NEED TO KNOW
- When truck driver Steffii’s blind audition didn’t result in any chair turns from The Voice Australia judges, her husband Rodney stormed the stage.
- He handed out t-shirts for the coaches.
- Steffii exclusively reveals that he didn’t mean to intimidate anyone and that he “is a bit of a joker”.
The Voice Australia coaches have met a lot of people at the blind auditions. But they’ve never met anyone quite like Victorian truck driver Steffii’s husband Rodney.
On the first night of the blind auditions, none of the coaches turned their chairs when 33-year-old Steffii sang a Shania Twain song, causing Rodney to yell out, “Well, what a bunch of donkeys!” and then head over to talk to the coaches himself. As Rodney had a discussion with Ronan Keating about Steffii not getting a chair turn, Richard Marx asked, “Do we have security in this building?”
After handing out t-shirts with Steffii’s name on them, Rodney left, with Melanie C admitting to Ronan, “I thought you were going to get a punch.”
Speaking exclusively to TV WEEK, Steffii says she wasn’t able to see what was happening and didn’t know Rodney called the coaches “a bunch of donkeys”.
“Rodney was so disappointed,” she adds. “He speaks his mind and he is a bit of a joker. He does believe that I should have made it through, as well as my family that was there and myself.”
As for walking over to the coaches, Steffii says Rodney did that just to hand them a t-shirt on behalf of her.
“At any stage Rodney was not trying to intimidate or scare Ronan,” she explains. “He simply wanted to give our gifts of the t-shirts to all of the coaches so they can remember me by. I’m not sure if Ronan was expecting anyone to come near and give him a gift.”
Steffii has been performing for the past 10 years. She writes her own songs and has released singles and an album, and already has her own merch, including Steffii badges and posters. She says Rodney is her biggest supporter.
“He is very special to me. He has always believed in me and wishes nothing but the best for me and my dream of becoming an internationally known singer. He has been driving me to radio stations, gigs and events. He is always helping me with setting up and packing my music gear.”
The coaches felt that nerves affected Steffii’s performance at the blind auditions, but that might not have been the case.
“I don’t think I was really nervous, more excited than anything to get up on the big stage and sing,” she says. “It is what I was born to do.”
Although she’s disappointed she didn’t get any chair turns, Steffii is continuing to write and perform – and she was recently named as a finalist in a songwriting competition.
“My latest single I wrote on the way back from The Voice in Sydney in the truck,” she says. “I was so inspired from leaving the hustle and bustle of the city to see such beautiful country, with the mountains, open roads, paddocks with animals. That’s where I came up with lyrics such as, ‘There is nothing like it, like the country breeze.’”
Catch The Voice on Monday and Tuesday at 7.30pm on Channel Seven and 7plus.
Share this post