The 17-year-old Wiggle talks about her incredible rise to become the new face of the supergroup, and the search for her roots.
One day in 2020, The Wiggles’ choreographer Caterina Mete was scrolling through Instagram when she came across a 13-year-old whose natural exuberance and talent for dance were so obvious that Mete immediately invited her to The Wiggles’ Hot Potato Studios to appear alongside the iconic group as a Wiggly Dancer.
For that 13-year-old, Tsehay Hawkins, the invitation was as surprising as it was surreal. Only a decade before, she had been a Wiggles fan, singing and dancing along to classics like Big Red Car and Dorothy The Dinosaur.
“I remember the first day coming into the studio and seeing all of the Wiggles memorabilia and their history on the walls: ‘Oh my gosh, this is so cool, like a childhood dream’.”
Hawkins had started dancing to Wiggles songs as soon as she could walk, but also started taking lessons at age 2 and her skills quickly took her beyond the Dippy Doo Dinosaur Dance. She trained in ballet, jazz, tap, West African and Latin dance and has since gone on to win multiple Australian and world dance titles.
Her performance during her first visit to Hot Potato Studios was good enough that she was invited back a second time. At some point during that visit, she filmed a hip-hop-inspired dance routine with then-yellow Wiggle Emma. Hawkins’ peers had doubted her stories about her working with The Wiggles but that all changed when the dance she did with Emma went viral on TikTok and they all saw it.
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“It was just so cool,” she says, “like, out of this world.”
Lockdown hit soon after, and that might have been that, but the following year The Wiggles called again, this time asking if she wanted to appear on their Halloween DVD. Following that, they invited her on tour around Australia, where she performed as a dancer at several big shows including Melbourne and Perth.
Then, while at a show in Sydney, founding Blue Wiggle Anthony Field said they were going to be trialling a YouTube series called Fruit Salad TV, in which four additional Wiggles would join the existing group – two of each skivvy colour. Hawkins would be one of them.
She says: “I didn’t really click how cool it was until I got into the studio and realised I’m going to be a Wiggle.”
“It was beautiful,” she says. “I had the best time.”
Not long after recording that series, she got a phone call asking her to go to Wiggles HQ the following Monday. She told them she already had commitments that day, but they were persistent, so she relented. Just before she left for the studio, they called and told her they wanted her to become the new yellow Wiggle, part of the core group, the big four, joining Anthony Field, Simon Pryce and Lachlan Gillespie.
It was a huge moment – not just for Hawkins but for The Wiggles as a group and for children’s entertainment as a whole. She was about to become, by far, the youngest member of the world’s biggest kids’ band and the first of African heritage.
At just 15, her life was about to change forever. She was going to be part of the biggest childrens’ band of all time. She was going to be a Wiggle.
“I freaked out,” she says.
Her predecessor Emma, had chosen to leave after eight years in the yellow skivvy. Though not one of the band’s original members, Emma had quickly become a huge fan favourite. Hawkins was not just stepping into big shoes but was the face of a new, more diverse dawn, and it drove the usual racists and bigots crazy, leading to predictable overuse of the word “woke” as a pejorative on social media and elsewhere.
Of the backlash, Hawkins says: “I think it was probably just a shock. People don’t deal well with change. And I understand that the Wiggles are a very iconic group, and I definitely expected the woke comments or whatever. But a funny thing, [founding blue Wiggle] Anthony said – he didn’t know what woke meant and he said, ‘If woke means being inclusive and representing your audience, so be it.’
“And I think the negative things always stand out, but there was such a small percentage of that compared to, ‘Oh my gosh, now my kid has someone that they can look up to who looks like them.’ I think that outweighs the negatives. I loved it when I saw that. I loved Anthony’s approach to it.”
Arriving at Hot Potato Studio, Hawkins was handed a yellow skivvy and a pair of yellow pants, which she says someone had just “found in one of the drawers” (Emma had always worn skirts). They asked if she liked flowers and when she said yes, they handed her a flower headband. They took some style guide photos of her in the outfit and filmed a song called Hey Tsehay, which was incredibly fast work, given it was only a few hours since she had been asked to join the group.
“And then the next day,” she says, “it was announced to the world.”
The song Hey Tsehay! Is pure Wiggles. A catchy melody with lyrics that get straight to the point, telling you and your children everything you need to know about the subject at hand, without superfluous detail or flowery language.
“Hey Tsehay!
Do the Dippy Do dance
Hey Tsehay!
In your black and yellow pants
Always smiling, you’re as bright as the sun
You have such a beautiful name
Let’s sing it, everyone!”
Then they spell out her name.
After her first photos as a yellow Wiggle, Hawkins went straight to work as part of the band: “I didn’t have much time to hesitate and I’m really grateful for that because I’m a big overthinker.”
Because she was a minor, her mum had to join her on tour as a chaperone. She still does – Hawkins won’t be 18 until November. Both parents were encouraging of her joining The Wiggles, she says. Her mum, a former early childhood teacher, has listened to “a lot” of Wiggles in her time.
Asked what she talks about with the other Wiggles, Hawkins says the subjects are broad-ranging: “We talk about everything – all the topics from fruit salad to the big red car.”
The Wiggles’ brand is to be relentlessly upbeat and it’s easy to imagine that a good mood might sometimes be difficult for a teenager to sustain over a long period of time, but though Hawkins agrees some people might struggle with that, she says she’s not one.
“I just have a great time. So I’m being myself. And as you can probably tell, I like to talk a lot. I’ve always had a very big personality since I was little, and I’ve always had a lot of energy – being happy and smiley and excited. I know it might sound cheesy, but that’s me.”
Hawkins has been part of The Wiggles’ recent partnership with World Vision on the song Around the World. The song expresses the idea that every child, no matter where they live, should have a joyful childhood.
Hawkins was born in Ethiopia in 2005. Her birth mother gave her the name Tsehay, but five days later, for reasons unknown, deposited her at an orphanage, and has not been heard from since. From the orphanage, Tsehay was transferred to Koala House, an adoption place for Australian families, from where she was adopted by Australian couple Robyn and Reg Hawkins.
Robyn and Reg went on to adopt another child from Colombia, Kendly, and they have made sure both children have remained connected to the culture of their homelands. Tsehay does Ethiopian dancing, is trying to learn Amharic, the most widely spoken Ethiopian language, and their house is filled with Ethiopian items and artifacts.
“I do feel very connected to my Ethiopian heritage,” she says.
Although Robyn and Reg have tried to track down Tsehay’s birth parents – Reg twice travelling to Ethiopia in recent years, visiting orphanages and looking for files – they are yet to find any trace.
Tsehay is hoping that changes later this year when she will return to Ethiopia for the first time. The trip is not just about tracing her roots, but also about giving back. She will visit her former orphanage, meet the people who took care of her there, spend time with other orphans and do what she can to help out.
“It will be very emotional,” she says. ”It’s not going to be a relaxing trip. But it’s one that I need to take.”
She says she hopes she finds her birth mother. She’d like to know more about where she came from, about her beginnings and to see what characteristics she might have inherited: “Was she a dancer?” she says. “You know, little things.”
But even if she doesn’t find her birth mother, she’s content with her life and believes God has a plan for her: “I’ll find out something eventually,” she says.
“I guess it doesn’t define my life because she knew that she couldn’t take care of me. That’s what I know. And that she chose the option for me to have a better life, and I’m so, so grateful for that.”
The Wiggles tour New Zealand from August 18-26, with shows at Auckland’s Bruce Mason Centre on August 18-19.
Text WIGGLES to 5055 to donate $3 to World Vision to help kids everywhere feel strong and proud. You’ll receive a link to the new song from World Vision and The Wiggles.