‘MUSIC HAS HELPED ME THROUGH’
RHONDA BURCHMORE THE ALL TOGETHER NOW JUDGE BELIEVES MORE THAN EVER IN THE HEALING POWER OF SONG
The show has always gone on for consummate star Rhonda Burchmore. Forever in her element as a performer, the flamehaired entertainer has been singing and dancing up a storm in her trademark show-stopping style since she was a young child.
And that’s certainly still the case for Rhonda, 58, as she hits our screens as one of the judges in Seven’s new reality singing show All Together Now.
Rhonda’s close friend and former Mamma Mia! co-star Lara Mulcahy, with whom she is also currently performing around the nation in ABBAsolutely Fabulous, appears as one of her fellow judges on All Together Now. Yet behind Rhonda’s megawatt smile, it’s been anything but an easy time for the much-loved Aussie singer.
Over the past few years, Rhonda has been privately grappling with the tragic loss of her adored soulmate, her sister Michelle, as well as losing both her parents and her mother-in-law. Michelle was diagnosed with multiple system atrophy, a devastatingly cruel motor neurone disease in 2009, just weeks after the sisters lost their “wonderful, wise, gentle” father.
Michelle passed away six years later aged just 57, leaving Rhonda grief-stricken. Around the same time, Rhonda lost her mother and her husband’s mother, both of whom she was also extremely close to. As she says quietly, it’s been the “hardest and most heartbreaking” of times.
For Rhonda, All Together Now and Abba-solutely Fabulous have proven something of a saviour.
“Because there has been so much personal grief in my life – losing the three closest people on the Burchmore side as well as my mother-in-law – this has been a wonderful distraction from the heartache and pain,” she says.
“The joy when I’m up there that I see on other people’s faces has been my best medicine for the last couple of years.”
Certainly, Rhonda is a firm believer that music truly can heal the soul.
“Oh, I’m sure it does, and on so many levels,” she reflects. “Abba-solutely Fabulous is one of those shows that you can go out and just forget other things – whether it be politics, or personal struggles or health issues. The comedy is hilarious, it’s joyful and everyone knows the songs. The message is girl-power and women of a certain age getting up and strutting their stuff – and it is empowering.”
Rhonda reveals she and Lara immediately hit it off back in 2001 when they first performed together in the original Australian stage production of Mamma Mia!
“We became best friends through the tour,” she says. “All these years later, we remained best friends.
“Abba-solutely Fabulous is not an ABBA tribute show. It’s about two girls growing up on opposite sides of Australia – she grew up in
Perth and I grew up in Sydney – but we were both obsessed ABBA fans and loved everything about the group.”
Does Rhonda have an all-time favourite ABBA song?
“Oh gosh!” she replies, taking a moment to think. “For me personally, ‘Thank You for the Music’ is a really lovely thing. I dedicate that song to my mum because she used to make all my dance costumes and tirelessly take me to dance and singing classes. It’s a very special personal moment in the show.”
As for what sort of a judge she is on All Together Now, Rhonda is in no doubt. “I’m kind but firm,” she says.
And Rhonda is ever grateful for the love and support of her psychiatrist husband Nikolai and their 23-year-old daughter Lexie Jeuniewic, now working as an associate online news producer at Channel 9. “No-one knew she was my daughter until one day [Melbourne newsreader] Peter Hitchener, whom I’ve known for years, casually said ‘Say hi to your mum’ and of course word got around the office,” says Rhonda. “She wanted to get the job as she did, on her merit, which was wonderful.”
Meanwhile, Rhonda has every intention of doing what she loves for years to come. “I never go ‘I shouldn’t be doing this and I should be thinking of retirement’, because I’m not – I’m so far from that,” she says with a smile. “I look at people like Madonna, Cher and Bette Midler who are still at the top of their game and I hope I’m one of those ladies down the track too.”