The year is 1976, and Leo Sayer’s You Make Me Feel Like Dancing is charting around the world. The catchy dance track skyrocketed to number one in the US and peaked at number two in the UK before going on to make the English singer a Grammy winner for Best R&B Song in 1978.
It’s been nearly 50 years since Leo put his track out into the world, and it’s still enduring today as a classic, being used to soundtrack films like Anne Hathaway’s Ella Enchanted in 2004 and the third season of The Handmaid’s Tale. While the song lives on in the spotlight, the voice behind it has kept a low profile in the decades since.
So, what happened to Leo Sayer? Read on to find out what the singer behind hits like When I Need You and More Than I Can Say is up to today.
He lives in Australia
Leo, whose real name is Gerard Hugh Sayer, left the UK in the 2000s for a life Down Under after facing financial losses and going through a legal dispute. The singer sued his former manager, Adam Faith, in the ’90s for mismanagement and settled out of court for £650,000. He also went through a legal dispute with his former label, Chrysalis, over the publishing rights to his songs.
After becoming an Australian citizen in 2009, he relocated to the historic village of Berrima in New South Wales’ Southern Highlands, where he currently lives with his second wife, Donnatella, who has been with for over 40 years.
“I first went there in 1975 on tour. I was quite popular there so it’s a place I’ve always enjoyed being in. I basically needed a kick in the pants so I thought, “I’ll move,” the 77-year-old said in a 2025 interview about why he moved across the pond.
The star’s home is a nature haven and even has Kookaburras visit and sit on the veranda, which Leo captured in photos shared to Facebook. He shared a loved-up selfie with his wife in December, reminiscing on their live in Australia: “11 years ago Dona and I moved out of Sydney and found our little paradise in the Southern Highlands, discovering the happy peace and natural beauty of life in Berrima.”
© Apple Photos Clean Up, Facebook/ Leo SayerHe was on Celebrity Big Brother
Three decades after he topped the US charts with You Make Me Feel Like Dancing, Leo was back in the spotlight – but this time on TV. The singer joined the star-studded fifth season of Channel 4’s Celebrity Big Brother UK in 2007.
“There was a guy who said: ‘We can get you a new record deal.’ There’s always a carrot, isn’t there?” Leo told The Guardian as to why he said yes to doing the show. However, his reality TV stint was short-lived after he walked out mid-season following an argument over a lack of clean underwear.
He’s still performing
© RedfernsNot only is he still rocking out to crowds in Australia, but he’s about to embark on his ‘Can’t Stop Loving You’ UK tour soon. The singer kicks off his ‘final’ tour of the UK in October, with shows across Birmingham, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Manchester, London and more stops.
In his recent sit-down with The Guardian, Leo responded to rumours he might have an album or memoir in the works and could potentially be performing at Glastonbury music festival in the near future. “Yeah, yeah, yeah! There are people who are trying to engineer things like that for me. It could happen. It might happen. But it’s not confirmed, put it like that,” he replied.
“All my fans keep shouting for it, and there are people lobbying for me. There are even people in the ’biz who keep talking about it.”
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