Singer found god and saved her life By MICHAEL LOWE , Sunday, 21 January 2007
http://www.examiner.com.au/story.asp?id=380942 AUSTRALIAN Idol coaching guru Erana Clark will today tell her story in Launceston - from heroin addiction to religion and music.
Clark is the vocal arranger for the hit television music show but says life was not always so good.
About 200 people attended a vocal workshop she ran at the Door of Hope Christian Church in South Launceston yesterday and she will today perform and tell her story.
For Idol, she coaches contestants and backing vocalists in singing and does the musical arrangements for the songs.
She will return to Launceston, probably in April, to audition contestants for the new series.
A prime requirement for winning the series and being named Australian Idol is singing in tune but she says it is amazing how many people audition thinking they are the next big thing, but their voice is "woeful".
But on top of being able to hold a note, Clark says the judges are looking for "fortitude of character", to cope with the demands of show business.
"The process is really challenging and we have to see that they can withstand it," she said.
"It's full-on and at the end of the week they have to get on a television show and deliver a live performance to the nation."
A typical week included photo shoots, media commitments, wardrobe fittings and dance and singing instruction, plus the actual television performance.
But she said the process was a good one, because the show aimed to make stars and many Australian music success stories were Idol contestants.
Clark, 47, with three children aged between 13 and 22, lives in Sydney but is from New Zealand.
She was a child singing star in New Zealand before moving to Sydney and performing with big names, such as INXS and Kate Cebrano.
But she said her father was killed in a car crash when she was 12 and that "totally shattered my life".
"I was in the spotlight and I found that using drugs was the only way to numb it," she said.
She was a heroin addict by age 17 and in jail on remand for six weeks at age 20 for cocaine possession, before moving to Sydney at age 30. She was still drinking heavily.
Clark was contemplating suicide but had a child, which kept her going, and one Sunday went to church.
"I gave my heart to the Lord and the journey to recovery and healing started that day," she said.
"If things go wrong for me I do not run to drugs, I run to Jesus and he is always there."
