Hot Press meets Voice Of Ireland coach Jamelia

By now, the scene should be a familiar one. John or Mary Everyman gets up the nerve to take his or her shower-crooning skills outside the bathroom and into a TV studio. The objective? To impress a panel of industry professionals – with the ultimate hope of becoming an entertainment business sensation.

Depending on the performance, the look and the human interest back story, the show judges might promise John or Mary the world, or send them packing without as much as waving goodbye. Between You’re A Star, X-Factor and Britain’s Got Talent, we’ve been watching variations on these motifs play out, over and over again on our telly screens, for a whopping 12
years now.
Looking for a new twist, in 2010 producers in the Netherlands created The Voice Of Holland, a show which aimed to remove the superficial element of the talent selection process by introducing blind auditions and focussing on that extraordinary instrument, the human voice, disassociated from any visual cues as to who was singing or what they
look like.
I probably don’t need to tell you that the Irish spin-off The Voice Of Ireland, produced by Screentime Shinawil, and presented by Kathryn Thomas, has been phenomenally successful – in its second season, more viewers are now tuning in to the reality talent contest than are switching on the RTÉ News!
One person who has undoubtedly been instrumental in the spike in ratings is noughties R&B favourite Jamelia, who replaced Brian Kennedy as coach for
series two.
“I like to think of myself as a nice Simon Cowell,” she laughs, before shrugging off suggestions that her presence has been critical to the success of the show. “I don’t think the ratings are down to any one thing. Like anything new, it needed to find its groove – and I think that the show has definitely done that now. Luckily for me, it’s happened in the year that I’ve come on!”
While the show has been hugely successful, with about 750,000 tuning in every week, last year’s winner, Pat Byrne, didn’t exactly burn up the charts with his debut album. There is, in other words, no guarantee of success. Is that something Jamelia has prepared her charges for?
“It’s very important to be realistic and honest with them,” she reflects. “Nothing in this industry is guaranteed – this is exactly why you have to put your all
into it.”
Right now, Jamelia is very confident that she has the winner on her hands, in the shape of the lovable 18-year-old crooner Keith Hanley, an early bookies’ favourite who continues to impress with diva-sized R&B numbers.
“There’s a saying that nice guys finish last, but I think he’ll be the one who finishes first, I really do,” she says. “Keith has been my guy from day one. I loved all my other acts, but in hindsight, he’s always been my winner.”
What’s more, Jamelia reckons that her musical protégé is genuinely ready to graduate to a bigger stage.
“He’s perfect,” she gushes. “Honestly. I would go to see Keith in concert. I imagine it every time I hear him sing!”
Of course, if a cracking voice was all that mattered, a certain Mr. Christopher Cross would still be topping the charts! As someone who’s been there, done that and got the gold records to prove it, Jamelia knows the score.
“I believe that, on this show, from the blind auditions to the very end, their whole future can depend on one moment,” she explains. “And that’s what it’s like in the music industry. You can have one bad performance and that’s it for you, or you can have one amazing performance and it skyrockets. That’s the reality of it. That’s what I have to teach him.”
In the final analysis, all of the remaining contestants are under precisely the same level of pressure.
“They have to strive for perfection,” Jameila says, “because that’s what everyone’s looking for. It might be a big thing to ask – but that’s what people are going to ask of them every single day of their career. So, you know… prove that you can do it! That’s what it’s all about.”

The Voice Of Ireland airs Sundays at 6.30pm on RTÉ One.