Mark Holden (born 27 April 1954) is an Australian singer, actor, television personality and barrister. He rose to prominence as a pop star in the 1970s, and was one of a panel of three original judges on the television series Australian Idol and the first series of The X Factor.

Biographie

Acting career
Holden was a singer and film actor. He was an original cast member of soap opera The Young Doctors when it began in late 1976. Film roles included Blue Fire Lady and Newsfront.

He won three Logies and performed for the Prince of Wales at the Sydney Opera House. He hosted the infamous 'Silver Jubilee Countdown', amongst many other Countdown appearances and hostings. In 2007, he appeared in cameo acting roles on Kath & Kim, American TV network NBC's The Starter Wife with Debra Messing, and as an Immigration Detention Officer on SBS's Fat Pizza.

In late 2010, he guest starred as Doctor Wallace in Season 5 of Sea Patrol, which aired in July 2011 on Channel 9.

Holden was a participant of Dancing with the Stars in 2014, and was involved in high-profile controversy regarding inappropriate comments made on-air whilst wearing a clown costume. Holden subsequently apologised for his behaviour, and was voted out of the show.


Music career
Mark's career was launched after performing as a contestant on the Channel Nine talent series Showcase in 1974. He went on to win a record deal with EMI, having hits with pop songs such as Never Gonna Fall in Love Again and making several appearances on the ABC's popular television series Countdown. His stage antics were well-known, and he was nicknamed 'The Carnation Kid' for wearing and holding carnations, often throwing them into the audience.

Relocating to Los Angeles in 1980 to work as a songwriter and music producer, he had two Top Ten hits with the Temptations on Motown – 'Lady Soul' which is included on the 'Motown Greatest Hits 1972-92 Hitsville USA' CD Compilation and 'Look What You Started' which features on the definitive Temptations compilation 'The Emperors Of Soul'. There were also hits with Tracie Spencer, Joey Lawrence, Will Downing, a #1 dance hit with Kathy Sledge, and over 50 cover recordings of his songs from artists as varied as Belinda Carlisle, Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols, The Manhattans, Donny Osmond, José Feliciano, Fleetwood Mac, David Hasselhoff and Branford Marsalis. He also developed and produced artists including Calvin Klein model and film star Milla Jovovich ('Chaplin', 'Blue Lagoon 2', 'Dazed and Confused', 'The 5th Element'), for EMI Records Group, New York. This led to her debut album; a US Top Ten Post Modern hit, it won critical raves including a 3 star review in Rolling Stone magazine.

For three years Mark worked with David Hasselhoff, producing and coordinating his albums, live promotion and musical projects for television, particularly in Europe where David enjoyed multi-platinum successes including the Top Ten hit in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, 'Wir Zwei Allein Heut Nacht' ('Together alone tonight') which Mark wrote with David Hasselhoff. Jeremy Jackson, the actor who played David Hasselhoff's son on Baywatch, was signed to Mark Holden's production company and had two hits in Europe including 'You Can Run' which was Top 5 in the Netherlands.

In 1999, Mark moved back to Australia, performed his show "100 Years of Australian Music" at the School of Arts Café in Queanbeyan. His company Marjac Productions, with Transistor Music Australia and Universal Music International, launched Vanessa Amorosi onto the Australian and international stage with ARIA's #4 album of the year 2000 – 'The Power' – and four hit singles in Australia. "Absolutely Everybody" has been #7 in the UK, #2 in Ireland, Top Five Germany (Gold), Austria (Gold) and Switzerland; and Top Ten in many other European and Asian countries. Vanessa's album 'The Power' was gold in GSA with 4 hit singles.

Mark's family group, The Holdens, released their first CD, "A Tribute to Tex Morton". This features songs made famous by the legendary country singer and showman. Tex was very much in the tradition of his forebears The Holden Brothers Circus who traveled with Tex and is Mark's way of paying homage to them and the way they entertained Australians over many decades from the late 19th century on. The group recently released another CD accompanied by a web series, The Holden Brothers' Travelling Circus, with music based on Holden's family circus.

In 2000 MarJac Productions signed with Sony Australia to consult for the Delta Goodrem project which reached #1 in Australia and Top 5 UK. Meanwhile, his songs continue to be recorded by Vanessa Amorosi, Nikki Webster (Top 20 Gold single "The Best Days"), Delta Goodrem and Sophie Monk.

In 2004 Mark established Dream Dealers, his own Management, Music Publishing and Record Company. Dream Dealers immediately achieved success with first signing, Joel Turner and the Modern Day Poets. The first single "These Kids" reached #1 on the Aria charts, staying in the top ten for over three months in which time it achieved double platinum status. Their self-titled album was released in late 2004 and was certified platinum. A number of other successful singles were also released from the album.


Australian Idol
In 2003, Holden was a judge on the Australian Idol television show. He executive-produced the 'Final 12' cast CD for Australian Idol which went double platinum and included the #1 song 'Rise Up' which he co-wrote with Vanessa Amorosi. His phrase "Touchdown" became the highest form of accolade for the contestants. Cosima De Vito received the first touchdown, for her rendition of Cold Chisel's When the War Is Over. When De Vito scored the first touchdown, Ian Dickson said that he could not help but think that De Vito had been sent by another television network as a spy because she was everything the competition was about.

Holden was awarded "Wanker of the Year" by men's magazine Ralph in 2003, and in response, wanted a trophy to show off his new title. He started up a petition on his own website to have it awarded to him. He has mentioned it a few times on Idol, and Ralph has considered naming the award after him. In this year's awards however, he came third, beaten by fellow Network Ten celebrities Rove McManus and Australian Idol presenter Andrew G. The magazine claimed that his attempt to claim a trophy for his honour was enough for them not to give him the award.


X Factor
He also appeared as a judge on The X Factor in 2005. (along with John Reid and Kate Ceberano). The R&B group he had been mentoring during the show, Random, went on to win.