"Black Box" is the debut single by season seven winner of ''

Australian Idol ''Australian Idol'' is an Australian singing competition, which began its first season in July 2003 and ended its initial run in November 2009. As part of the ''Idol'' franchise, Australian Idol originated from the reality program '' Pop Id ...

'',

Stan Walker Stan Walker (born 23 October 1990) is an Australian New Zealand singer, actor, and television personality. In 2009, Walker was the winner of the seventh season of ''Australian Idol''. He subsequently signed a recording contract with Sony Mus ...

. It was released digitally on 22 November 2009, as the

lead single A lead single (or first single) is the first single to be released from a studio album by an artist or a band, usually before the album itself is released and also occasionally on the same day of the album's release date. A similar term, "debut ...

from his debut studio album, '' Introducing... Stan Walker''.

Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB color model, RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB color model, RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between Violet (color), violet and cyan on the optical spe ...

covered this song for their 2013 album ''

Roulette Roulette (named after the French language, French word meaning "little wheel") is a casino game which was likely developed from the Italy, Italian game Biribi. In the game, a player may choose to place a bet on a single number, various grouping ...

''.

Critical reception

Jade from MusicFix compared the song to all other ''Australian Idol'' winners' singles and wrote that the "black box" metaphor differentiates it from the others. She called the sound a "generic R&B beat" and continued by comparing Walker's voice to fellow ''Australian Idol'' winner

Guy Sebastian Guy Theodore Sebastian (born 26 October 1981) is an Australian singer who rose to fame after winning the Australian Idol (season 1), first season of ''Australian Idol'', in 2003. Born in Malaysia and raised in Adelaide, Australia, Sebastian h ...

, saying that ''Australian Idol'' voters "decided one Sebastian just wasn't enough." At the 2010 New Zealand Music Awards, "Black Box" won the award for the 'Highest Selling New Zealand Single'. It was also named the 'Radio Airplay Record of the Year' at the ceremony, after topping the New Zealand Radio Airplay Chart for ten weeks. At the 2010 ARIA Music Awards, "Black Box" was nominated for 'Most Popular Australian Single'.

Chart performance

On the

New Zealand Singles Chart The Official Aotearoa Music Charts, formerly the Official New Zealand Music Chart (), is the weekly New Zealand top 40 singles and albums charts, issued weekly by Recorded Music NZ (formerly Recording Industry Association of New Zealand). The M ...

, "Black Box" debuted at number five on 30 November 2009. The following week, it peaked at number one, where it remained for ten consecutive weeks. On 14 February 2010, "Black Box" was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand (RIANZ), for selling 30,000 copies. In Australia, the song debuted and peaked at number two on the

ARIA Singles Chart The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the offici ...

on 30 November 2009, selling 17,493 copies in its first week, and becoming the fastest-selling Sony Bandit.fm download ever. Eventually, "Black Box" was certified double platinum by the

Australian Recording Industry Association The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) is a trade association representing the Australian recording industry which was established in the 1970s by six major record companies, EMI, Festival Records (Australia), Festival, Sony Music ...

(ARIA), for selling 140,000 copies.

Music video and live performances

The

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

for the song was directed by Gemma Lee and filmed in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

on 24 November 2009. In an interview with Nova FM, Walker explained, "There might be a little bit of group dancing ... we'll see what happens. At first I was really nervous but I've warmed up now and I'm getting into it. I'm working on my look ... It's pretty cool – it's my first ever film clip. It's basically a house party that explains the lyrics. It talks about a relationship that has gone down but everything is still recorded in the black box. I really like it." The video premiered on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

on 29 November 2009. Walker performed "Black Box" on the New Zealand television show, ''

Close Up A close-up or closeup in filmmaking, television production, still photography, and the comic strip medium is a type of shot that tightly frames a person or object. Close-ups are one of the standard shots used regularly with medium and long ...

'', on 6 December 2009, the day before the release of his album, ''Introducing... Stan Walker''. He again performed the song at Barry Curtis Park in

Manukau City Manukau City was a territorial authority district in Auckland, New Zealand, that was governed by the Manukau City Council. The area is also referred to as "South Auckland", although this term never possessed official recognition and does not ...

as part of celebrations of

Waitangi Day Waitangi Day (, the national day of New Zealand, marks the anniversary of the initial signing—on 6 February 1840—of the Treaty of Waitangi. The Treaty of Waitangi was an agreement towards British sovereignty by representatives of the The Cr ...

(6 February) in 2010.

Track listing

*Digital download # "Black Box" – 3:27

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Black Box (Song) 2009 debut singles Australian Idol Stan Walker songs Number-one singles in New Zealand Songs written by Wayne Hector Songs written by Lucas Secon Songs written by Cutfather Songs written by Jonas Jeberg Sony Music Australia singles 2009 songs