Andrew Lloyd Webber’s ‘Your Country Needs You’ 2009.
Anybody who has met me or seen one of my shows over the past several years will know that I, like so many others, am a great Andrew Lloyd Webber fan. I heard on the grape vine that there was going to be a twist to the 2009 Eurovision U.K entry because the BBC were trying to make it more credible. When I found out that Andrew Lloyd Webber was going to be writing the song for the U.K, I decided to look into it in more detail.
The BBC launched a competition called ‘Your Country Needs You’, and the idea was to find an act who would finally go on to sing the Lloyd Webber song. Thousands of Act’s throughout the U.K sent footage of themselves dancing, singing and generally showing what they could do. I had just been filmed performing on the new P+O cruise ship, The Ventura, so I decided to send some of the footage in. After a tense period of waiting for a call the BBC finally rang and confirmed that I had got through to the next stage of the competition.
The auditions then moved into London, which was great as it is one of my favourite city’s and it is always a pleasure to go there. The auditions were nerve wracking as you can imagine but I was determined to make a good impression. I decided to sing my particular favourite Lloyd Webber song, ‘Love Changes Everything’. After several nervous hours of waiting around I was told that I had made it through to the work shop stage, and that no matter what happened I would get the chance to perform for Lloyd Webber in person. This alone was a dream come true, and when they said that I would be performing one of his songs it made it that little more special.
When the day of work shop came I was in high spirits because I was going to be working with Jane Collins, who is a well respected manager and casting director in London, and also some of the best singing teachers around. The singing went fantastic but as I was leaving Jane decided to be honest with me. She said that the only problem that she had with me was my wacky hair cut which was very funny.She actualy said that it looked like a spider coming out of the top of my head, ha ha. Anybody who has met me will know I have always been one for eccentric haircuts, some good and well, some maybe not so good. It was all said in good fun and I took it as constructive criticism. It was as I was leaving that Jane walked in the waiting area and said that she had arranged for me to go to a very exclusive hairdressers that same day. I decided that seeing as I had come this far I should be willing to at least get my hair chopped, so off I went with the camera crew. We had a great day and I have to say that I actually preferred the style that the hairdresser came up with. I now felt that I was ready for my big day, singing for Andrew Lloyd Webber.
The day of the final audition was very tense as there was only six places available, and there was only twelve of us left. We had to sing two songs, one of them being a rock ballad, and the other a Lloyd Webber song. As it had worked for me previously I decided to perform ‘Love Changed Everything’ again. My personal audition went great, I sang well and hit all the notes cleanly so I was happy with my performance. When I came out of the Audition room Jane Collin’s was the first to say how well she thought it had gone and that I had given a great account of myself.
For those who have watched the show you will know that unfortunately I didn’t make the final six. I was told by Jane that I would be contacted in the future for some other event, but my face didn’t fit what Andrew was looking for the Eurovision this time around. I have had some fantastic feed back since the show with many people saying that I should of got through and how much they liked my voice, and of course that my hair looks a lot better. I want to wish the winner of the show a successful Eurovision 2009 as I’m sure the song will be special. As for my future exploits, watch this space.
