Blog 27 - Like a House Without a Roof?

When coming up with a final list, I wanted things that challenged me in lots of different ways and pushed me out of my comfort zone. As I have been working on the Newport Music Academy, which nurtures young talent and encourages young people to use music and performance to gain confidence in themselves, I thought it would be a good idea to push myself to try and experience a little of what they have to go through!

There was one slight difference though, in that most of the young people who go through the Music Academy are really talented and can sing or rap incredibly well! I however am not a singer, have terrible timing, can never remember lyrics and generally struggle to carry a tune. In the car or shower however, I’m convinced I sound like Mariah Carey obviously! Sadly in real life and in a real recording studio I do not sound like Mariah Carey and not even a half decent singer!

I struggled for months to come up with a song to attempt that I wouldn’t completely murder, but in the end realised there were none I could actually sing well! So, I decided on a song that has pretty much been an anthem of this 39^th year and featured in most of the 40^th birthday celebrations and played to death everywhere and also meant that I could star in my own music video!

It was incredibly nerve racking standing in the recording studio with my headphones on, silently dying inside of embarrassment! However, I have a great friend in Jamie Winchester who is a music producer, who was very supportive and tried to give me confidence to sing, which basically meant he sat there in his booth trying not to grimace or laugh and shouted out positive things like ‘try to get the words on time’ ‘ooh not sure what that was, lets go again!’ and ‘go on one last time and really try your best this time!’. Luckily he is very talented though and knows how to make anyone sound half decent and used the auto tune a lot!!

This if you can bear it is the final edit…

Or try this link...

When filming the Happy Newport video for the Big Splash, I also had to embaress myself further by joining my colleagues and also take part in the filming. This small section is our unedited attempt at looking Happy! Safe to say Tahnee and Jamie carry it off quite well and manage to look sane and at times quite cool! Paul however is still drunk from the night before and looks like he would rather be anywhere else than singing and dancing along to Happy because his boss told him too! I however look like I have taken an overdose in Happy pills and look like I should be banned from any sugar! (for more than one reason!). I also like the moment that I poke Jamie in the eye!

Coming from a person who hates photos of herself, this is a challenge in itself actually showing moving footage of myself but seeing as this has been a year of making a tit out of myself and basically having no dignity left, here you go...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GrD_OFPd5w

Also just in case you are interested this is the final Happy Newport video with a 5 second snippet of my dance skills on show...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXqXPO9noFg