Meet the Australian pop star who became Trump’s biggest fundraiser in London by hosting $50,000 dinners for the ex-president

More than twenty years ago, Holly Valance starred in an Australian soap opera and topped the charts with sparkling pop singles.

Today, it is one of Donald Trump’s main sources of income abroad.

Valance, 41, just hosted a fundraiser for Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign in London, with tickets costing up to $100,000. Nigel Farage – a longtime Trump ally and the main conservative force behind Brexit – was in attendance, alongside the former president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr.

“I would say everyone starts out left-handed and wakes up at some point after starting to make money, working, trying to run a business, trying to buy a house, and then realizing how much these ideas are crap, and then you go to the right,” Valance told British media outlet GB News earlier this month.

Valance’s views include denial of climate change – “the air is better than when I was growing up,” she said – and expressing disdain for “woke-ism”, the BBC reports.

The pop star also called climate activist Greta Thunberg an “evil little gremlin.”

Her husband, Nick Candy, is also a major Conservative supporter, making large donations to the Conservative Party, according to the BBC. The couple have been public supporters of Trump and Farage since 2022.

Valance also claimed credit for encouraging Farage to stand for election again as leader of the UK Reform Party. “I’ve been whispering in his ear for a long time,” she said, according to GB News.

Greg Swenson, a spokesman for Republicans Overseas UK, a campaign group for Trump’s party, said The Guardian the former president’s recent felony convictions have energized British supporters.

“We’ve already noticed that people who used to write checks for $100 are now writing checks for $1,000,” he said. “The question is what this means for independents and undecideds.”

Before her political debut, Valance was a well-known television and music performer.

At sixteen, she took part in the Australian soap opera Neighborsin which she appeared until 2022. She released her first pop single, “Kiss Kiss” in 2002. Her second single, “Down Boy”, topped the charts in the United Kingdom and Australia.

She released several best-selling albums until 2004, when she stepped away from music.

That year, she broke onto American television with roles in “CSI: Miami” and “Entourage.”

Since 2013, she has largely taken a break from acting and music.