Liam Maihi

After raising three kids and walking away from national TV fame, Liam Maihi is stepping back into the spotlight with a voice honed by life, love and small-town grit.


Raised in the cosy coastal town of Sussex Inlet by a single mum, Liam learned the meaning of community. The kind of place where everyone knows your name, where neighbours are family, and where you don’t need much more than a fishing rod and good mates to feel rich.


Between beachcombing and breezy after-school hangs, Liam’s storytelling instincts took root — watching, listening, living. On school holidays he’d visit his dad in Sydney, a painter with an old, battered guitar.


“It was hardly ever in tune, always missing a string, but whenever he picked it up and played a song I would be in awe.”


Music was woven into the fabric of his early years. His earliest gigs were impromptu performances at his mum’s hair salon; a space cobbled into the front of their family home.


“Mum would always proudly tell her clients about a song I had written and ask me to come and play a song for someone. Looking back, they were probably some of my earliest memories of playing in front of people I didn’t know.”


By high school, music had become his identity. With a cheap guitar in hand — a gem from Aldi’s lucky dip middle-aisle — his lunch times were made up of jam sessions with mates. A last-minute call-up to sing Sunshine of Your Love in front of the entire school left him terrified, but the cheers that followed told him everything he needed to know.


“There still isn’t a performance I remember being more nervous about. But at the end of the song the entire hall erupted - that was where I first thought I might make a decent singer and where I first knew I wanted to be one.”


From there, things snowballed. He was invited into performance programs like the South East Regional Ensemble, Southern Stars, and the Talent Development Project, where he shared stages and songs with future stars and forged lifelong connections.


Over the next decade, he did just about every job under the sun to chase down his dreams and still make the rent each week. Between pulling taps at bars, plumbing for his grandfather, chicken farming at sub-zero temperatures, installing ceiling insulation, and guitar teaching for toddlers and retirees alike, you can bet he’s got some war stories.


“One thing that surprised me is how many different things you find in peoples roofs. I’ve seen snakes, mice, bats, spiders… if it can bite you, I’ve seen it in a roof.”


He even started a local booking agency — Southern Events Agency — helping other musicians get their start. Yet, as life pulled him in different directions, music remained his compass. He kept gigging every weekend, not for the money, but because it made him feel like himself.


In 2015, Liam made the Grand Final of The Voice Australia (Season 4), earning national spotlight and the pride of his hometown. He later joined the lineup for Big Country Festival, billed alongside Country music veterans Lee Kernaghan, The Wolfe Brothers, The MyClymonts and Travis Collins. But instead of continuing to chase the industry grind, he went home to do what mattered most: be a dad.


Now, nearly a decade later, Liam’s back — with more to say than ever before. His debut single, Whiskey and You (out July 4, 2025), is a rich, rootsy nod to the nervous energy of a first date — with his now-fiancé Courtney. Recorded with Nashville heavyweights and mixed and mastered by rising Australian star Alex Mather, it marks the first taste of a long-overdue chapter.


Liam’s music lives where country meets blues and rock — big-hearted, soulful, and built on real stories. He sings for the everyday people: the shift workers, the parents, the mates at the back of the pub singing along. His live show feels like a honky tonk down under.


“I like the rowdy crowds. The kind to pop a boot off and use it as a drinking vessel, The kind that knows dark liquor isn’t just for the end of the night, the kind that are midnight made. That’s exactly who I am at someone else’s show, the loose unit in the front row yelling out for my favourite song. So if that’s you, you will enjoy the show!”


Before even releasing his debut, Liam sold out a 200-cap room in Richmond, NSW, played to a crowd of 600 in the Kangaroo Valley, was added to the Kickin’ Country lineup in Penrith and has been invited to perform in the US – just on the strength of his voice and story alone.


For Liam Maihi, this isn’t a second shot — just picking up where he left off, with a clearer head, a fuller heart, and stories that only time could teach.