Three albums later, he ended his deal with PWL Records and signed a deal with Polydor to release his fourth album, "All Around the World". Unfortunately, the album didn't receive too well, and he ended up falling into obscurity and he took a long hiatus from making music until the late 2000's-early 2010's, where he made three more albums, "Let it be Me" (2007), "Soundtrack of the 80's" (2010), and "Sign of Your Love" (2012).
Unfortunately, apart from his success, his life was also unlucky and he was troubled, so we would easily feel bad for him. His parents were divorced when he was a child, he sued a magazine for lying about his sexuality, causing almost all of his fanbase to turn their backs at him and then he went on a cocaine binge for a decent amount of years, which caused him to fall unconscious at some points. Later on, he met a girl backstage during a play and fell in love with her, but it wasn't until the year 2000, the year his first child was born, when he stopped his drug binge entirely and has stayed clean ever since.
Three of Jason's immediate family have also gone on to appear on Neighbours: his father Terence Donovan played Doug Willis (1990-1994, with occasional guest appearances between 2005 and 2016), his half-sister Stephanie McIntosh played Sky Mangel (2003-2007, with guest appearances in 2015 and 2020), and his aforementioned daughter Jemma Donovan has played Harlow Robinson since 2019. Somewhat amusingly, Harlow is Scott's great-niece, an indirect result of Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome on her father/his nephew Robert.
Albums
- Ten Good Reasons(1989)
- Between the Lines(1990)
- Greatest Hits(1991)
- All Around the World (1993)
- Greatest Hits(2006)
- Let it be Me(2007)
- Soundtrack of the 80's(2010)
- Sign of Your Love(2012)
Acting Credits note
- Skyways (1979)
- Golden Pennies (1984)
- Neighbours (1986-1989)
- The Heroes (1989)
- Blood Oath (1990, also known as Prisoners of the Sun in some international countries)
- Shadows of the Heart (1990)
- Joseph And The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat (1991, theatrical play and TV special)
- Rough Diamonds (1994)
- The Last Bullet (1995)
- The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars (1996)
- The Rocky Horror Show
- 1998, theatrical play
- 2023, 50th anniversary tour
- Buzz! franchise (2003-2012, voice role)
- Animals United (2010, voice role)
- The War of the Worlds (2013, theatrical play)
- Boj (2014, voice role)
Jason Donovan provides examples of:
- He Also Did: He once made a brief comeback into singing in 2002 when he has sung two of Cass And Slide tracks: "Faithless" and "The Doors" (the latter is a Limited Lyrics Song)
- He also did some voiceover work, voice acting in a decent amount of animations and video games! Perhaps the most notable of these being the Buzz! series of quiz/party games for the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3.
- Prior to starring in Neighbours, he once modeled for a few Australian magazine ads for either KMart or Target in 1984.
- According to what he said in his autobiography, he also once tried scripwriting, pitching an idea that was based on his life as a popstar and his experience on the dark side of fame.
- He also did some voiceover work, voice acting in a decent amount of animations and video games! Perhaps the most notable of these being the Buzz! series of quiz/party games for the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3.
- Keep Circulating the Tapes: Throughout his career, Jason Donovan had various personal appearances to promote his music and/or acting roles. The most interesting personal appearances he had was his guest appearances on the children's TV channel CITV throughout mid-to-late 1989-early 1990. Unfortunately, a majority of his appearances on Children's ITV have fallen into obscurity and are very hard and/or almost impossible to find nowadays (with only very little footage surviving), so if you are interested in seeing Jason Donovan on the CITV channel, good luck trying to track down videos of it, including ones where he introduces a television program aired on the channel (like his introduction to the series 3 finale of Knightmare).
- Same goes for some of his other personal appearances (even the ones that include him performing one of his songs), as they fell into obscurity too, possibly due to them being taken down by YouTube or other video sharing sites.
- An alternate music video for "Every Day (I Love You More)" exists. The video is entirely different, and it was filmed on the same set as in the "Sealed with a Kiss" music video, and it tells the story of how the singer fell in love with a girl while he was working in a beach hut. Unfortunately, the music video fell into obscurity because they didn't like the way it turned out and was permanently replaced by the latter music video we're more used to. The closest thing to seeing the video itself is a few behind-the-scenes photos taken from a Jason Donovan annual book, and who knows, there might be a way you can see it, but it's going to be very hard to track down.
- Multiple Languages, Same Singer: He once recorded a Castilian Spanish version of his cover of "Rhythm of the Rain", which can be heard here
. - Old Shame: Zigzagged on his PWL hits from 1989-1991. While he always looked back fondly on being a pop star and enjoyed it, he also was uncomfortable being a heartthrob singer too, as he wanted to become a serious and cool rock star instead.
- Speaking of the latter, he barely talked about his fourth album "All Around the World" after its release, possibly due to Executive Meddling by Polydor.
- He also mentioned in a few later interviews and his autobiography that suing the magazine "The Face" back in 1992 was the biggest mistake of his life.
- He also admitted that "Nothing Can Divide Us" (his first single) was his least favorite single to make.
- Jason Donovan also admitted that starring in the 1994 Australian film "Rough Diamonds" was a mistake.
- What Could Have Been: There are so many things that could've happened with this Australian singer:
- While finishing a demo of Jason Donovan's cover of "Rhythm of the Rain", Stock Aitken Waterman recorded their voices singing "pitter patter pitter patter", but it ended up being removed from the final version due to sounding "too corny".
- "Nothing Can Divide Us" was originally written for Rick Astley, with Stock Aitken Waterman eyeing it as a potential lead single for Hold Me In Your Arms. However, the success of Whenever You Need Somebody allowed Astley to turn the song down, instead writing his own lead single, "She Wants to Dance With Me".
- He was originally offered a role in the 1994 film The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, but he turned it down because he feared that it might give him a bad light after he sued a magazine for accusing him of lying about his sexuality.
- There is a word going around on IMDB that Tim Rice loved Jason Donovan's performance in Joseph And The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat so much that he wanted him to voice Simba in The Lion King (1994), but the idea was scrapped because he wasn't popular in North America.
- Jason Donovan has mentioned a lot in various magazine and on-screen interviews in late 1990 that he was hired to star in a film called "It's Now or Never". This film tells the story of the life of a young Australian swimmer in the 1950's. Unfortunately, the film was canceled after financial problems erupted and it fell into obscurity.
- Jason Donovan originally auditioned for the role of a different character in Neighbours, but he had to turn it down to finish his studies.
- According to various articles from 1998 or 1999, Jason Donovan was planning to make a fifth album, but that never came to frution until 2007.
- According to a BBC Radio 2 interview from 2019, Jason Donovan was one of the few artists (the others being Whitney Houston, Belinda Carlisle, and some other singers) to be offered to sing the Boy Meets Girl hit song "Waiting for a Star to Fall", but plans fell through and the offer was scrapped. It is unknown how far he went through before his offer was scrapped.
- There are other films that were offered to Jason Donovan that he turned down, including a film called "Heaven Tonight" (due to the role being "too familiar") and a film where his character ends his own life (due to not wanting to scare nor disappoint his young fans).
