Scandal'us: Where are the members of the band now?

They were supposed to follow in the footsteps of successful Popstars band Bardot but they all but disappeared.

After the success of Bardot, Popstars was keen to create another band and so in the second season, they formed Scandal'us.

Made up of Tamara Jaber, Anna Belperio, Jason Bird, Simon Ditcham, Daniela Scala, their first single, Me, Myself & I, debuted at number one but their follow-up single Make Me Crazy didn't do well and no other singles were released.

The band Scandal'us in 2002. Photo: Getty Images
The band Scandal'us were formed during the second season of Popstars but they split just one year later. Photo: Getty Images

Less than a year after they released their album Startin' Somethin', they had been disbanded.

But what happened to the girls and guys from the band?

Tamara Jaber

Tamara was the only member of the band to get her own solo contract after the band broke up, signing with her boyfriend at the time, shock jock Kyle Sandilands' record label, King Kyle Records.

Tamara Jaber with fiancé Billy Kokkinis; with former husband Kyle Sandilands; A pregnant Tamara Jaber.
Tamara Jaber married radio personality Kyle Sandilands and continued a career in music before finding love with fiancé Billy Kokkinis. Photo: Getty Images/Instagram/@tamarajaber

She released two solo singles Ooh Ahh and Hard for Me but Kyle was criticised for promoting her music on his radio show on 2DayFM.

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Tamara then became a member of girl group Scarlett Belle for three years before returning to her solo career.

In 2008, Tamara and Kyle married but it was not to last and they split two years later in 2010.

After the break-up, Tamara relocated to the US where, as the pandemic hit, she was in her final semester of a degree in communications and media technology at the Academy of Art University, San Francisco.

Tamara, 41, and her fiancé Billy Kokkinis, the owner of celebrity gym City Gym, welcomed their first child together in October.

Anna Belperio

Adelaide-born Anna returned to South Australia after the band split but continued to make music. She was part of a wedding duo, Music By Pearl, for a while but now seems to have disappeared from the public eye.

Anna Belperio in Scandal'us and as part of Adelaide wedding duo Music By Pearl
Anna Belperio returned to South Australia where she was a member of wedding duo Music By Pearl. Photo: YouTube

Maybe one day she'll make music again.

Jason Bird

Jason continued his pursuit of music and dance after the band split and even got a great job working behind the scenes in TV.

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"I was a resident choreographer on So You Think You Can Dance a couple of years back which was a lot of fun," he told news.com.au.

Jason Bird in Scandal'us and with his husband Daniel Morrison
Jason Bird is now happily settled in Perth with his husband Daniel. Photo: YouTube & Instagram/@jasonwbird

Since then, he has married his partner, Daniel Morrison, and the couple flip houses as he continues to gig in Fremantle, Western Australia.

Simon Ditcham

Simon was brutally honest about why he applied to be on Popstars Australia.

"The fame is the real reason I went into Scandal’us to begin with," he admitted in 2015.

"I didn’t want to be a singer or a dancer but I thought it was the vehicle that I could use to get famous and successful enough to then communicate a message that I felt needed to be communicated."

And that message isn't what you think – he revealed that in 2013 he had found spirituality.

Simon Ditcham from his Twitter (X) profile and in Scandal'us
Simon Ditcham has all but disappeared. He last spoke to media in 2015 where he talked about finding God. Photo: YouTube & X

"God just wants us to live happily and love each other as he commanded, which is the biggest concern because we obviously don’t apply that ... we don’t live it," he told news.com.au

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However, after that interview, the Tasmanian seemed to disappear and stopped updating his social media accounts.

Daniela Scala

Daniela blamed Tamara's desire for a solo career as the reason why the band broke up so quickly. “Tamara (Jaber) wanted to go solo, that was the whole reason (the band broke up)," she told news.com.au in 2015.

She also revealed that the pair haven't spoken in years: “I don’t try to keep track of people that I’m not interested in."

Daniela Scala in Scandal'us and in 2022 from Insatgram
Daniela Scala returned to Adelaide and only really keeps up with the boys from the group. Photo: YouTube & Instagram/@danyscala111

She went back to Adelaide after the split and taught singing and performing.

In 2015, Daniela had another crack at fame on The Voice but she failed to make it through the audition stage with judge Jessie J telling her: "I think the best thing for you to do honestly is to keep performing, just keep practicing."

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