Vanessa White
Having started 21 years ago at the BBC, Vanessa White returns to BBC One as the make-up and hair designer on The One and Only... No stranger to transformations, Vanessa has won a Bafta and 3 RTS awards plus numerous other nominations for her designs on The Catherine Tate Show, The League of Gentlemen, Help, Saturday Night Take-Away and Celebrity Swap, to name a few.
Using her skill and imagination to transform Jordan into an old woman, Charlotte Church into a man, Ant and Dec into all sorts of weird creations, Paul Whitehouse into 25 different characters for Help, and of course, Catherine Tate into all of her personas, her talent and experience will ensure our finalists are visual tributes as well as vocal ones.
We caught up with Vanessa to find out what it’s like to work on the show.
‘It’s really exciting. It’s live which produces more energy (or fear!) and gives you a real adrenalin kick! Once they’re on stage, what happens, happens and is out of our hands. Can you imagine if a wig flies off during a vigorous dance routine, or a prosthetic melts under the heat of the lights! There are no second chances so we always have to get it right. We don’t just have the tribute acts to do, there are the dancers and backing singers as well to create designs for.’
‘So, for example, Robbie Williams didn’t have dancers in a particular video of his but we’ve put them in. Because I’m not trying to match anything, I can go to town creating a unique look for them. One of the biggest challenges is that there are many quick changes and I have to get them out of one look and into another in one and a half minutes! So, using wigs is the quickest and most visual way to achieve this.’
What’s the most difficult part of your job on the show?
‘To make the artists look as close to their tributes as possible. I can only add to their face, I can’t take away so I have to use every trick in the make-up book to achieve a believable likeness.’
In the Sing Off for the Tribute Acts, the Superfans really did know what the Musical Superstars look like and they were quite critical because of that. They know the songs back to front, as well as what their artists were wearing. They love their Musical Superstars so they are our biggest critics.’
Is there a particular Tribute Act that is hard to style?
‘The good thing with female acts is that the audience expect them to wear make-up, wigs, and so on. With the male performers, this is not the case. So you’re having to make them look real and like their tributes but without them looking like they’re wearing a wig, make-up, or prosthetics. So the men are definitely harder than the women.’
Do you think the make-up affects the performance?
‘Yes, I do actually. I think it’s like an actor in character, it is kind of liberating and they start believing they really are that star. Visually, if a performer looks the part it spurs them on to act and sound the part.
I think that we can only hope with all the wigs, prosthetics, teeth, contact lenses, and everything else I can think of, we’ve done enough to make the audience believe that it is them. I do think that if we help our performers look the part then they’ll feel so much more confident. Remember, some of them are not professional singers so to stand up there in front of an entire live audience… I’m absolutely in awe of our acts and giving them the look really helps them.’
Using her skill and imagination to transform Jordan into an old woman, Charlotte Church into a man, Ant and Dec into all sorts of weird creations, Paul Whitehouse into 25 different characters for Help, and of course, Catherine Tate into all of her personas, her talent and experience will ensure our finalists are visual tributes as well as vocal ones.
We caught up with Vanessa to find out what it’s like to work on the show.
‘It’s really exciting. It’s live which produces more energy (or fear!) and gives you a real adrenalin kick! Once they’re on stage, what happens, happens and is out of our hands. Can you imagine if a wig flies off during a vigorous dance routine, or a prosthetic melts under the heat of the lights! There are no second chances so we always have to get it right. We don’t just have the tribute acts to do, there are the dancers and backing singers as well to create designs for.’
‘So, for example, Robbie Williams didn’t have dancers in a particular video of his but we’ve put them in. Because I’m not trying to match anything, I can go to town creating a unique look for them. One of the biggest challenges is that there are many quick changes and I have to get them out of one look and into another in one and a half minutes! So, using wigs is the quickest and most visual way to achieve this.’
What’s the most difficult part of your job on the show?
‘To make the artists look as close to their tributes as possible. I can only add to their face, I can’t take away so I have to use every trick in the make-up book to achieve a believable likeness.’
In the Sing Off for the Tribute Acts, the Superfans really did know what the Musical Superstars look like and they were quite critical because of that. They know the songs back to front, as well as what their artists were wearing. They love their Musical Superstars so they are our biggest critics.’
Is there a particular Tribute Act that is hard to style?
‘The good thing with female acts is that the audience expect them to wear make-up, wigs, and so on. With the male performers, this is not the case. So you’re having to make them look real and like their tributes but without them looking like they’re wearing a wig, make-up, or prosthetics. So the men are definitely harder than the women.’
Do you think the make-up affects the performance?
‘Yes, I do actually. I think it’s like an actor in character, it is kind of liberating and they start believing they really are that star. Visually, if a performer looks the part it spurs them on to act and sound the part.
I think that we can only hope with all the wigs, prosthetics, teeth, contact lenses, and everything else I can think of, we’ve done enough to make the audience believe that it is them. I do think that if we help our performers look the part then they’ll feel so much more confident. Remember, some of them are not professional singers so to stand up there in front of an entire live audience… I’m absolutely in awe of our acts and giving them the look really helps them.’
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