\u201cThat made me feel like I could do this without feeling like an idiot or be a little cringe because I still had that support network.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cassie Henderson credits her friends for believing in her. Photo \/ Michael Craig<\/p>\n
The eclectic Parachute music studio in Auckland\u2019s Morningside is a familiar space for Henderson. Lined with vinyl records and inspirational murals, it has hosted the likes of Six60 to Gin Wigmore. Henderson says this studio is a lot tidier than the one she usually records in.<\/p>\n
When New Zealand first met Henderson, it was 2013 and she was a fresh-faced 14-year-old with an incredible voice, bucketloads of precocious charm and a dream of winning The X Factor NZ. Under the mentorship of UK pop singer Daniel Bedingfield, she placed fifth on the reality show. <\/p>\n
She eventually decided not to pursue a music career, instead continuing with a normal sort of life; studying marketing and film and media at the University of Otago, getting a job, being an adult in all the typical, boring ways. Until that wasn\u2019t enough. <\/p>\n
Today, more than a decade on, her voice is stronger, her enthusiasm just as obvious, but there\u2019s more honesty \u2013 the kind that comes from growing up \u2013 in the way she speaks about her life and the decisions she\u2019s made.<\/p>\n
There is, of course, her return to music. It started with a series of songs written to get through a heartbreak, including chart-topper Seconds to Midnight (11.59) that was hard to miss on commercial radio and social media. In 2023, after releasing her first EP, she quit her marketing job.<\/p>\n
By 2025, she had won Best Pop Artist at the Aotearoa Music Awards.<\/p>\n
Why then, would she choose to try and win another reality TV singing competition? Especially one across the Tasman, when her fan base was over here? <\/p>\n
Henderson made it to the final of The Voice Australia. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
Henderson says she simply had more to prove and was willing to risk it all on last year\u2019s season of The Voice Australia. It paid off; she finished as the runner-up, mentored by Spice Girl Melanie C.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was funny, the timing [of her Voice audition]. I had just done this other audition, and I had really screwed it up. I had really bad performance anxiety before I went for that audition,\u201d she admits.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven though the music was doing well [in New Zealand], I think to be really great, you have to test yourself against some of the greatest. And The Voice is essentially a competition that strips away everything else. I wanted to prove that I was there because I was good enough to be there, not because of something I did when I was 14 or whatever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Henderson learned early on about coping with criticism. Being thrust into the spotlight as a teenager will always come with challenges and unknowns.<\/p>\n
\u201cFacebook was kind of scary at that time. There were lots of opinion pieces on that,\u201d she recalls.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a really sad part of being a musician, but it is part of being a musician. You do have to put a large focus on social media.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cassie Henderson as a teen on The X-Factor NZ. She placed 5th.<\/p>\n
Years on from that first taste of online fame, she knows what works and what doesn\u2019t. She started sharing her life \u2013 on stage, and off \u2013 taking fans and viewers along for the ride, and very quickly, gained a dedicated fan base. Not a bad idea, when the show comes down to public voting and Henderson was a Kiwi trying to win an Aussie crown.<\/p>\n
\u201cI honestly just went really balls-to-the-wall with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her Voice mentor Mel C probably helped cement Henderson\u2019s credibility.<\/p>\n
\u201cCassie is amazing. I know you Kiwis know that, right? She is such a superstar. I feel like she\u2019s on her way already. She has a career. She\u2019s just brilliant,\u201d the star told The Edge radio station in November last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll always be there as a mentor for Cassie, as long as she wants me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Henderson is releasing her third EP soon. And after her Voice success, she says the stages she\u2019s performing on have only got bigger, like her upcoming appearance at M\u0101nuka Phuel Synthony in the Domain, where she will join the likes of The Exponents, Kaylee Bell and Shapeshifter to perform dance anthems reimagined with a full live orchestra.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been really interesting this past 12 months because I used to play pubs where nobody was there, and then all of a sudden I\u2019ve started walking out onto festival stages, and there\u2019s people waiting,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will put on the same show whether it\u2019s an A&P show or a massive New Year\u2019s festival or a bar with 20 people. I will always try and deliver the exact same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Henderson says she plans to tour and write in the UK later this year. Her dad Murray Henderson coached the Oxford University rugby team when she was young, so it\u2019s somewhere she\u2019s familiar with.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if you\u2019ve ever seen the movie Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging, I remember watching that before we moved there,\u201d she laughs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember thinking that my Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging era comes true if I move to the UK. And I still kind of feel that way. Actually, I\u2019m maybe hoping it might be a little bit more Bridget Jones\u2019s Diary vibes.”<\/p>\n
You could say that, in a way, the fear fuels the fire with Henderson. She says she\u2019s always looking for ways to keep growing, get better at her craft, and to make money to keep making music.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to drive everything because 90% of this job is not music. It\u2019s business, it\u2019s marketing, it\u2019s admin, there are so many other things,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing a growing independent artist, you have to wear 50 hats for arguably most of your career. I think if you have the resilience and endurance, then things will happen. Luck won\u2019t come to help you, or it won\u2019t find you. You have to be dancing with it for luck to find you.\u201d<\/p>\n