He sings; he dances; he is, in his own words, the whole "package". But Nigerian-born, Australian-raised musician Timomatic still remembers people telling him to give up on singing.

Born Tim Omaji, the 23-year-old was given his current moniker as a teenager because of his dance skills. And for a while, those skills far outweighed his singing voice.

"My sister sung in my family, but I just couldn't do it. I wanted to do it and I always had the passion to do it but the dancing was [instant]. Obviously when I started to sing and people heard that it wasn't, I guess, as natural as my dancing, there was a lot of pressure not to do it.

"People were like 'maybe it's not your thing, just stick to dancing' but I just knew in my heart that it was my thing - I had the whole package in my head and I knew it was a very important part," he said on a flying visit to Auckland, between songwriting sessions with local musicians.

"And I knew it was a test to push myself. If things get given to you too easily, you don't treat them as well, you don't fight for it. I knew I had to fight for it."

And fight he did.

Years of vocal training and gigging everywhere from high schools to church helped hone his voice into something that could make the charts - here and across the Tasman.

Although some shows had less pressure than others.

"The beauty of singing in church is that it's not right to hate on you if it sounds bad. You are just a vessel and that's it at the end of the day."

Knowing he had what it took to make the big time, Omaji's big break came thanks to his mum and a couple of reality TV shows.

"The first person to really convince me to do my first reality show was my mum.

"She said 'Tim, you have all these skills but you have no one to perform it to. You need to do something to get out there'."

While the obvious choice for someone wanting to be a singer might have been Australian Idol, Omaji felt the show - then in it's ninth season - was "stale". Instead in 2009, he auditioned for the second season of So You Think You Can Dance, making it to the top eight. The show led to a management deal and the lead role in Fame in 2010, but Omaji still had a voice desperate to be heard.

"I felt that So You Think You Can Dance had put me in a bit of a rut. It was positive, but my goal from the beginning was to become an artist. So that kind of branded me as just a dancer and I tried to get jobs as a singer, but people saw me as a dancer. I felt that I needed to change the perception and I knew I needed a platform as big, if not bigger, to redefine myself."

That's where Australia's Got Talent came in. Last year Omaji came third in the hit show, but he knows it could have been a different experience.

"It was a big risk - these shows can go either way and it took me two shows to crack it, but I did it."

With all his experience, Omaji could be called an expert on finding fame through reality TV. And while he admits it's a faster track than making it on your own, he says sometimes a little help is a good thing. "If you don't know people, if you don't have connections, you just have raw talent, then it's very hard for you to catch a break.

"There is a negative stigma attached to reality TV - that you get there quickly or whatever. But I think people forget that some of the greatest artists in the world started like that, it just wasn't called reality TV, it just wasn't televised.

"The Jackson 5 started on the Apollo stage. They did a show, they did competitions, but that's what they needed, they needed exposure. It was just the vehicle of the day to get you there."

Now that he is there, having recently signed a global contract with EMI for his songwriting skills as well as a top 20 single, the musician can't wait for his debut album to be released later this year.

"I use Set It Off, some old tracks and covers in my shows, waiting for the time that I get my album out. But I guess my artistry is how I perform those songs. So that's where the dancing really helps, because without that I'd just be a wedding singer, basically."