News / Singer Lisa to appear on ‘The Voice’
A YOUNG singer-songwriter from Shetland is to appear on the BBC’s talent contest ‘The Voice’, which attracts millions of UK viewers, this weekend.
Twenty six year old Lisa Ward, from Hamnavoe, took part in auditions when scouts from the programme visited the islands last year.
She will sing before four celebrity coaches – Tom Jones, Ricky Wilson, Rita Ora and will.i.am – on the seventh “blind auditions” episode of the show, to be broadcast at 7pm on Saturday.
The fourth series, which has its finale in early April, has regularly attracted audiences in excess of eight million viwers in its BBC One primetime slot this year.
“I’m very excited to be appearing on ‘The Voice’ this weekend,” she tells Shetland News. “It’s been a long wait keeping it secret and I’m just so happy it’s finally here!”
The process began in May last year when Ward was one of 23 singers to try out at auditions held in Mareel.
Following that there were regional auditions featuring around 40,000 people across the UK, and she was one of several Shetlanders to travel down to Glasgow.
“It just so happened to work in that I was down with my dog at the vet the day before,” she said, “so I thought I’d pop along and push myself out of my comfort zone, but I didn’t expect it to go any further.”
In all there were four sets of auditions before she made it into the final 100 to appear on the fourth season of the show, coming face-to-face with huge showbiz names.
“Every time they invited me back down, I’d just be like ‘what?’ I definitely didn’t think I’d end up on the TV – no way, just even statistically-speaking, it seemed highly unlikely.”
Being able to say hello to Tom Jones was “really surreal” – she remembers buying his ‘Mama Told Me Not To Come’, his duet with The Stereophonics as a teenager.
“But they’re very nice, encouraging and have constructive feedback to give,” Ward says. “It’s a great opportunity to meet people that have been in the business so long and had so much success.”
It was challenging to keep it all a secret going back and forth from Sumburgh Airport in the autumn.
“I was only able to tell the people I was taking down, and obviously I had to tell my work, so I took my mum, dad, sister, partner Craig, Craig’s mum and dad and my best friend Andy and his wife Emma came down from Glasgow as well.”
She said the whole experience of recording – which took place at the BBC’s Salford Quay studios in Manchester last October – had “completely shattered my stereotypes” about what talent shows are all about.
“Before I started the process I’d probably have said I wasn’t sure [if it was the right thing for her], but as each step went on it was really supportive and helped me grow as a singer, because they give you a bit of help with that.”
She is if anything more apprehensive about how 23,000 Shetlanders will react to the performance than she is about those millions of TV viewers across the UK.
“There has always been apprehension,” she says. “It’s a cliché, but you only live once. Singing and playing music makes me feel joyous and free. Not everybody will like it, but at the end of the day I went out there and did it, and I’m happy that I did. It’s a huge deal, because I’m not a regular gigger.
“Shetland people, even if they don’t like it, are so supportive of Shetland that they’d support it in principle, and that’s a really nice feeling – one of the best things about living here.”
Saturday’s show will see Ward given a 90-second segment, backed by the show’s “amazing” house band, to impress the four celebrity coaches.
“You sing the song while the coaches are facing away, and if they like you they can hit their buzzer and turn around, which means they want you on their team. If more than one person turns around, you pick whose team you want to be on.”
She continues: “I was very near the end of my session, and what with travel I’d been up for 23 hours by the time I walked out on stage. So if I look slightly glazed over, that’s sleep deprivation!
“I like to imagine that I would have been more witty and punchy on the stage if I wasn’t absolutely zonked, but to be honest I probably wouldn’t have been!”
Of course, she can’t reveal whether or not she makes it through to the next round just yet: “I’ve had to wait six months [to tell everyone], so everybody can wait a few days.”
Until last month Ward, who moved to Glasgow to study aged 17 before returning home after completing university in 2009, worked as marketing officer for Shetland Arts.
The 26 year old, who also sings lead vocals in local rock band Death Star Canteen, recently recorded ‘Liminal’, a five-song EP under her own name, at Mareel.
She said it “seemed like the right time” having been playing music since the age of 8 and writing songs since she was about 12.
“I have a collection of loads of songs, but I’ve never really taken the time to sit down and record them. This is the time to do it – if anybody likes what they hear on Saturday, they’ll be able to access something that I’ve written myself.”
It has been “a quick journey”, recorded in a couple of days with Ewan Nowak (who also plays electric guitar) taking on production duties. Musicians including her boyfriend Craig Birnie, John-William Halcrow and Sarah Thomson perform on the EP, while Marjolein Robertson has made a music video for the song ‘Secret Faces’.
“It’s exactly what Shetland’s about, because I didn’t have to hire in anybody. I just spoke to all these talented people that are around.”
Ward says the songs – some dating back as far as 2008 – are mostly “quirky pop-rock”. Her musical tastes are nothing if not eclectic, name-checking artists including Joan Armatrading, Johnny Cash, Tegan & Sara, Skunk Anansie and Norah Jones. She grew up largely listening to country music – Thomas Fraser was her great uncle – and is also “very heavily into” rock and metal bands.
- Lisa Ward’s EP ‘Liminal’ is available now on iTunes. She appeares on ‘The Voice’ on BBC One this Saturday (21 February) from 7pm.
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