Toot toot chugga chugga: The Wiggles’ new crew behind their cool revival boom
The multimillion dollar Wiggles dynasty is assured due to the beloved children’s group’s latest member.
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The Wiggles dynasty is assured with Lucia Field the latest member of the famous entertainment family to shine in the beloved children’s group.
The 19-year-old ballerina was confirmed last year as the new Blue Wiggle in the expanded line-up of eight passengers in the Bigger Red Car.
She joins her father, Wiggles co-founder and original Blue Wiggle Anthony Field and cousins, general manager Luke Field and his performer – he’s The Tree – and green-screen director brother Dominic in the multimillion dollar family business.
Other Wiggles next generation team members include Lucia’s sister Maria who voices Dorothy The Dinosaur, their cousin Leonardo Silvestrini is a first assistant director and Dominic’s fiance Stephanie Di Coio is a Wiggly dancer.
“It’s incredible because the thing about family is you know them and trust them,” Anthony said.
“What I have to say to Lucia sometimes is ‘This is Anthony Wiggle speaking, not Dad’ because you can speak back a little bit to Dad and I’m a pushover.”
Lucia has quickly become a favourite among their legion of little and big fans, further expanding the popularity of The Wiggles brand with recent inductees Tsehay Hawkins, John Pearce and Evie Ferris via their wildly popular TikTok dance videos.
Anthony had no idea Lucia, his dancing daughter, could sing when she was floated as a potential candidate to don one of the world’s most famous skivvies.
She was no newcomer to their Wiggly family, having joined them on the road as a baby and appearing as the Music Box Dancer when she was an infant.
“Al, our sound engineer had heard me singing because I did some recording for the Rewiggled album – that was one of the first times I’d done any vocal recording, so when they were looking for a new Blue Wiggle, he actually suggested that I would be perfect for the role,” she said.
Her dad was shocked. Lucia had spent the previous three years studying at the Australian Ballet School in Melbourne and the only singing he had heard her do was joining in on Happy Birthday at family parties.
“We had pinned Maria, Lucia’s sister as the singer and Lucia as the dancer. The first time I’d ever heard her sing, besides putting on funny voices for Happy Birthday, was harmonies on Lime Cordiale’s Apple Crumble for the Rewiggled album,” Anthony said.
Touring and filming together have given the father and daughter an invaluable opportunity to get to know each other. Between his hectic filming and touring commitments and her studying in another state, the pair spent many years apart.
They now even choose to travel in the same car together to gigs for that extra bonding time.
“In the car, we all have chats and I think it was beneficial to be with him because he would give us the pep talk before going into a venue and things like that, it helps,” Lucia said.
The Big Red car and its Wiggly occupants are currently winding up an Australian regional tour before heading to the USA and Canada and the back home for their annual pre-Christmas run of shows on the Wiggly Big Day Out! tour across Australia in November and December.
As they celebrated 32 years as a treasured national institution, everything Wiggles became cool again last year when they topped the Hottest 100 with their remake of Tame Impala’s
Elephant, landed at No. 1 on the pop charts with the Rewiggled double album and fronted the cover of Rolling Stone.
They received a deafening roar when the Kid Laroi brought them onstage for a surprise cameo at one of his Melbourne arena concerts last year.
Newly minted second Red wiggle Caterina Mete has seen the changing face of the group’s audience over 20 years, having joined as a dancer in 2003 and late becoming the chief choreographer.
She was shifted into the line-up last year when Tsehay Hawkins took over Emma Watkins’ role as Yellow Wiggle as the brand sought to bolster their diversity on stage and screen.
“The beauty of The Wiggles is because there are children born every year, there’s always a new generation of fans,” she said.
“I taught at a dance school in the school holidays for a friend of mine and the children there asked me who was my favourite Wiggle and I said Jeff.
“They were eight to 10-year-olds and all looked at me like ‘Who’s Jeff?’ So each generation has a different set of Wiggles.”
Hawkins has marvelled at the influx of children of colour, particularly those who share an African heritage with her, at the shows.
“I used to see lot of the African children standing up the back at shows and they would be a little quiet and shy and not interact but now I’m seeing a lot more going to the front,” she said.
“’I look like her, I can dance!’ It’s just really beautiful, it means the world to me because I guess it makes me know that what we’re doing is really changing things, to help young people feel more confident in themselves. That’s exciting.”
John Pearce, once a heart-throb in chart-topping pop group Justice Crew, has also had a profound impact on The Wiggles’ shifting audience.
His dance and exercise TikToks are melting hearts and viewer stats. And selling tickets to teen fangirls and their mums.
He is teased relentlessly on and off stage by his Wiggly family because it’s become a thing to wave “I’m Here For John” signs at the shows.
“The Wiggles is for the whole family,” he said diplomatically.
“We use TikTok like any other social media platform as a creative outlet, we do it ourselves and love to try different content. That’s part of what we do as The Wiggles, to encourage people to be creative and follow their dreams.”
The Wiggly Big Day Out tour kicks off at the Canberra Theatre on November 4 and winds up at ICC Sydney on December 23. (See all dates below).
Tickets are on-sale from 10am on July 20 from www.thewiggles.com
THE WIGGLES BY THE NUMBERS
Spotify
More than 200 million streams in 2022; over two billion total streams across all platforms.
YouTube
During the past month, American fans account for the most views (28.9 per cent), followed by Australia (24.1 per cent), UK (8.3 per cent), Canada (7.5 per cent) and New Zealand (3.1 per cent). Ireland, Italy, Germany, Brazil, India, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Pakistan account for 29.1 per cent of the audience.
Socials
Each day, The Wiggles’ YouTube channel receives more than two million video views and 1000 new subscribers, and is watched by over 10 million unique users each month.
The Wiggles social channels have 4.1 million followers across YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.
Live/Music/TV
In 2022, The Wiggles performed more than 350 shows to over 350,000 fans worldwide.
The Wiggles made history in 2022, becoming the first artist to play two separate arena tours around Australia in a calendar year, with sellout shows in April and December.
Musical instruments in a live show – guitar, bass, drums, keys, trumpet, bouzouki, banjo, bagpipes.
Dance styles in a live show – ballet, contemporary, Latin, hip hop.
Studio albums – 80
Live albums – 9
Compilation albums – 9
Number of ARIA Awards – 18
Number of TV episodes – 400
THE WIGGLY BIG DAY OUT! TOUR
Canberra Theatre, November 4 and 5
MyState Arena Hobart, November 11
Launceston Theatre, November 12
RAC Arena, Perth, November 18
Adelaide Entertainment Centre, November 25
Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne, December 2
Cairns Performing Arts Centre, December 5
Townsville Entertainment Centre, December 6
Mackay Entertainment Centre, December 7
Brisbane Entertainment Centre, December 9
Coffs Harbour C.ex Club, December 10
Port Macquarie Panthers, December 11
Newcastle Entertainment Centre, December 13
Wollongong Entertainment Centre, December 15
Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney, December 16
ICC Sydney, December 23
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Originally published as Toot toot chugga chugga: The Wiggles’ new crew behind their cool revival boom
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