Cosima De Vito

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", 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. De Vito entered various talent contests while in primary school – at the age of nine she won a competition.

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,

Timeline of De Vito on the series: Week # Song choice Original artist Theme (if any) Result Top 40 "My Heart Will Go On"

Wildcard "Predictable"

Top 12 "Hot Stuff"

Top 10 "I Wanna Dance with Somebody"

Top 8 "When the War Is Over"

Top 6 "What's Love Got to Do with It?"

Top 5 "I Believe I Can Fly""Respect" 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. 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. 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". Since early 2005 De Vito had been in the studio working on her second studio album, This Is Now. 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. 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 11 February, she sang the national anthem at the Australia vs England Cricket final at the Sydney Cricket Ground in front of 40,000 spectators. Lead single from the album, "Keep It Natural", released on 2 June, showed a rockier edge to her previous works and was written by De Vito and Trevor Steel (singer-songwriter for The Escape Club); it became popular at gay nightclubs across Australia. On 22 February, she debuted "Keep It Natural" at the half time entertainment for the NBL's Sydney Kings v Brisbane Bullets game at the Sydney Entertainment Centre. The album did not chart on the Australian ARIA charts. In October the second single, "Movin' On", also failed to chart despite positive reviews. She appeared on Kerri-Anne and performed "Keep It Natural", as well as on Channel 9's Today Show and the Morning Show hosted by Kylie Gillies and Larry Emdur. De Vito has been a regular guest on the Susie Show where she performed the track "Never Be a Woman in Chains" and displayed her heritage when she cooked an Italian dish. "Keep It Natural" peaked at No. 30 on the ARIA Club Charts and No. 3 on the ARIA Physical Singles Chart and No. 112 on the ARIA Singles Chart. It peaked at No. 4 on the Australian Independent Charts also for 8 weeks. In May, De Vito performed the role of Mother Nature in the Perth production of the rock musical, Hair, to critical acclaim with Rob Mills, Cle Wotton and Nikki Webster. This production was directed by Chris Kabay with musically director, Simon Holt, of Yellow Glass Theatre. Jessica Clayden of the 3rd Degree website approved of the former Australian Idol contestants, "De Vito and Wooten shine during their musical numbers and leave the audience wanting to hear more, so much so that you find yourself looking to the on stage balcony to wait for Cosima to appear and belt out another tune. Her rendition of 'Aquarius' will send chills down your spine". In October she launched her album at the Sleaze Ball as the headlining act.

De Vito shot a video for "Movin' On", which was premiered on music video programs in Australia. It was released in October and was placed on Joy FM's latest Album Volume 5 alongside tracks from Australian Idols Marcia Hines (judge) and Ricki Lee Coulter (contestant). In March 2008 De Vito headlined Gay Fair Day in Sydney. This Is Now includes "Never Be a Woman in Chains"; and "Left Waiting" written by the Veronicas. De Vito travelled to Melbourne for World Aids Day. In July, in Brisbane she undertook an "up close and personal" video documentary leading up to a live stage performance at The Beat Megaclub for a DVD release. Christian Bowman and Shane Tyler Greaves from Stage Addiction worked with De Vito to produce the film. In August De Vito appeared as a guest on Channel 9's This Is Your Life to pay tribute to fellow Australian Idol contestant, Shannon Noll. She appeared with 2003 winner, Guy Sebastian, where it was revealed that her withdrawal from the competition gave the green light for Noll to compete against Sebastian in the grand final.

2009–present: later events By April 2009 De Vito was a sponsor for Girls with a Purpose, a program by charity organisation, Lifehouse Project, to address issues of concern for 13- to 18-year-old girls: "body image, family conflict and coping with stress". In May De Vito lost her long running legal battle with former managers, Nellis and Gardner, and was ordered to pay Nellis $30,000, plus $7,000 legal fees. Supreme Court of New South Wales Justice Nigel Rein, ruled in the case, CN Presents Pty Ltd v De Vito NSWSC 388, that De Vito should pay Nellis and stated, "t does seem his work was minimal but it was his idea and he prepared a budget or proposal". The claim of $500,000 for breach of management contract or lost royalties was denied.

In 2023, De Vito returned to the music industry, and collaborated with Greg Gould to release a cover of "I Want to Spend My Lifetime Loving You".

In October 2025, De Vito was announced as a contestant for the forthcoming third season of The Traitors Australia, set to appear alongside for Australian Idol judge Ian 'Dicko' Dickson. The season will air on Network 10 in 2026.

Discography

Albums

Released: 11 October 2004 Label: CDV 2 title6 = O Holy Night