‘Criminal': Fans' one big problem with The Voice this season
Irish singer Ronan Keating, British former Spice Girl Melanie C and 80s American hitmaker Richard Marx join sole Aussie Kate Miller-Heidke in the four red chairs this season.
The line-up was announced months ago, but it seems it rankled some fans who tuned in during last night's season premiere.
The complaint: Too many imports and not enough Aussie talent among the coaches.
'Only 1 in 4 judges is Aussie, that sucks,' one viewer complained on X.
Another said having only one Australian judge on a show dedicated to unearthing new Australian talent was 'criminal.'
'A bit disappointing the #TheVoiceAU only has one Australian judge,' tweeted another viewer.
The complaint was echoed over on Instagram and Facebook, in the comment sections under a post showing the opening group performance by this season's four coaches.
'Apparently we don't have enough aussie artists as judges to give us better ratings?' one viewer asked.
'Love them all but only one Aussie … not sure that is a good choice …' said another.
The Voice has always had a coaching panel comprised of a mix of local and overseas artist, and in fact, this isn't the first time there's been only one coach repping for Australia.
That started back in season two when Delta Goodrem was the sole Aussie on a coaching panel that also comprised Ricky Martin, Seal and Joel Madden.
But in recent years, Aussie artists like Guy Sebastian, Jess Mauboy and Keith Urban have helped weight the coaching line-up more towards homegrown talent.
The last time there was a sole Aussie coach on the show was back in 2018, when Goodrem was the only Aussie among Boy George, Kelly Rowland and Joe Jonas for the show's seventh season.
To be fair, all this year's imports do have a strong Aussie connection: Ronan Keating is married to an Australian, Storm Keating, while Melanie C has made frequent visits to our shores since starting a relationship with Sydneysider Chris Dingwall at least 18 months ago. And Richard Marx is practically an honorary Aussie at this point, a prolific touring artist here ever since the early days of his career in the late 1980s.
The coaches might've been met with a mixed response, but the first crop of contestants have already earned praise from the show's fanbase on social media – among the highlights from last night's premiere were a singing aerialist who scored two chair-turns for her 'joyful' performance of Dee-Lite's pop classic Groove is in the Heart and a young primary school teacher who earned four chair-turns for his 'flawless' rendition of the oft-covered Four Seasons song Beggin'.
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ABC News
14 minutes ago
- ABC News
A young skater caught in a police crackdown is back in the spotlight, 50 years later
For Jean Hopcraft, this was all quite familiar. The interview, the camera crew and the questions about the rollerskates. The 69-year-old has been living a quiet and hidden life in Melbourne's inner suburbs. But in the late 1970s, she was turning heads. Almost 50 years later, her dormant fame has returned after an old video of her went viral. Loading Instagram content The ABC republishes archival stories on social media to revisit the best stories about Australians from the past. Over the past few weeks, more than a million people have watched a social media post showing a young Jean rollerskating through Melbourne. While many dream of having the kind of fame brought on by the likes of TikTok and Instagram, Jean was not after that at all. "It's bizarre that they've clicked on it," she said. "Who would have thought anybody would be interested in somebody on rollerskates from all those years ago?" Rolling to fame In 1977, ABC reporter Terry McMahon interviewed a young woman who was quite popular on the city streets of Melbourne. She travelled around on rollerskates despite an active police crackdown that saw officers confiscating them from those they caught. Skateboards and rollerskates were regarded as a public nuisance at that time. Jean was 21 when she was interviewed about her rollerskating by the ABC in the late 1970s. ( ABC archive ) Jean was a 21-year-old college student whose studies and work revolved around the CBD, and a pair of rollerskates was her chosen mode of transport for 14 years. With worn-out skates strapped onto the feet and her best outfit on, she zoomed past pedestrians, catching attention as she glided. McMahon: What about when you're out on the street? Do people stare? Jean Hopcraft: Yeah, they stare most of the time, but I don't take any notice of them. McMahon: What about police? Jean Hopcraft: No problems. Few years ago, with the skateboards, they clamped down, told me to take them off. But I put them on when I got around the corner … I won't give them away yet. Looking back, she never expected her playful antics to turn her into a public figure. "There was quite a bit of press because I [skated] for a long time, so they were very familiar with this girl just skating around the city," Jean said. "Little snippets in the paper … newspapers reaching out to me. "I just became part of the fabric of Melbourne." This was the first time Jean watched the TV story produced by the ABC in 1977. ( ABC News: Danielle Bonica ) About the same time, Jean also featured on a daytime current affairs television program presented by Mickie de Stoop, which featured stories of pioneering women. Yet underneath the energetic but nonchalant persona portrayed in printed columns and black-and-white photographs, Jean faced significant societal drawbacks. Not fitting the mould The 1970s were a very different time for women. It was a period when career options were slim and freedom of expression, especially by clothing, could be frowned upon. "I actually wanted to be a painter, a decorator like my dad but, in those days, women weren't allowed to do those sorts of jobs," Jean said. "It was deemed not suitable for women." Roller skating was a cheap and easy mode of transport for young Jean Hopcroft. ( Supplied ) Rollerskating was a cheap and easy mode of transport for a young Jean Hopcraft. (Supplied) Despite a police crackdown, Jean was spotted roller skating in popular spots in Melbourne's CBD. ( Supplied/ABC News: Danielle Bonica ) Despite a police crackdown, Jean was spotted rollerskating in popular spots in Melbourne's CBD. (Supplied/ABC News: Danielle Bonica) The local newspaper writes about Jean travelling through the city on a pair of roller skates. ( Supplied ) The local newspaper writes about Jean travelling through the city on her rollerskates. (Supplied) Instead, she studied fashion and textile at the Emily McPherson College, which was known for its cookery and dressmaking courses. Even within university walls, Jean didn't always stick to the status quo. The queer community was her clique, and she wasn't afraid to break a few college rules — including the skating. "I guess you'd call me a freak … because I didn't fit the mould," Jean said. "Women couldn't wear trousers way back then. We had to get a petition together to see if women could wear pants and trousers. "I got pulled over at school and almost expelled because they didn't like the idea of a woman skating. "I stood up for what I believed." 'Classic Jean' Over the phone from New York, Jean and her husband Peter Hoyland's daughter, Eliza Hoyland, wasn't surprised about her mother's sudden return to stardom back home. "She's a very interesting person, my mum," Eliza said. The ABC post was the first time Eliza found out her mother had ever been interviewed by the news outlet. "I'm watching and I'm like, 'What in the world is this?'" "I think I watched it like 20 times in a row." Eliza Hoyland said she is in awe of Jean, who she thinks is the "best mum ever". ( Supplied: Eliza Hoyland ) For Eliza, a huge chunk of her mum's youth has been like scattered puzzle pieces waiting to be put together. She said Jean had always assured the family that "there'll be nothing about her" on the internet. "I googled her and this photo of her came up in her rollerblading look, and she's in this leopard skin suit," she said. "My mum is very private and very timid, but then she has this huge life that [Dad and I] are always trying to creep in [on]." One of Eliza's absolute joys was watching Jean rollerskate during a birthday celebration in 2023. In 2023, Jean put her rollerskates back on in a rink in New York. ( Supplied: Eliza Hoyland ) At the Rockefeller Center, the rollerskater flaunted her self-taught skills like she never left the rink. For Jean, it was all muscle memory. "She was zooming around the rink and doing laps on my friends and like, 'Get out of the way!'" Eliza recalled. "It's classic Jean. She's an icon." Peter Hoyland said he's met strangers who recognise Jean from the viral clip. ( ABC News: Danielle Bonica ) Peter Hoyland, whose career in the music industry has introduced him to several notable artists, said it had been "fun" and "fantastic" to meet people buzzing about his wife's renewed popularity. "I said, "Now you're the most famous person that I know,'" Peter said. A friend even warned the couple about the possibility of Jean becoming an internet meme. "Yes, I'm waiting for that," Peter said. Jean Hopcraft enjoys reading books and gardening in her inner Melbourne home. ( ABC News: Danielle Bonica ) Jean will soon turn 70 and is now living a quieter life, enjoying her retirement. She gardens, travels to the US to visit her daughter, and reminisces about her earlier days on her trusty skates. "I didn't care," she said. "I couldn't afford a car. I had my own ideas of what was right and wrong." Always in awe of her mother and the hidden stories of her past, Eliza described Jean as a "wonderful human" with an amazing story waiting to be told. "She's always going to be standing up for herself and the people around her," she said. "I was just like, 'You haven't changed a bit. Yes, you might only wear black now, but you really are exactly the same.'"
ABC News
44 minutes ago
- ABC News
After years of private turmoil, Alex Lloyd is ready for the spotlight again
Life was so sweet for Alex Lloyd for a while. Amazing, even. The boy from Balmain's hit song had catapulted him to stardom. He'd met and married his great love, started a family and moved to London. But then, to borrow from the lyrics of that song that is so deeply woven into Australia's fabric, every wolf was at his door. "I ended up in a place where no one could really help me," Alex tells Australian Story in an exclusive interview. A legal fight over the authorship of Amazing sparked an unravelling. Resurfaced childhood trauma led to a marriage breakdown, extreme weight gain and ultimately an addiction to oxycodone that saw the four-time ARIA Award winner, including three for Best Male Artist, fade from view. But now, at 50, with his first studio album in 12 years in the works, Alex Lloyd is learning to "be OK with me" and is ready to do some amazing things. "Now, I'm seeing the world differently. And I think I'm ready to share this part of me now and be scrutinised again," he says. He was a chubby kid with a mohawk, an acoustic guitar and a voice that mesmerised the bustling crowd at the Balmain Markets in the mid-1980s. "He would play blues covers with such strength and conviction, people would just stop what they were doing," says friend Sally Gluckstern, who met Alex when he was 10. "He came alive when he sang, but when he wasn't singing, he was incredibly shy," she recalls. "I remember feeling there was something sort of heavy about him. Heavy inside." Music was always Alex's escape from a chaotic childhood of dyslexia, violence, love and loss. By 13, he was gigging at pubs and his bluesy, soulful voice and poignant storytelling would become his ticket out of struggle street. When Amazing hit the airwaves in 2001, it took Alex into rarefied air. "It genuinely is one of the Aussie anthems of the last 25 years," says friend and former triple j announcer Adam Spencer. "It's left an indelible mark on Australian music." They were heady days — travelling the world, partying and making music. "I've had some extreme highs, like highs that hardly anyone gets to experience," says Alex. "I got to sing in a castle and meet kings and queens and princesses, like, it's crazy." He married Amelia Mills, who he'd spotted in the crowd on a tour for his debut album Black the Sun, became a dad and moved to London to work on his first independent album. He was the "happiest guy on the planet". Then, the legal letter arrived. Out of the blue, truck driver and one-time musician Mark O'Keefe alleged Alex had stolen Amazing. O'Keefe claimed he'd co-written the hit with Alex on the back of coasters when they played at the same pub when Alex was a teenager. The "ridiculous" claim challenged Alex's artistic integrity. "I couldn't think of anything worse than stealing somebody's song," he says. But more destructively, in order to rebut the claim, Alex had to cast his mind back to those tough years he thought he'd left behind. Childhood trauma "just comes and bites you in the arse", Alex says. Alex's parents split when he was about six, and he and his brother, Oliver, lived with their mother, Bridget Lloyd. He loved his "crazy in a beautiful way" mum, a struggling artist who'd start painting at midnight, waking Alex up with the smell of oil paint and Ry Cooder on the stereo. Her relationship with a violent binge drinker led to terrifying times, when the man would beat Bridget, "banging her head against the hard wood floor". Alex would try to intervene but was too young and powerless — and had his own battles with his volatile brother. "I had to go back in time and discover all this shit that I hadn't dealt with," Alex says. "The beatings on my mother, the beatings from my brother, being called a fat shit all the time." When Bridget died suddenly, when Alex was 16, he "cried for six months". The legal action took him back there, with O'Keefe initially claiming Amazing was written in 1989 soon after Bridget's death. But Bridget died in 1991. O'Keefe withdrew his claim soon after the case reached court, but the damage was done. Depression set in, his weight ballooned and the songs wouldn't flow. "I fell apart," Alex says. "I was scared to write songs on my own because I thought, 'If I write this song on my own, anyone can say they wrote it.''" By 2012, Alex and the family returned to Australia but the marriage didn't survive. Losing Amelia and not living with his four children sent Alex into a spiral. On the weekends, when he had the kids, he'd cook up a storm and "pull out all stops". But when they left, he'd walk up the street to the bottle shop. "I'd buy really expensive champagne … and a pack of Twisties," Alex says. "Then the next three days, I'd eat KFC and Pizza Hut and Domino's. And I'd lie in bed." He was frittering money away, "trying to doubly be destructive to my bank balance", which had already taken a $300,000 hit in legal fees from the court case. Performing had always been a joy but this period was different. "I was 168kg and I was going out and doing shows in front of 10,000 people with my face on a massive screen," Alex says. Photographs of him online attracted a flood of fat-shaming comments. "I didn't feel very good about myself," he says. "[I was] in a lot of pain all the time, emotionally and physically." He was suffering crippling nerve pain caused by the complete wearing away of the cartilage between vertebrae in his neck. Nothing he was prescribed worked. One day, someone offered him the painkilling opioid oxycodone. It is, Alex says, "an evil drug". None of Alex's rock star partying prepared him for the insidious assault of oxycodone. At first, he thought: "This is the answer to everything." His pain was managed, his depression eased and he was motivated, pulling back his drinking and running long distances. But, he says: "I had no idea what I was getting into with that drug … I didn't know how addictive it was." He took more and more — but it wasn't enough. He tried to get off it but couldn't. "Eventually, it's a very empty, lonely sense of impending doom," Alex says. It was in this state that Alex headed to Brisbane to do some gigs with multi-instrumentalist Salliana Seven. She describes Alex as an open soul and says he never tried to hide his addiction from her. His failed attempts to break free of oxycodone were heartbreaking. "I saw him at his lowest of the lowest of low," she says. "You know, suicidal." "As cooked as he was when I met him … he opens his mouth and I'm just blown away." Relief came with Suboxone, a medication to treat opioid dependence. It was a gruelling transition as his body adjusted, but his children, and his renewed joy for music, gave him the impetus to push through. "I think he's finally let go of the broken fairytale of his marriage," Salliana says. "I really feel that losing that just destroyed him on top of all the other trauma that he's had … He's moving through that, which is massive." As he works through his own long-buried trauma, Alex is hoping to help today's kids navigate tough times by working with the KIDS Foundation. "I really believe in and want to be an advocate for childhood trauma and giving kids skills at an early age to deal with it later because it hit me and I didn't even know what it was," he says. At a recent musical workshop, as Alex sits in a field with a guitar on his lap, a couple of teens share their fear of being judged, or trolled, for their music. Alex tells them that every artist must face those fears, and every artist falls on their face at some time. Getting back up is where the success lies. "You can't beat yourself up over everything," Alex says, as much to himself as the kids. "Otherwise, you'd just be stuck there forever. There is no such thing as mistakes, only lessons."
News.com.au
an hour ago
- News.com.au
Beauty Diary: Sonia Kruger shares age-defying ‘secrets' as she turns 60
Sonia Kruger is about to turn 60 – but it's a fact many of her fans and followers simply can't believe. 'It's actually unbelievable, 60?' declared one fan after her milestone birthday was featured on the cover of Body+Soul recently. 'I can't believe you are turning 60 – you look like you are in your 40s,' remarked another. As one said: 'Oh wow, I had no idea … what an inspiration.' But while the popular TV presenter may appear to be ageing backwards, Kruger says the secret to looking healthy and happy is a lot simpler than you think. 'I think a sense of humour is actually the best kept secret, you've got to be able to have a good laugh with friends and family, because it really is the best medicine,' she tells The Beauty Diary. 'Then I think regular exercise is key. I do weight training and I use Strictly You, my dance fitness app which is great when you're too busy to hit the gym. It's important to have some variety in your exercise routine to keep things interesting. 'I also try to eat well, but I do have a soft spot for licorice bullets, and I must say they also make me very happy.' When it comes to products, The Voice and Dancing with the Stars host does have a few she swears by, revealing she can't live without fake tan. 'I grew up in Queensland and saw a bit too much of the sun when I was young, so for me self-tan is a great alternative,' she explains. 'I love Three Warriors, an all Australian company made with local ingredients like Aloe vera and Tasmanian olive oil. 'It's even certified organic. There are zero nasties in these products and the colour is the best I've found, and I am an experienced self-tanner.' Kruger said her love of tan comes from being professional dancer, joking that back then the colour was 'more than a little orange'. 'My favourite Three Warriors product is the gradual tan that can be used daily as it's the only self-tan product that I find is genuinely really moisturising. 'I also use the Radiant Complexion Serum each night as it's light weight with active ingredients and helps create a buildable glow for the face.' Her 60th birthday also marks her 30th anniversary in showbiz, but when she's not at work, Kruger likes to strip her make-up back. 'My routine has become more about quality over quantity, I like products that are effective and maintain hydration,' she says. 'Years of heavy make up on set means my skin needs a really good break when I am not working, so I tend to keep things pretty simple. 'On weekends I honestly just use a concealer and a tinted moisturiser with some lip gloss and that's really it.' During her recent appearance at The Logies, where Kruger stunned in a custom gold Alin Le' Kal gown, Kruger went all out with a full-blown skincare and make-up routine. 'On the day, we keep some eye gel masks in the fridge and pop them on to reduce any puffiness around the eyes, I also find this adds some extra hydration,' she explains of her pre-event preparation. 'It's truly a marathon, as my hair and make-up need to stay for the long haul, which is why I never skip a setting spray after everything has been applied, it helps make sure everything stays put for as long as possible.' Kruger said she always makes sure she packs a lip balm in her bag as it helps keep her moisturised and extends the colour of her lipstick. The fake tan expert also said she will prep for her fake tan a few days before a major event. 'The day before tanning, I always do a full body exfoliation using Three Warriors Tasmanian sand scrub with Aloe Vera and the exfoliating mitt, this way the skin has the perfect smooth texture and is completely ready for self-tan application,' she reveals. 'When it comes to self- tanning day use the TW brush to buff the tricky spots like hands, feet and ears to ensure a flawless finish. 'What I love about Three Warriors tan is that it doesn't come off on my clothes or my Logies dress.'
