Dean Ray

Dean Ray
Ray at the Emeralds & Ivy Ball in October 2014
Background information
Birth name	Dean Pritchard
Born	Melbourne
Genres	Rock
Occupation(s)	Singer songwriter
Instruments	Vocals guitar drums
Years active	2014–present
Labels	Sony
Website	www.deanraymusic.com

Dean Pritchard, better known by his stage name Dean Ray, is an Australian singer and songwriter. In 2014, he was the runner-up on the sixth season of The X Factor Australia. Ray subsequently received a recording contract with Sony Music Australia and released his debut single "Coming Back", which debuted at number five on the ARIA Singles Chart. This was followed by the release of his self-titled debut album in November 2014, which debuted at number five on the ARIA Albums Chart and was certified gold by the Australian Recording Industry Association.

Dean Ray (born Dean Pritchard) is originally from Narromine, New South Wales. At the age of six, Ray and his family moved to Meandarra, Queensland. Ray comes from a musical family; his parents Chris and Angie had their own country band called Itchy Feet. Ray grew up travelling around Australia with his parents, and he would often sleep in guitar cases backstage at venues when his parents were on stage performing. Ray learnt how to play the drums when he was nine years old. At the age of 13, he learnt how to play the guitar and started writing his own songs. Ray and his brother, who played piano, were then recruited into their parents' band.

Ray was a student at Chinchilla State High School in Chinchilla, Queensland. He left school at the age of 16 to pursue a music career. During this time, Ray also moved out of his family home and went travelling. He later moved to Kensington, Victoria and worked as a busker around the streets of Melbourne.

In 2014, Ray successfully auditioned for the sixth season of The X Factor Australia, singing "Bette Davis Eyes" by Kim Carnes. He received four yeses from the judges and progressed to the super bootcamp round of the competition. For the first bootcamp challenge, Ray was placed into a group with three other contestants from the Under 25 Boys category to perform a song together for the judges. Ray made it to the second bootcamp challenge, where he performed "Yellow" by Coldplay to the judges and a live audience of one thousand. He then progressed to the home visits round in New York City and performed "Dancing Queen" by ABBA in front of his mentor Natalie Bassingthwaighte and guest mentor Jennifer Lopez. Bassingthwaighte later selected Ray, along with Adrien Nookadu and Tee, for the live finals—a series of eleven weekly live shows in which contestants are progressively eliminated by public vote.