It may not be the dream of many an aspiring musician, but there’s money to be made in the world of tribute acts and if you’re a skilled performer with a knack for imitating iconic stars from the past, you could make a very comfortable living.
As the Sydney Morning Herald recently noted, celebrity impersonators and tribute acts can command a considerable fee for their services. The Australian Pink Floyd Show, for example, came in at Number 14 in BRW‘s 2013 entertainer rich list.
They reportedly brought in $5 million that year, which pales in comparison to Bjorn Again, one of Australia’s most in-demand ABBA parody acts, who managed to reach Number 7 in the countdown with earnings of $8.6 million.
“The demographic – that 50-to-75-year-old market – had some of the greatest music as the soundtrack to their lives when they were growing up and they’re just trying to relive that,” Happy Day Records’s Rick Szabo told Fairfax.
“Australia’s a leading market in tributes, definitely. Our scene makes our acts quite respectable overseas because it’s dog-eat-dog here. We’ve got to travel a lot of distance and it makes us very road-hardened.”
Szabo’s company promotes tribute concerts, including to Elvis, The Beatles, ABBA, Queen, and Creedence Clearwater Revival, whom Szabo said are the most imitated acts, not just in Australia but around the world, as they appeal to the baby boomer market.
Tribute acts often play in touring theatres, particularly in regional areas which don’t often get a look in from bigger international artists, but make much of their income from corporate gigs, private functions, community festivals, and on cruise ships.
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Lance Strauss began performing as Elton John back in 1987 when the market was still young and there weren’t as many options for tribute acts. Things eventually picked up in the ’90s and at one point Strauss commanded $20,000 per gig.
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“It worked really well with the public. I used to play a pub in Bondi Junction back in the early ’90s and we’d just pack it completely – you couldn’t even move,” he told Fairfax. “Within the industry we were frowned upon, because it was another form of cover. People were like, ‘Why are you doing that?'”
However, the scene isn’t for everybody. Take Olivia Sturgiss, for example. The 19-year-old became a sensation online because of her incredible resemblance to Taylor Swift and one celebrity publicist she could potentially make up to $1 million a year.
“I have been approached by an agent or two about doing a Taylor Swift tribute show but it isn’t something that would interest me – I don’t want to butcher her songs like that,” Sturgiss said. “I’m too much of a fan to do that to her.”
