Before Madeline Beckett auditioned for The Voice Australia, she hadn’t sung for more than 10 years due to severe performance anxiety.
Madeline has always been creative, training as a visual artist and florist, but she had a major career change after a back injury.
Relocating from Sydney to the Southern Highlands, she started work as a medical receptionist, but felt like her creativity was put on pause.
It wasn’t until she went to a karaoke event at Kangaroo Valley that she considered singing. Before that, her anxiety got to the point where she’d be physically sick.
With that night still on her mind, she finally took a leap of faith and applied for the Channel Seven show.
“I had to do it,” she tells us. “I knew I would always have wondered what would have happened.”
Despite her nerves, she had her karaoke comrades in the back of her mind.
“All you have to do is go and try, and people will respond,” she says about her audition.
She says she was filled with terror, and as a perfectionist, was initially worried about not having all four coaches turn around.
In the end, only Richard didn’t turn his chair, but it didn’t matter, because her family and karaoke friends were in the crowd, and the audience cheered.
She admits that she didn’t know who turned around until she opened her eyes at the end.
“The three judges that had turned around for me… It’s the thing that I’ll have with the rest of my life, because it was so much for me to get there and stand there, it’s such a win,” she says of the life-changing moment.
“I mean, I had my eyes closed when I performed it.”
Having the coaches’ blessings meant everything to her, especially from her chosen coach, Kate Miller-Heidke. In the end, Madeline filled her team.
“Right after the performance, on our walk backstage to see my family, I began to say, ‘Hey, was that actually good?'” the 35-year-old explains.
“That’s what I said to her. She said, ‘I know what you’re doing, stop what you’re doing. You’re going back over the performance and pulling it apart, seeing what could’ve been better.'”
She adds that the coach has been a pillar of support for her during his new chapter.
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