I've been following with delight and fascination the fortunes of Altiyan Childs (35), a rock singer who won the reality series "X Factor Australia", which finished screening late November. I was introduced to Altiyan and his progress on the show by my cousin Susan, when I went to Auckland in late October for the Leonard Cohen concert. At that time, I didn't have TV, for I needed a satellite dish to get reception at my new rural location.
"Ali", said Susan to me in a charged, husky voice. "Look! He's an introvert!" She pointed and drew my attention to the images flashing on her TV screen of the man she'd been raving about.
I peered at the figure making a grand entrance onto the stage, wondering what all the fuss was about. "He is?" I said, bewildered that anyone with genuine sensitivity would be game to enter a talent quest reality show.
Then it was all over. As I watched Altiyan scurry about the stage, making wild feline faces and somehow managing also to sing "Eye of the Tiger", my body temperature raced up, and I exploded out of my smug self-control into fiery pieces about the room. "Good Lord," I thought, "Who on earth is this guy? This is unexpected."
During the judges comments at the end of the performance, the camera dwelt on those dark, lightened features. They moved in perfect concert with the hidden flow of inner feeling. The eyes down to the floor in fear, then up to the roof with relief, the head hard to the side in wonder, then staring front-on composed, the brow pulled together in anxiety, then brightened out in joy, the brown eyes shining with delight, then filling with tears.
"Oh my God!" I said to Susan. "He's gorgeous."
Early on in the show, Altiyan was a real outsider, and no one knew what to make of him. He repeatedly forgot the lyrics and stumbled around distractedly on stage. As one journalist described it: "He'd forgotten the words and appeared more like a crazed, constipated Charles Manson lookalike than a man oozing X factor." (Paula Yeoman: nzherald). But the X Factor format, which to my mind is better than the Idol format, has the judges choose contestants to mentor, and Altiyan flourished under the visionary tutelage of Ronan Keating. To watch Altiyan go from lost and submerged to found, in control and on fire was a revelation. Now, the audience loved him.
So what made this guy tick? I had to know. And when I looked, the story got even better. I discovered that Altiyan Childs wasn't just a shallow rocker, with not much between his ears beyond wanting to be rich, revered and laid. He had a complexity that shone out irrepressibly, even through the impertinent personal questions, in-your-face comments, cringing childish antics and hype of some media interviews. To my amazement, Altiyan revealed a great deal about his inner self at these interviews; for example, that he had not had sex since 2004 when he broke up with his fiancee. The topic of what was dubbed Altiyan's 'chastity', and the corresponding challenge of ending it, gave the media a field day. But I was keen to know about his relationship to his sexuality and why he'd gone down that road. This was just one of many aspects to Altiyan that led me to see him as an exciting, new phenomenon of spirituality in popular culture - one with the potential to influence millions.
"It's not that I want to destroy anything, I just want to influence it. Artists should influence people. There's too much glorification of alcohol and sex in the world for me. I want to inject a bit of soul back." Q&A: Altiyan Childs
On celibacy
Altiyan says he has "a very intimate love affair with celibacy and its potency". (NZ marks the spiritual spot) When he broke up with his fiancee, he was determined not to go down the road many others take - that of abandoning oneself to the senses to drown out the pain. Instead, he determined to work at mastering his sexual drive. He says he "said to his dick, 'I'm the boss of this house'".(NZ marks the spiritual spot) It took about 40 to 50 days to control. After which, he experienced an accumulation of energy in his body, which enlivened him. But his sexual energy has not gone away completely. "It gets thrown inside you and gets transformed into something far greater and far more everlasting." He denies being afraid of women; he loves them. He just sees them now as sisters. "If they walked around naked - to me, it's just geometry." (Altiyan's Kiwi love affair)
On loving humanity
Altiyan says that, when he was five, his father used to worry for him because he was a very sensitive and caring child. "I liked to give all my toys away... from a young age, I had this intense empathy and love for people around me." (TV3 full interview) At school, he actively made friends with those who were socially isolated and hung out with them. "Our group was like the reject group. We were like a little reject family." (One-on-one with Altiyan Childs)
When asked if he feels like a superstar now that he's famous, Altiyan says that he does not, for he's aware that he's entirely dependent on others for everything around him. "Everything I'm wearing is made by strangers. Everything I look at is made by strangers. So I just cannot feel like a superstar." (TV3 full interview) Instead, he throws the compliment back onto humanity in general, expressing the belief that all human beings are superstars. "We're capable of anything. Our imagination is so strong that we must be superstars. I mean we create this world and the way we see it." (TV3 full interview)
At all times, even in moments of happiness, Altiyan remains aware of the suffering of humanity. He describes his awareness as a "disease", caused by the fact that he cannot separate himself off from the common people and their pain. He is exasperated at the indifference of leaders to the plight of people. "Our leaders should be madly in love with us. Instead, they're madly in love with themselves." (NZ marks the spiritual spot) He believes it is his duty to remember those who are suffering, and not to let himself get over it.
Altiyan's love extends to his enemies as well, whom he believes are important because they can teach us things that our friends won't. "Only your enemies can teach you certain things about love that your friends dare not teach you. There's no boundary for them to cross." (TV3 full interview)
On fame
Altiyan says that seeking fame has become its own career. "People chase fame these days like it's a job. What do you want to be? I want to be famous." (Q&A: Altiyan Childs) He attributes his own popularity to people's awareness that he's genuine, wanting to connect with people emotionally in a heart-to-heart fashion. This is why he appeals to both 8 year olds and 88 year olds. He had tried for 20 years to become a success with his band, Masonia, but gave up on a music career entirely in 2008. He only entered X Factor because his father insisted, uncharacteristically, that he do so. But now he is famous, and he recognises that fame has come as a result of his following his passion and as a spiritual recompense for the suffering he went through in his early years. "I'm just really grateful that people connected with my joy and my sorrow." (NZ marks the spiritual spot)
Altiyan is now working on an album of his own songs. He had to sing covers for the X Factor show, but he is a songwriter as well as a singer and is itching to record his own compositions. I look forward to hearing the songs he is inspired to produce, and wish him well for the project. He says that, if fame had come to him six years earlier, he would have been corrupted by it, for he was troubled then. Now he believes he is incorruptible. "Parts of my body and mind are [corruptible], but my spirit is incorruptible. I could be wrong but I'd rather believe this than anything else." (Q&A: Altiyan Childs) I'm pleased to hear it. Because humanity needs more of Altiyan's goodness, humility, sensitivity and caring. And I hope the Lord grants him the grace to influence millions of others to be that way too.
Read my later article about Altiyan, "Altiyan Childs continues to show insight".
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