‘I’ve done a hell of a lot of soul-searching’: The Block star Shaynna Blaze as you’ve never seen her before

Starring in a glamorous photo shoot, Shaynna Blaze opens up about her surprising new role – as she describes landing The Block as ‘one of the most bizarre moments’ in her career.

For 12 years, interior designer Shaynna Blaze has rocked The Block as one of the renovation show’s A-list judges.

But behind the scenes, she has long taken on a makeover project of her own, reinventing herself to lean in and out of her love of design and (lesser-known) love of music.

As she prepares to embrace the latter with an EP and live shows, Blaze joins the Stellar podcast Something To Talk About to discuss her passion for performance, why she refuses to act her age and how landing on The Block was the result of “one of the most bizarre moments” in her career.

Picture: Steven Chee for Stellar

Stellar: You’re known as an interior decorator and TV personality on renovation reality shows The Block and Selling Houses Australia. But you’re also a singer, with an EP called Sweeter Than Life on the way and some upcoming cabaret shows to be announced soon. The first indication to Australians that this could be in the works was when you were on The Masked Singer Australia last year. What’s the reaction from people to this burgeoning career in music?

Shaynna Blaze: It’s really kind. For me, The Masked Singer was the best way to introduce it. Otherwise, they see you and judge you before you even do anything. And so the fact that I was on … they wouldn’t have a clue who it was. They could just hear me for me. The reception since [is that] people have been excited to hear more, and I couldn’t ask for anything better. Because when you love something so much, you want to share it and you just hope people are receptive. I’ve got to say: I wouldn’t have gone this far if I didn’t feel like it was something that was going to make other people happy – not just me.

Listen to Shaynna Blaze on the latest episode of the Stellar podcast, Something To Talk About:

Stellar: What was your background in music before you became the Shaynna Blaze the public knows today?

Shaynna Blaze: Music and design were never separate in my life because when I was young and growing up, there were always musical theatre types in the background … My mum was in love with Shirley Bassey and Tom Jones. My dad was very hands-on with craft and tools and making, so there was always music playing while you’re designing and creating things. I was doing design school and I was singing. Then I got too heavy in design and I had to give up music, which was fantastic in the fact that I had a design career. I started having babies and stopped working for a while because I was flying around the country with my job and it was just too hard. There just wasn’t the support of working mums that there is today – whether you’re a single or a married mum … You were the full-time carer, you did everything: “You can have a career and you can have children, but don’t talk about it and don’t tell us how hard it is and don’t show it.”

Picture: Steven Chee for Stellar

Shaynna Blaze (continued): So you had to put on your shoulder pads [laughs] – because it was the late ’80s, early ’90s – put on your smile and be the power woman that we all wanted to be. But if you show slight cracks, you’re not a good working mum. The cracks were starting to show with me. It was just too hard to do it all myself. So I stopped that to be with my kids – I was still in a marriage – and after about a year, I was bored. I went back to dabbling in music and started doing that more as a free-time thing and then it just picked up from there. Then my marriage broke up and I was already singing in pubs at that stage … When I got back into working during the day, I couldn’t find my way in design because I’d become a dinosaur. I went back to painting, drawing and doing commissioned artwork, which eventually got me into homes and then back into design. By the time I had my own business, that’s when TV started happening. It was a real high/low, high/low. But they are all intertwined.

One of the intertwining threads seems to be reinvention. Would you say that’s

a big part of your story?

Yes, it is. It’s something I really embrace because I lead with curiosity. It’s a case of if you can’t find something immediately, then you go down the rabbit hole to find out where you need to go. And if there’s a barrier there, you need curiosity to go left, right, above or below … I’ve done a hell of a lot of soul-searching because I’ve come up against a lot of blocks and a lot of things. And until you do the deep work to work out who you are and where you want to be, you may not know the answer, but at least you’ve got an idea. When you have that, that’s when you’re able to not worry about whatever labels get put on you because it becomes your little force field. On social media, I will get men and women that will say to me, “Act your age”, “You’re too old to wear that.” And I go, “I know I’m not”, because inside, I’m 36. Hello! But at the same time, only I have the right to say how I act and what I wear. So what you say around me has no power to me.

Listen to Shaynna Blaze on the latest episode of the Stellar podcast, Something To Talk About:

You started on The Block as a judge in 2012, which catapulted you to another level of fame. How has that experience been these past 12 years?

I have to say that was weird to start with because The Block [which has been on air since 2003] was something that we all knew and loved. It had come to Melbourne. It was in Richmond. And I’m thinking, maybe I could go on The Block as a contestant. That was in the back of my mind. I haven’t really said that much before. And then I thought, I’m on Selling Houses [on which she was a co-host with real estate expert Andrew Winter and landscaper Charlie Albone from the show’s inception in 2008 until 2021]. I can’t. But I was in Alice Springs, we’d just finished an episode and a few of us were going for a hike before we get on the plane. And my manager rang me and said, “Look, don’t get excited. But how would you feel if you were a judge on The Block?’ I’m in the middle of red earth in Alice Springs, going “Er, yeah!”

Picture: Steven Chee for Stellar

Picture: Steven Chee for Stellar

So I raced home on the Thursday, I had a meeting on the Monday morning. Didn’t realise I’m walking up the stairs with [executive producer] Julian Cress and [show publicist] Sarah Armstrong. And we’re chatting up the way, blah blah blah. And we get there and we sit at the desk and all of a sudden, my god, they’re in the room with me. And then I realised it’s them. And my manager walks in and they know each other. I’m standing going, “I don’t even know what’s happening, but I’m having a meeting and I have to fly out tonight to do another episode [of Selling Houses].” And they proceeded to tell me how great it would be to have a female judge on The Block. And I’m sitting there going, “Oh, they’re selling it to me, I’m not selling it to them.” That’s possibly one of the most bizarre moments in my TV career.

You’ve also used your profile over the years on very substantial and serious issues. You have a charity, Voice of Change, that was founded to amplify the voices of survivors of family and domestic violence. You’re a survivor of violence in a relationship and also had an incident a few years ago where you were assaulted by a stranger. Have you started to feel a little hopeful, or maybe not at all, about the progress we’re making in Australia?

The big thing that I’m grateful for is that we are talking about it. Five years ago, we never would have had this conversation. Even when I was on Celebrity Apprentice [Australia in 2021] and I won, the media didn’t know how to use that. They were brave in saying that I won the money for this charity, Voice of Change, in the fact we’re talking about family and domestic violence. And some of the interviewers didn’t know how to treat that and it was dismissed a little bit. And it was only because it was uncomfortable.

The full interview with Shaynna Blaze is out now on the latest episode of the Stellar podcast, Something To Talk About:

It wasn’t because they didn’t want to talk about it. It’s like, “How do we talk about this without people turning off?” So I’m very grateful for what has happened in the past few years in the fact that we’re talking about it now. For some reason [the violence] is worse – the numbers of not just the deaths of women and children, but it’s the abuse that’s going on that’s quite frightening. And that’s a big societal change that we have to do.

I know you don’t like to talk about your personal life or romantic life, but is there anything you would like to share about the experience of dating as you enter your 60s?

As much as I’m in the public, I am really private. I’ve never really put my personal life on any media platforms and I don’t talk about it that way. That’s the hardest part of dating when you’re in the public eye – exposing yourself in a way that you shouldn’t have to because, well, what if that person talks and what if that person does this? And so it is a bit tricky. For me, it’s not an age thing. It’s that vulnerability of the public knowing your private life … I think we’re in that world of the crash of online dating, because no-one is to be believed anymore. I feel like face-to-face is the way to go. How nice would it be to meet somebody at a restaurant or a bar, or go to a party and meet somebody? Dating online is such a dark, cloak-and-dagger experience that I’ve never gone down that road.

You have two adult children, filmmakers Jess, 35, and Carly Anne Kenneally, 36, and you’re also a grandmother.

No, I’m a “GiGi”. I can’t be 36 with that word. [Laughs].

Oh of course! What’s the experience of being a 36-year-old GiGi like?

My chest is so tight because it’s about the only thing that makes me weepy at the moment. I have so much pride and so much love. When my son and daughter-in-law told me they were pregnant, it was probably one of my happiest moments. As a family, we were going through a pretty tough time. And to have this little baby be a symbol of joy in our family was just the most amazing thing. Olive [who is now four] became our little unit that brought us all back together. She’s the light of my life. And now we’ve got [18-month-old] Darcy; my son has had a little boy, too. I have two grandchildren who call me GiGi and their eyes light up when they see me. My son has made his own way as a father. He’s got the most amazing partner and they have an equal relationship. So I sit back and go, wow, my job is done, in a really beautiful way.

Shaynna Blaze’s cabaret show dates will be announced soon. For details and tickets, visit shaynnablaze.com. She also appears on Nine’s The Block every Sunday. For more from Stellar and the podcast, Something To Talk About, click here.

Originally published as ‘I’ve done a hell of a lot of soul-searching’: The Block star Shaynna Blaze as you’ve never seen her before