The power of love
The local theatre at Warrnambool in country Victoria was packed to the gills as Kay Rendell took her seat ahead of the first performance of that year’s holiday musical, Les Misérables. Her daughter Gorgi was about to take the stage playing the role of Cosette. To be honest, Kay bashfully admits now, she wasn’t expecting much from the then 18 year old.
But then Gorgi opened her mouth to sing the first line and Kay, along with the rest of audience, gasped.
“I was in shock with this magnificent voice,” the 74 year old chuckles in retrospect.
“I’d hardly ever heard Gorgi sing at home and I honestly didn’t know she had such a beautiful voice until I saw her on stage. When we left the theatre, all my friends were coming up and saying, ‘Kay, we didn’t realise Gorgi could sing like that,’ and my reply was, ‘Neither did I!’”
If Kay was shocked, that was nothing compared to the millions of viewers who watched The Project presenter Gorgi Coghlan – incognito in a bright majenta monster costume – on Network Ten’s smash hit The Masked Singer late this year.
Gorgi would come third behind two professional singers. And when she unmasked herself in the finale, she emotionally dedicated her performance to her mum who – ever since that very first performance back
