2002: Popstars: The Rivals Semple took part in the
ITV television series
Popstars: The Rivals, a British singing competition. • Week 1, he sang "
Reach Out I'll Be There" from
The Four Tops. He was safe. • Week 3, he sang "
Over My Shoulder" from
Mike + The Mechanics. He was safe. • Week 5, he sang "
Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word" from
Elton John and
Bernie Taupin. He was safe. • Week 7, in the boys' final, he sang "
You Are So Beautiful" from
Joe Cocker. Host
Davina McCall announced the names of the five contestants who had qualified for the boy band. Semple was the first member to be announced followed by Matt Johnson. Third was
Daniel Pearce and fourth Anton Gordon. The last available place went to Jamie Shaw whereas Chris Park was eliminated from the boys competition. Semple and the four other contestant winners (Anton Gordon, Matthew Johnson, Daniel Pearce and Jamie Shaw) went on to form the group
One True Voice. The same show had also produced the girl group
Girls Aloud also won the competition.
2002–2003: One True Voice Semple became a band member of the boyband
One True Voice created as a results of the competition. The line up of the band was decided by public vote, who voted for their favourite male hopefuls each week to form the boyband. The name of the band was later shortened to OTV. One True Voice was made up of: • Anton Gordon (from London, England) • Matt Johnson (from
Deeside, Wales) •
Daniel Pearce (from
Kent, England) • Keith Semple (from
Larne,
Northern Ireland) • Jamie Shaw (from
Cardiff, Wales) Their debut single, a double A side hit single "
Sacred Trust/After You're Gone" went head-to-head with
Girls Aloud on 16 December 2002, for the Christmas number one spot. One True Voice lost out to the girls and had to settle for the UK Christmas No. 2 position. The group's manager,
Pete Waterman, has speculated that the show was fixed against OTV, but has not said how.. In any case, the single "Sacred Trust/After You're Gone" reached gold record status. One more Top 10 hit followed, in the form of "
Shakespeare's (Way with) Words", which reached No. 10 in the UK, in June 2003. A few weeks later it was announced that Daniel Pearce, who as arranger and co-writer of some of their songs had quit the group to pursue a solo career. The next day the group disbanded. The group appeared at number 32 in ''
Chantelle's Top 50 Reality TV Stars
, ahead of both Phixx and Clea who also appeared in Popstars: The Rivals''.
2003–2008: Solo career After the split, Semple continued his musical career reforming his pre-OTV band, the Keith Semple Band, then fronted the band Alibi.
2006–2012: 7th Heaven In 2006, Semple moved to the United States and joined Chicago-based rock band
7th Heaven as their lead singer. This resulted in a critically acclaimed album
USA-UK alluding to the co-operation of this UK act in an American band. During Semple's membership, the band consisted of members: • Keith Semple – guitars, vocals (lead singer), keyboard • Richard Hofherr – guitars, vocals, keyboard • Mike Mooshey – drums • Mark Kennetz – bass, vocals • Nick Cox – guitar, vocals • Tamara Mooshey – vocals With Semple the band released a number of studio and live albums:
Medley CD (2007),
U.S.A – U.K. (2008),
Unplugged (2009),
Pop Medley 2 (2009),
Medley CD/DVD (2010),
Jukebox (2010),
Merry Christmas in Chicago (2010) and
Pop Media (2011). He left the band in 2012. In 2012, Semple left the band and was replaced by
Anthony Fedorov, a contestant finalist on the
fourth season of
American Idol.
2010: American Idol In January 2010, Semple successfully auditioned for the
ninth season of
American Idol. He was put in the intro to the Chicago episode of the
American Idol. Semple said
Simon Cowell was reportedly "unhappy" he did not tell his band members 7th Heaven in advance about his audition. But
Fox Chicago affiliate offered to film Semple telling his band 7th Heaven and allowed them to perform together on Fox, thus giving him a fresh chance. At the actual Chicago auditions, he sang the
Bryan Adams' song "
Heaven". Simon Cowell said "I'm going to pass", but the three other judges
Kara DioGuardi,
Randy Jackson and guest judge
Shania Twain approved him going to the next round on a golden ticket. But after the broadcast, it was revealed there was an immigration snafu about Semple's residency status, and that he being in the United States on a work visa and not as a permanent resident would disqualify him from applying to
American Idol that stipulates that non-Americans applying to the show should at least have a permanent residency status, not a temporary working visa permit. The
American Idol producers pulled the plug on Semple continuing with the competition and disqualified him. Another former
One True Voice band member
Daniel Pearce had attempted a comeback less than a year earlier in 2009 on the
sixth season of the UK
The X Factor. Pearce was picked for the Final 24 but failed to make it to the Final 12.
2013–present: SEMPLE and The Cyberiam After announcing his resignation as the lead singer of 7th Heaven in October 2012, Semple introduced his new band, SEMPLE. With members Johnny Jannotti (formerly of Chasing the Day), Drew Johnson (formerly of Ordinary Outcasts), Amy Jay (formerly of Cat Fight) and Charley Bredrup (Fletcher Rockwell and The JR Miller Project). At the end of 2013, Amy announced she would be leaving the band to pursue her post grad education. One year later, the band, functioning as a four-piece, mutually parted ways with Charley Bredrup. Following interim guitarists Paulie Felice (of
Lexington, KY) and Stevie Craig, the position was permanently filled by Valentine Bennett (of
McHenry, IL). SEMPLE focuses on the original music Keith Semple has been writing and recording for years, as well as new material the band is working on together. In 2016, Semple founded the
progressive rock band The Cyberiam with keyboardist, Frank Lucas, and Lateralus drummer Tommy Murray. Along with bassist Brian Kovacs, they have released two studio albums, one EP, and two live albums to date. The Cyberiam have played at several progressive rock festivals, Progtoberfest IV in 2018, ProgStock in 2019, Marillion Couch Convention in 2020, and
ProgPower USA in 2022 receiving a host of accolades.
U.S. The Voice In 2015, he auditioned for
season 9 of the American series
The Voice. In the debut episode of the season broadcast on 21 September 2015, he sang "
I'll Be There For You" with two of the four judges,
Adam Levine and
Gwen Stefani turning their chairs. Semple chose to be part of Team Adam. Semple was paired against Manny Cabo in the Battle Rounds. They both sang
The Who's "
Baba O'Riley". Semple was declared the winner of the battle, thus advancing to the knockout rounds, where he was paired against Team Adam's Dustin Christensen, with Semple singing
Foreigner's "
I Want to Know What Love Is" while Christensen opted the song "
Free" from
Zac Brown Band, with Adam Levine choosing Semple as winner of the Knockout and moving forward to the Live Shows. On 9 November 2015, in the first round of live shows broadcast, he sang "
To Be with You", but failed to attract the top 2 votes of Team Adam finalists, and failed to be saved by Levine and was eliminated from competition on 11 November 2015.
Non Competition Performances: == Discography ==