The singer has never made a song and dance of her debilitating ear issues. Photo / Emily Chalk
There was a time Tina Cross could step on stage and lose herself in the music – every note, every harmony effortlessly falling into place.
But behind the curtain, the celebrated singer grappled silently with something that threatened to steal her greatest joy: her hearing.
Since childhood, she has battled chronic ear infections and abscesses, which left permanent damage to both eardrums. Over the years, her hearing slowly deteriorated, causing her to question her gift.
“For a long time, it took all the enjoyment away,” admits Tina. “My norm is that I sing in tune, but I was second-guessing myself. You only need one person to look at you funny while you’re on stage to think, ‘Oh, God, did I just sing something really bad?’”
As a child, any time Tina swam, she developed abscesses on her eardrums, which eventually burst and left her with a small hole in each. She was supposed to have grommets inserted when she was 13, but in the process of the family moving from Kaitāia to Auckland, the appointment was lost in the mail.
Tina was just 16 when she landed her first TV gig and, as her star began to rise, dealing with her ears was the last thing on her mind.
But in 2001, she received a harsh wake-up call that led her to undergo corrective surgery. During a performance with the Auckland Philharmonia, she couldn’t hear the introduction music and had to rely on her internal pitch to start on the right note.
“They’d written a special string intro,” recalls Tina, who now splits her time between Sydney and Auckland. “I remember walking out on stage and I could not hear the string line. I came in in the right key, but I was a little bit freaked out by it.”
She underwent her first myringoplasty, a procedure where surgeons take a small piece of skin from behind the ear and graft it onto the eardrum. Unfortunately, neither of the grafts took.
Busy raising a family and enjoying the rewards of a successful career, Tina didn’t want to take weeks off to recover from surgery. Eight years ago, she began wearing hearing aids.
Although she describes them as lifesavers, she says they’ve brought their own challenges.
Tina explains she can’t sing with the aids in, as her own voice sounds too loud inside her head, and often what the musicians are playing would sound distorted.
This has resulted in some interesting times while singing alongside Jackie Clarke and Suzanne Lynch in rehearsals for their group, The Lady Killers.
“When I’m rehearsing, I want the speaker really loud and the girls would be like, ‘Can you turn it down?!’ It would be deafening them,” the 66-year-old laughs. “It wasn’t enjoyable for me because I kept wondering if I was in tune. I felt I was a bit off, but the girls would assure me that I wasn’t.”
At the beginning of this year, after a string of ear infections, Tina finally reached her limit.
She explains, “I was really low because I couldn’t have performed if I wanted to. My ear stopped me in my tracks.”
She decided not to let her hearing hold her back from doing what she loves. This time, she underwent both a myringoplasty and a canaloplasty, to remove bone that had grown over in her ear canal.
When she spoke to the Weekly a few weeks after the operation, Tina was healing well and delighted at how much of a difference it had made.
“It’s feeling pretty good,” she says. “I’m hopeful that I will only have to wear a hearing aid in one ear.”
Although taking time off wasn’t part of Tina’s plan – she’s still flat out after five decades in the industry – the six-week break became a rare and welcome pause.
“I take all the time I can with my grandkids,” she enthuses. “They were all here the other night, and there’s only three of them, but it was like a tornado had come through the house.”
Now with her hearing improved and her energy renewed, she’s ready to return to what she does best – performing in perfect harmony with The Lady Killers.
“I’m hanging out to sing with the girls,” Tina smiles. “I want to see how we harmonise and feel like I’m really enjoying it again.”