Being on The Voice Australia isn’t something Edde Masson ever imagined for herself, not because of her talent, but because she didn’t think it was physically possible.
The 32-year-old had established herself in the music industry with more than a decade of experience under her belt. But when she became a mother, everything changed.
Throughout her pregnancy, she suffered from Hyperemesis gravidarum, a severe pregnancy complication which meant she was unwell throughout her entire pregnancy.
She explains that she was vomiting every week up until her son’s birth, which she says “decimated” her.
“[It] absolutely destroyed my sense of self, how I thought I would be in the world and exist in the world,” she tells New Idea.
“I lost my voice,” she adds, describing her vocal cords as “shredded” at the time.
Despite the years of recovery and getting back on the path to singing, she doubted whether she’d perform again because she also suffers from chronic fatigue and coeliac disease.
Not only has going on the reality show helped her reclaim herself as a singer, but it has also helped her reform her identity.
“[I’m] going on the show with a bit of like, this is just for me. This is just for Edde. This is not for anyone else other than for me,” the artist explains.
Despite recovering after pregnancy, she still worried about joining the show because of her chronic fatigue.
“Performing late at night, not getting enough sleep, not being able to prioritise how much time it takes me to recover kind of forced me to make the decision to not be a full-time performer,” the mother of one confesses.
“I was like, okay well, I want to make art and I want to share my art, but the industry doesn’t necessarily have a lot of space for people whose bodies are different and so I kind of have to just like carve my own path, and still to this day, I have to be so aware of how much I do because my body is frustratingly fragile.”
Her health woes led the music lecturer to start writing music commissions for other people, especially expectant mothers, new mothers, and women who have lost their babies. It’s something she did for herself while going through her own pregnancy with her album, Birth of a Mother.
For the singer, creating music that is meaningful for someone is how she measures her success, and she hopes to connect with others through her journey on The Voice Australia.
“I think a big reason for me to put myself on to a stage was to give them the opportunity to find music that could support them through an experience,” she says. “Because when I was pregnant, I was like desperately looking for music that could like hold me through like the hardest time of my life and there was nothing out there.
“I have quite a beautiful little following online, and I always get messages from women who have listened to the album during their pregnancy or their birth. And I was kind of like, ‘Man, more people should know about this.’”
Despite being racked with nerves ahead of her audition, she was determined to make it onto the stage, and thank goodness she did, as she secured four chair turns from the judges.
“It brought up every insecurity that I thought I had dealt with over my career, and it felt like I was in university again,” the Queenslander confesses.
“It felt like I was getting like a performance assessment again. On the side of stage, I was just like heavy breathing. Like truly heavy breathing, trying not to pass out.”
But in the end, her decision to use her musical loop to re-imagine Melanie C’s hit, I Turn To You, paid off, and she ended up choosing her as her coach.
“For me, it was just like ultimate freedom. It felt like the truest expression of myself,” she explains.
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