Natalie Gauci reveals secrets behind The Voice including her pay and what’s staged for TV
Natalie Gauci won Australian Idol in 2007, but after being recruited to sing on The Voice this year she spills secrets on her less than pleasant time on the hit TV show.
Music
Don't miss out on the headlines from Music. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Australian Idol winner Natalie Gauci has slammed her time on The Voice, claiming the program was more about TV than music.
Gauci, who was recruited by The Voice to compete on the show this year, also said the hit program needs to pay artists more.
“I think The Voice is on its last legs,” Gauci told News Corp.
“We’ve had so many of these types of shows. Australian Idol was so innocent, it was all about the music. Now it’s become so commercialised and it’s all about money. The Voice has lost its soul.”
Gauci said Channel 7, who have taken the show from Channel 9, need to make their 2021 version of The Voice more about the artists than the coaches or the backstories.
“I hope the artists get paid properly, they are part of the show. The coaches are paid millions, why can’t the contestants get paid lots of money too? We’re all professionals, we’re all here to make a living.”
The 2007 Australian Idol winner discusses her time on both reality shows on a new podcast, Our Idol Archives, hosted by Idol judge Mark Holden and daughter Katie. Her episode is released next Friday.
Gauci, whose son Jebediah is about to turn one, negotiated with The Voice for a Sydney apartment, hire car and nanny.
“We only got our costs covered, we were paid the minimum,” Gauci told News Corp.
“I asked for more because I needed more to be able to do it. But the first offer wasn’t very good. In the end I got paid a few thousand dollars all up. A lot less than a judge would get. And they’re very long days, you’re performing a lot, putting your heart and soul into it. But for me it was about getting back into the public eye, not about the money.
“It was a little risky for me to go on The Voice. The best thing that came out of it was my son three months old at the time, so I was breastfeeding, going on stage, breastfeeding, doing interviews … so I realised I can be a working mum. It was liberating for me as a person.”
While Gauci was on Guy Sebastian’s team before being eliminated, she did not enjoy the experience from the inside.
Producers had asked Gauci which team she’d like to be on – she picked Kelly Rowland or Boy George, but on TV wound up having to choose between Guy or Delta.
“I thought that was interesting, they knew what my choice would be. It was like a set-up. A lot of people on social media told me the same thing. I felt that too, like it was a set up, but there was nothing I could do about it.
“I feel like the coaches are not allowed to do exactly what they want to do, they’re being told by the producer and director what to say and do. There’s definitely the underlying feeling that’s the case because of the conversation I had with the producers about who I wanted to coach me.”
Gauci said Sebastian would only be present for the 45 minutes where coaching was being filmed.
“There’s a vocal coach team who look after us, we only see Guy literally for 45 minutes, he’d come in after we’d done all the coaching with the vocal team and give us a few tips.”
Gauci highlighted a performance of Old Town Road where she was “ripped to shreds” by Kelly Rowland, however the show edited out what she said to defend herself.
“Kelly Rowland said I was like a cat screeching up the wall. I said I didn’t agree with what she said. They didn’t show any of that, just the part where Kelly said ‘I feel sorry for Natalie’. There was no opportunity for me to speak. Then they tell me they want to show the best of every artist they can, but really they want to showcase what is best for the show, not what is best for the artist.
“When I came off stage I was furious. I asked Guy ‘Why did Kelly say those things?’ It was really hurtful. Guy said ‘Don’t worry about it, it’s just for TV’. That’s when it dawned on me, I just had to brush it off, it was all for TV.
“Being on Team Guy was short lived for me. It was nice to see him and speak to him at first, after things went the way they did after the battles I wasn’t really impressed by his commentary, even for other artists on the show. I felt he wasn’t being 100 per cent honest, I felt like what he was doing was for TV rather than nurturing the artist. I felt that was the same for me, I wasn’t 100-per-cent nurtured by him.
“I didn’t watch the show after I left.”
The program focused on Gauci’s dark times – losing her record deal after Idol, turning to drugs – to reintroduce her.
“It’s become more about the backstory than the songs,” Gauci said.
“With Australian Idol I still speak to people from the show and there’s an emotional attachment to the program. It wasn’t like that with The Voice, you go there, do your thing, you leave. There wasn’t that connection, I probably won’t be speaking to anyone I did the show with in 10 years’ time.”
Gauci is now based in Queensland, near former Idol judge Dicko, and will launch a new solo album Pictures of Mars early next year.
“There’s the music but also the story behind the songs, I’ve had so many really interesting experiences in my life I’ve put together a script that explains it, it comes with a lesson, and a healing.
“Because of what happened in my past I had to do a lot of healing on my relationships with men, the album touches on that.
“The Voice gave me the kickstart to putting my musical career back into the public eye, introduced me to my fans and got me more fans from outside of Australian I do l. It was a really good launching pad for everything. Even though The Voice felt negative at times, it was a really good thing to do, I’ve learnt how to turn negative experiences into a positive.”
Gauci has launched a crowdfunding campaign for fans who want to back Pictures of Mars.
“My music that I am still currently working on, is a mixture of jazz, funk, soul and a bit of country. It is slices of my interesting life. It’s going to be raw, real and I am tell you stuff that I have never shared before.”