publicity and conference business.
Career
2003: Australian Idol
In May 2003, De Vito successfully auditioned for the first season of TV talent competition series, Australian Idol, with a performance of Celine Dion's "I Surrender". From July to November she appeared on the weekly televised episodes and moved to Sydney that year, she entered as one of the judges' wild card choices. De Vito finished in third position after having to withdraw from the competition due to a diagnosis of vocal cord nodules when she lost her voice singing "River Deep – Mountain High". Idol judge Ian Dickson claimed that she would have won. However, following medical advice, she withdrew from the competition and underwent speech therapy allowing fellow contestant Shannon Noll to join Guy Sebastian in the series grand final. According to opera singer and music teacher Juliette Hughes, in The Age, De Vito and other contestants:
Timeline of De Vito on the series: Week # Song choice Original artist Theme (if any) Result Top 40 "My Heart Will Go On"Celine DionSemi-final Group 2Declared Wildcard Finalist Wildcard "Predictable"Delta GoodremWildcardDeclared Top 12 Finalist Top 12 "Hot Stuff"Donna SummerThe 1970sSafe Top 10 "I Wanna Dance with Somebody"Whitney HoustonNumber One HitsSafe Top 8 "When the War Is Over" Cold ChiselAustralian HitsSafe Top 6 "What's Love Got to Do with It?"Tina TurnerThe 1980sSafe Top 5 "I Believe I Can Fly""Respect"R. KellyOtis ReddingSoul,R&BBottom 2 Top 4 "L-O-V-E""Smile"Nat King ColeCharlie ChaplinBig BandSafe Top 3 "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me""River Deep – Mountain High"Dusty SpringfieldIke & Tina TurnerThe 1960sWithdrew
2004: Cosima
After recovery from her throat nodules, De Vito was unable to negotiate a suitable record deal and funded her own label, (CDV Records) with the financial help of her family. Her managers, Constantine Nellis and Ted Gardner, "took on the singer after she was widely shunned by local record companies". For her independent album, Cosima, she flew to Los Angeles to have ten of its eleven tracks penned by Diane Warren (Celine Dion, Christina Aguilera, and Aerosmith) who commented "When I heard her sing I was blown away ... Cosima is a younger, edgier Celine Dion". On 9 August 2004 her first single, the double A-sided, "When the War Is Over" / "One Night Without You", was released. "When the War Is Over" is a cover of a Cold Chisel ballad and "One Night Without Your" was one of Warren's tracks. It debuted at No. 1 in the ARIA Singles Chart ahead of fellow Australian Idol Paulini's "Angel Eyes" and Australian singer-songwriter, Missy Higgins' "Scar" (both had reached No. 1 earlier). The single was certified platinum by ARIA for shipment of 70,000 units by December 2004. An alternate version of the song, with production similar to her live idol performance, was recorded before working with Diane Warren. This version was not released as the overall sound was different from the rest of the album and so a new version (which was later released as the single) was recorded. On 11 October 2004 her self-titled debut album, Cosima, was released. It debut at No. 2 on the ARIA Albums Chart and No. 1 on the Independent charts. While it was certified gold, for shipment of 35,000 units by ARIA, it quickly left the Top 50 after spending only a few weeks in the charts.
On a 2004 episode of A Current Affair, De Vito was shown writing and recording new material with Warren in Los Angeles. De Vito expressed her disappointment at media reports that declared the throat nodule incident was a publicity stunt. In 2004 De Vito performed "When the War Is Over" on Dancing with the Stars and "Cost of Love" on the Kerri-Anne show; she guested on Good Morning Australia with Bert Newton and performed "When the War Is Over" and "Now That You Can't Have Me". In May that year De Vito was invited to perform at the 30th Anniversary Gala Dinner for then-Prime Minister, John Howard. In December, she released her second single, "Now That You Can't Have Me", which peaked at No. 42. The video for the single was initially popular on Australian music shows such as Video Hits. There were distribution problems and lack of radio airplay. On 23 December, De Vito parted ways with her management team, Nellis and Gardner, who had guided her since the end of Australian Idol. The parties were in dispute over A$500,000, that her managers alleged they were owed. A third single, "Cost of Love" was in the works, with video clip ideas being drawn up. De Vito had extra production work done on the album version – more guitar, heavier drums and re-recorded vocals. Due to legal battles with her previous management, the third single was dropped.
2005–2008: This Is Now By March 2005, De Vito had signed a management deal with Dorry Kordahi of DK Management. According to De Vito, there were still things to be sorted out with her previous management, but she was confident they would turn out well. However, negotiations failed and, from November 2007, Nellis and Gardner appeared in court suing for "breach of contract, claiming lost earnings" while De Vito counter claimed that "the management team were 'negligent' in guiding her career". Note: DKBlue website houses a PDF copy of four pages from New Idea. Since early 2005 De Vito had been in the studio working on her second studio album, This Is Now. During an interview at the ARIA Number One Chart Awards in 2005, she said "I may do it independently, or I may go with a record label. We'll see what happens". On 29 September 2007 the album was released. On it De Vito wrote tracks for the first time; some of which are deeply personal as well as an indication of who she is as an artist. Johann Huang of Mediasearch wrote that "the strongest tracks on the album seem to be the songs Cosima had a hand in writing". One of her self-penned tracks, "Forever Young", was dedicated to her mother.
In October 2005, De Vito previewed some new tracks as support act for United Kingdom soul singer, Roachford on his Australian tour. On 19 March 2006, she appeared in Channel Ten's celebrity quiz show, Australia's Brainiest Musician. During June and July, she completed a national tour with Greek singer, Demis Roussos. De Vito appeared at the Sydney Ferragasto Festival and the Soul Divas show at the Basement in Sydney. On 26 September, De Vito was on 2Day FM breakfast radio's The Kyle and Jackie O Show as the secret celebrity on their "Where Are They Now?" segment. In October, her management announced that her debut single, "When the War Is Over" had re-entered the Australian Independent Charts at No. 11, more than 2 years after it debuted at No. 1 on the ARIA Charts. On 25 November, De Vito headlined at opening of the NBL All Star Game in Adelaide. She sang songs from her new album as well as the national anthem, which was broadcast on FOX Sports.