The Masked Singer Australia: Christine Anu unmasked on Ten’s hit reality show
An iconic Aussie pop performer has been unmasked on Ten’s hit reality show The Masked Singer Australia. Warning: Spoilers
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Pop princess Christine Anu is the latest celebrity to be unmasked on Ten’s reality show The Masked Singer Australia.
The iconic performer had the judges on their feet with her rendition of Bon Jovi’s classicIt’s My Lifebefore ripping off her mask to reveal her identity.
Anu had kept her secret well — judge Dave Hughes had her pegged as Olympian Lauren Burns while Urzila Carlson was convinced the masked star was Tina Arena.
When Anu revealed her face, judge Dannii Minogue said: “The weirdest thing is, we guessed your name so many times last year.”
CHAPPEL REVEALS COSTUME SECRETS
Award-winning costume designer Tim Chappel has won an Oscar and a Tony for his beautiful work on The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Now he wants the ultimate accolade: a Logie.
“There’s currently no Logie for costume design – I’m going to change all that,” he tells Hibernation down the line from The Masked Singer Australia’s Melbourne set.
“I’m going to go all militant on Facebook – I want a Logie.”
Chappel has created another 12 elaborate and gorgeous costumes for this second serving of Ten’s bonkers show.
Mark Philippoussis and Michael Bevan have already been unmasked from their spectacular creations and Chappel says all 12 celebrities have been a joy to work with this year.
“They’re all incredibly brave,” he says.
“We had a couple of people who suffered quite badly from claustrophobia and we were able to build better vision and air into their head dresses.”
Producers go to extreme lengths to keep the identity of the participating celebrities a secret. Chappel is one of a handful of people who knows the true identities under the masks, and his lips are firmly sealed.
“My phone bings all day. My family and partner and friends are constantly trying to get me to tell them. I always say the same thing: I can neither confirm or deny.”
While keeping secrets is no problem for the 52-year-old, COVID-19 has presented some challenges this time around.
“It’s much harder to get fabric – fortunately we can get things shipped from Sydney,” Chappel says.
“But, even though it’s tricky, I feel like we are doing something that is quite invaluable. I really feel like I’m adding to society by giving them something to distract them from the misery that’s surrounding them right now.”
Chappel was working on Dancing with the Stars as the global pandemic started to unfold.
“It was actually quite magical in that second-last episode,” he says.
“Christian (Wilkins) and (dancing partner) Lily (Cornish) were in forced isolation and I went and assisted from afar. And to go live from a hotel rooftop was really amazing. But what was even cooler was there was all these apartment buildings surrounding them and people were all on their balconies, cheering. Again, that just showed that we were really providing something really beautiful.”
While this show is pure escapism, the masked celebs certainly aren’t escaping anywhere easily – not when they’re carrying up to 12kg on their heads.
Chappel says there’s no way he’d be up for it. Plus, he has no interest in being a performer.
“I was in a film when I was a teenager – I mean, I loved the whole thing but I haaaaaated being the actor,” he says.
“I’m so glad I got that out of my system.”
There’s never a creative block for Chappel, in fact, it’s quite the opposite. His brain is on constant overdrive.
However, he confesses he’s the world’s laziest perfectionist.
“It means if I can’t make it perfectly, then I’m not going to do it. I won’t start anything unless I know where the end is and it’s going to be perfect.”
FUN FACTS
CANDY KITTEN
Candy Kitten’s fur is completely hand made. Each hair is a 40cm piece of bias-cut organza that has been “rug-hooked” onto a hammock. It took 4 hammocks worth of net to make her body and tail. She was started before the initial lockdown in Melbourne and travelled to each of our homes to be worked on. She was the most labour intensive and took around 200 hours to make. She is also enormous – 2.5m high
BUSHRANGER
We mapped Ned Kelly’s original armour and matched Swarovski stones to the rust and bullet holes.
HAMMERHEAD
Hammerhead is our saltwater tradie. I crossed all the visual elements of a tradie with a shark. He even has fin-shaped work gloves. The sightline is through the mouth so you feel like a sharks meal behind the mask.
WIZARD
Wizard needed more bling so I went around the parks of Carlton, collected leaves from the oak trees, did a glitter “shake’n’bake” and added them to give the costume some lift on stage. He is a forest wizard so he has tiny toadstools growing on his hat and shoulders. He even has tiny little friend in his moustache.
The Masked Singer, Monday and Tuesday, 7.30pm, Ten
Originally published as The Masked Singer Australia: Christine Anu unmasked on Ten’s hit reality show