Marcia Hines was just a teenager when she left America for Australia. Numerous hit songs, tours and, of course, television appearances on Australian Idol later, the celebrated singer can’t help but look at her former home now with a sense of sadness.
“It is heartbreaking,” Hines, 66, tells WHO of the widespread riots which followed the death in police custody of George Floyd.
WATCH: Marcia Hines on Australian Idol and discovering Guy Sebastian
“I grew up during the civil rights movement in America. I remember Martin Luther King being shot. Now, I’m watching this incredible regression in America and it’s heartbreaking. But obviously things must change and they haven’t changed as much as they should have.”
Hines is speaking ahead of her anticipated return to Australian television, with the former Idol judge appearing as a mentor on The Voice (Sun. 7pm, Mon.-Tue. 7.30pm; Nine Network).
International coaches Kelly Rowland and Boy George – in the US and UK – are unable to return to Australia so appear via video link, while Hines mentors Rowland’s team of newbies and The Veronicas – Lisa and Jess Origliasso – do likewise with George’s team.
After 10 years away from TV, Hines is thrilled to be back.
“I’m knocked out,” she says of being asked to mentor the performers on The Voice.
Hines appeared on Idol from 2003 to 2010 and admits she’d “have liked to have done more television”.
“But if there is no gig, you can’t gig,” she says. “I had seven good years; I was so grateful for that.”
Hines still raves about former Idol contestant, now The Voice coach Guy Sebastian, saying he has “the most incredible vocabulary of any singer I’ve ever come across – he’s brilliant”.
Throughout her time on Idol, Hines was sometimes known as the ‘nice’ judge. She says she was just being herself.
“People said I was a fence-sitter, and I was not a fence-sitter. You don’t need to be mean to people. No-one ever did that to me.”
On The Voice, we see Hines and Rowland (via Zoom) instructing the former Destiny’s Child star’s protégés.
“She and I think very much the same,” Hines says of Rowland, who she met earlier at a Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.
“When you have two people on the same page there is no confusion.”
Hines can teach Team Kelly about the work ethic needed to make it in the brutal music industry. She says she wants them to learn how to be vulnerable as performers.
“You’re butt-naked on stage – not physically, but emotionally.”
The Voice airs Sunday and Monday at 7.30pm on Channel Nine
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