Viva finds Voice for lost loved ones

The Voice's Viva Lale has recorded a song that she wrote about tragically losing her cousins in a house fire.

The Voice Australia contestant Viva Lale on stage. Picture: Channel 9 Source: Supplied

The Voice Australia contestant Viva Lale on stage. Picture: Channel 9 Source: Supplied

Relatives of The Voice Australia contestant Viva Lale .. Jeremiah Lale and Viva Picture: Channel 9 Source: Supplied

Relatives of The Voice Australia contestant Viva Lale .. Paul Lini and Viva. Picture: Channel 9 Source: Supplied

THE last time Viva Lale sang for her cousins, Lini Paul and Jeremiah, was at the teenagers' memorial service, a five-hour tribute to the music-loving brothers and nine other family members lost in Australia's worst ever house fire.

Then she stood grief-stricken and numb with pain just days after the Slacks Creek tragedy of August 2011 which robbed the young men of their futures and took the lives of Lale's aunty Neti and her five children.

Almost two years on, the 26-year-old songbird realised their dream for her by taking to The Voice Australia stage and sharing the gift for singing they had championed before they died.

It was not to be result they had imagined for her, with none of the superstar coaches turning their chairs, but the determined singer from Goodna, near Brisbane in Queensland, told News Limited her dream and theirs will live on long after the reality TV show.

While other unlucky contestants came from the stage in tears, Lale says she took great pride in making that moment happen for herself.

Fans of the US series of The Voice before their shock deaths, Lini Paul, 16 and Jeremiah, 18, had urged their favourite cousin to audition for the first Australian season when it was announced.

"They passed away two months before auditions started for The Voice and at that time I wasn't really ready, but this year I knew I had to do it," the account manager said.

Overcoming her natural shyness, Lale says she felt compelled to live her life with renewed purpose after losing so much.

"I know how precious life is...I know it sounds corny, but it's so true. I could bear (losing) one, but six at the same time has been really, really hard. The only way to get through it was to remain positive. It would have been such a waste of another life if I sat there and did nothing," Lale said.

"That's not the life they wanted to live, that's not what they wanted for me either. I know they would want me to be happy and do what I love to do and that's sing."

Her cousins had big plans for their lives too: Lini Paul was the "clown" aiming for university; while 'Jerry' loved rugby and wanted to play for the Queensland Reds.

But just after midnight on August 24, those ambitions were extinguished after the two-storey home they shared with their aunty Fusi Taufa and her extended family at Wagensveldt St, Slacks Creek was destroyed by a blaze that would shock Brisbane's Samoan community and beyond.

Sharing her memories of that black night for the first time, Lale recalls turning into the street, where emergency vehicles were crowded around her cousins' house.

"It was like a scene out of a movie. The flashing lights and as I realised the house was still burning I just took my hands off the steering wheel and covered my face," she said, blinking back tears.

"I tried to walk (towards the house) but my legs just buckled out from under me. It just wasn't real."

Walking onto The Voice stage was a woman transformed.

"I was not going to sit there on my butt and wait for the moment," she said.

"People do a lot of waiting, instead of doing it and I don't want to be one of those people."

So she didn't win through to the battle rounds, so what? It's not life or death to this focused, talented performer, who has been booked to perform regular Sunday sessions at Brisbane's Southbank and begins recording her first EP this week.

"As soon as I hit that stage I wanted to cry, tears of happiness that I made it. That was my ultimate goal and I feel in myself that they were with me."

Perhaps the emotion of her audition song, Mariah Carey's heavenly reunion anthem, One Sweet Day, got the better of her, but as Ricky Martin remarked: "you have six angels on your shoulder, (you will) go out and do it."

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New song helps Seal finds his Voice

The Voice Australia 2012 mentors (from left) Seal, Delta Goodrem, Joel Madden and Ricky Martin. Supplied by Channel Nine. Source: Supplied

SEAL has channelled his roller-coaster year into an anthemic new song inspired by the TV show he says has given his life new meaning.

The British superstar is expected to release the single, Let Yourself, during the new season of The Voice Australia, returning to air on Channel 9 tonight, revealing the song was "directly inspired by this show'' and the confidence he has drawn from its overwhelming success.

The winning coach of the debut series said he penned the musical permission slip for himself and his artists, to let themselves be great on stage and embrace the new opportunities on offer for the show's talent and star cast.

"The lyrics in the chorus are: 'let yourself be part of something new' and that's what it's about...you have to get out of your own way and let yourself be great,'' Seal told News Limited.

His divorce last year from Heidi Klum, the mother of his four children, came just weeks before he was to embark on his first TV job on the coaching panel of The Voice Australia.

Seal was criticised for speaking publicly about the split, especially after he lashed out over her new relationship with the couple's bodyguard, Martin Kirsten.

He says The Voice had been a welcomed distraction from the lows of his private life.

"I learned a lot about myself. I don't think I was ever lacking in confidence, but I learned that I have a passion for coaching. It's what I really love doing, it's what brought me back this year.''

He said the way he and the series were taken to heart by local viewers had been humbling and had fired up his passion for music and his chart-topping career.

"The fact I was able to throw myself into it and share my life experiences was fantastic, because ultimately, that's what they (contestants) are here for...to work out what's been holding them back that they can't see. The pressure I feel is to be able to unlock that,'' Seal said.

Exposing the emotional journey he has been on is one of the most powerful moments of the blind auditions, revealing he was crippled by anxiety just as his career was taking off.

The panic attacks made headline news in the UK back then, with Seal's management pushing him to attend an awards night so as to dispel talk he had suffered a mental breakdown.

He suffered through the ceremony, but retreated to his home where he stayed for many weeks' recovering.

"Is there a risk for me to share something like that?'' Seal said, after filming. "I like to think of it as more of a potential gain for the person who needs to hear it. It's strength through vulnerability.''

Blog live with Holly Byrnes during tonight’s The Voice premiere from 6.30pm (AEST)
 

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Bindi finds love on island paradise

Bindi Irwin and her on-screen love interest Toby Wallace in Return to Nim's Island. Source: Supplied

Bindi Irwin is all grown up. Picture: Justin Lloyd Source: Supplied

BINDI Irwin is growing up - fast.

The wildlife warrior has a love interest in her first major feature film, Return to Nim's Island.

In Sydney today, 14-year-old Irwin said the role of a conservation-minded castaway - played by Abigail Breslin in the original 2008 film that also starred Jodie Foster and Gerard Butler - was almost custom made for her.

''Nim is a little bit uppity but apart from that we are quite similar.''

In the sequel, former Neighbours star Toby Wallace plays a smitten young adventurer who travels to the pristine island to reconnect with Irwin's character.

The story picks up a few years after their first meeting, when Nim's tropical paradise is simultaneously threatened by poachers and developers.

Irwin was full of praise for her charismatic co-stars - Wallace and Selkie the sea lion.

''Toby certainly has less fishy breath than a sea lion,'' she said.

But Irwin was just as impressed by the professionalism of the sea mammals.

''They were better trained than me. They hit their mark every time.''

Irwin has acted before - in Free Willy: Escape From Pirate's Cove, a film that went straight to DVD. But this is her first theatrical release.

Return to Nim's Island, which has its premiere at Australia Zoo on Sunday, will open in Australia for the upcoming school holidays.

It screens on the Hallmark Channel in the US on March 15.

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