When Shannen Wick walked onto the stage of The Voice Australia, she was hoping for at least one coach to turn around after hearing her sing. Little did she know, her rendition of Sam Brown’s ‘Stop’ would be powerful enough to spin all four celebrity coaches’ chairs.  “It was unbelievable,” the 32-year-old tells Draw Your […]

Shannen Wick on The Voice Australia. Image Source: Channel 7

When Shannen Wick walked onto the stage of The Voice Australia, she was hoping for at least one coach to turn around after hearing her sing. Little did she know, her rendition of Sam Brown’s ‘Stop’ would be powerful enough to spin all four celebrity coaches’ chairs.

“It was unbelievable,” the 32-year-old tells Draw Your Box.

“When I went in and I stood on that stage, I sort of looked out to the audience, and I didn’t focus too much on the chairs,” she says, “and then it sort of took me a minute or two to look down and realise that they had all turned. That’s a moment that I definitely won’t forget.”

This year Guy Sebastian returns as a coach on The Voice, joined by American singers LeAnn Rimes and Adam Lambert, plus Australia’s Kate Miller Heidke. Wick ultimately chose Sebastian as her coach, feeling a connection with him after watching him win Australian Idol in 2003 when she was in primary school.

“It was a hard decision, because honestly, I feel like Guy and LeAnne are both artists that I’ve grown up with,” she explains.

“Growing up with his [Guy’s] music and stylistically… I think I was just like, ‘OK, I think we’re on the same page in terms of vocals and genres.

“I think in my heart, I sort of always knew if I was lucky enough to get a few turns, I was going to go with Guy.”

Music has long been a part of Wick’s life. She recalls starting to sing when she was just three years old, before her parents enrolled her in singing lessons when she was about eight or nine. After studying an education degree at university, she realised music was still her true calling and she eventually founded Melbourne soul band, Fulton Street in 2012. In 2019, Shannen started her own independent record label, Stoic Records. She’s also a high school music teacher, and it’s actually her Year 10 students who signed her up for The Voice.

“One day, they just said, ‘Oh Miss, we’re going to sign you up for The Voice’. And I just thought they were joking, to be honest,” she laughs, “but they went ahead and they did that, they wrote it on my behalf and submitted it.”

Like any big performance, Wick says the audition was definitely “nerve wracking”, and in this case especially because she was “singing to millions of people on national TV”.

“But I just sort of treated it like I would any gig and I just went in and tried to be really positive about it, and just sort of held a mindset of, ‘I’m really doing it for my family and for the students that signed me up as well’.”

Speaking of family, Wick’s nearest and dearest have also helped shape her musical journey. She speaks fondly of her paternal uncle who is a well-known musician in Sri Lanka, and shares that her mother’s side of the family has been involved in choirs.

Born and brought up in Melbourne after her parents moved to Australia from Sri Lanka in the early 1990s, Wick struggled to see brown women who looked like her in the music and wider entertainment industry. She believes that to now be on The Voice, and to release music with her band and label as well, provides a platform to set an example for the next generation.

“I feel like when we were growing up, we didn’t really see much representation, and I think that’s really important now that I can make it my goal to show that to anybody that’s listening to Stoic Records or my own music –or you know, just even for my kids at school – to just realise that it doesn’t matter what your background is or where you come from or who you are…  it’s just, if you’ve got a dream, just go for it and follow it.”

Shannen Wick next appears on The Voice Australia tonight at 7pm on Channel 7 and 7Plus.