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Earlier this week, we had the opportunity to speak to Annabel Williams, a renowned celebrity vocal coach, and a key member of the UK’s Eurovision delegation in the past two editions.

We talked about her recent experiences at Eurovision including working for future contests, as well as discussing her personal journey to the career she has now. Plus find out below how she views this year’s Junior Eurovision representative for the United Kingdom, Freya Skye.

Hi Annabel, how did you start your career to become where you are now?

It’s definitely been a journey. I’m a singer, I always used to say singing was my real job. And I think that’s really important as a vocal coach, that you practice what you preach and I think the reason it kind of works is that, vocally I have studied singing all my life. I’ve been a professional singer since I was 15/16, I started singing very early and training at the age of 11.


It’s been a massive part of my life and I just say that I’m a singer who just studied that craft. I really studied it and in real life, I’ve been through experiences that clients go through and I can draw on my own experiences to help them. I’ve had a lot of different singing teachers myself with some of them that didn’t demonstrate; that hadn’t been through it themselves, and I realised as an adult that is a huge part of the process.

As a singer, you have to look up to your vocal coach that really inspires you and that you aim to be like. That you aspire to be influenced by. That sets the bar quite high for you as a vocal coach and since I’ve done different capacities of this job as a backing singer for example.

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I spent most of my 20s on the road touring as a backing singer for loads of amazing artists. I’ve been really lucky to back so many people and you learn so much on the road that can’t be taught at a music college. It puts pressure on me but I really like it.

Starting out, I fell into coaching by accident; helping people in my class at Music University and College and they were saying to me “You explain it with so much sense” and I have been practicing this quite a lot while being taught for a few years prior. I think it is all about how it is communicated to you and certainly, for me, I like to make things as simple as possible; I don’t see why it needs to be complicated and all along the way things were made complicated when they didn’t need to be. As a coach and a teacher, you have to have various different ways to explain it.

After initially coaching others in my class, I was also singing for the National Youth Jazz Orchestra who are an amazing big band of people with some of the best young jazz musicians in the country which still runs to this day. I set up a jazz workshop for singers where they would sing with the band on Saturday mornings. That was when 16-year-old Amy Winehouse turned up and was really the changing point; she was my first celebrity client. In this industry, people talk, and words spread, and I started to get more calls for vocal coaching, and it took off from there really.

Then the X Factor came along, then Britain’s Got Talent and the rest is history. I’ve been incredibly lucky with it. I never set out to be a vocal coach, but I cannot believe how lucky I am. It is the best job in the world, and I don’t take it for granted. I get bored easily and every day is different, so it suits me and my personality of the different challenges we face.

Do you have any career highlights?

There have been so many big exciting moments I’ve had but I think it’s quite important to stay humble and stay excited about everything and I don’t want to get to the point of eye-rolling; since I enjoy every job I do.

With Eurovision I remember the night before, I was going away for 12 days and there was a group of about 12 of us and I only knew one person; I only met Sam for 20 minutes and then by the time you come back; they are your family.

With Career highlights, working with Robbie Williams; teaching him “Angels” at the Wembley Arena was a pretty amazing moment. Working with Jennifer Hudson; she is such a powerhouse and a sweet, sweet girl, incredibly lovely.

But for me personally, Michael Bolton is one of my favourite singers and I did backing vocals for him a few times. It was insane. I’ve worked with CeeLo Green for a few years and he was just bonkers and brilliant all at once. And definitely working with Sam; he is a total superstar and I really believe he will take over the world.

Do you ever feel pressure yourself when training the artists before their big performances?

I think I used to when I first started, I’ve been a vocal coach for maybe 23/24 years now and I think when I first started out in television, that’s when I first experienced that case of pressure for live television.

I remember my first ever X Factor, that was my first ever TV job and as soon as the credits started rolling and the show had started, I went into the loo. I wasn’t actually sick but I felt like I was because I was so nervous. On X Factor, they’re all my babies. Everyone that was singing are my contestants and I was really nervous but nowadays, I’ve done it so much, I don’t really get nervous I just get excited-nervous. I really look forward to it and I kind of just want it done.

Sometimes the worst bit is the build-up to it; the hour or two before the performance where there is plenty of time for the singer to get nervous and build something up in their head that doesn’t need to be there. Sometimes I’m like, I just want them to get on with it and get them on that stage because once they’re on stage, they’re fine. Sometimes the worst bit of it is the lead-up to the actual performance. Once they are on the stage, I’m happy and can relax.

What was the experience like being Sam Ryder’s vocal coach and experiencing the run-up to the Eurovision Grand final?

I think the whole experience of coaching Sam Ryder for the Eurovision experience was, you know I am very lucky to have done some amazing things with some amazing people, but that was definitely the highlight for me.

Something I will look back at as a career highlight. I think there was such an amazing buzz around the whole experience and first of all and most importantly, Sam Ryder is without a doubt one of the best singers I’ve ever worked with. I don’t just mean that vocally, but he is just an amazing, amazing human as well, he’s somebody you would love to be around.

He’s a real positive ball of energy and he works really hard and tirelessly. And I really like working with artists that work tirelessly to get it right as well as that work ethic. We just clicked from day one and it was a really exciting process. We probably had 6 to 7 weeks of training before the lead-up to Eurovision and you get to Eurovision, and you have loads of rehearsals and it was just a brilliant experience. He worked really hard, and it paid off and he’s done us all so proud.

Since you were both James’s vocal coach and Sam’s vocal coach, was the change in attitude of the BBC towards Eurovision quite immediately after the 2021 Grand Final or was it gradual?

I think we had two amazing singers and there wasn’t any difference in what we offered; it was just that the votes didn’t go our way unfortunately.

You are also Freya Skye’s vocal coach for Junior Eurovision. What is it like working with her?

She’s an amazing little superstar and she’s only just turned 13; she blows my mind. She’s such a brilliant talent and an incredible young girl, a young artist. She works really hard and she does have a similar work ethic to Sam and I love that she works hard and takes directions well. And I’m really excited for her, how well she’s going to do; I just want her to enjoy it above everything else and enjoy the experience.

She’s already done me so proud in the way she has been, in this process. I’m not putting any pressure on her, I don’t want her to be in any pressure to please anyone and she can just go there and have a really lovely time and to enjoy the process and learn loads from it. I want her to come back saying “that was an amazing experience”.

I think she did amazingly on her Children In Need performance. That was her first time singing on live television and she did so brilliantly. That kid takes everything in her stride; she’s so determined and works so hard. Performances for Children in Need are a big thing and she cared, she really cares about getting it done right and she did me so proud. I’m just already so proud of her,

It’s exciting, we’ve not done Junior Eurovision in such a long time, and it’s really exciting to have the hype of it again. For me before this process, I hadn’t seen Junior Eurovision and wasn’t as aware of it. I think now there are a lot of people who are big fans of Eurovision; are getting behind Junior Eurovision to support our girl. And I will be there in Armenia for the whole thing with Freya.

Do you have any Behind-the-scenes information regarding the UK selection process for 2023?

I have no idea If I am actually doing it. It is all down to the artist and who they book as their vocal coach and I just got very lucky with Sam and James; to do it for 2 years in a row. It all depends on who they pick. I would love to be involved but if not I will absolutely join in with the rest of the country to celebrate and support that night. The whole country is going to be celebrating.

Your favourite non-UK Eurovision song and your favourite UK Eurovision song?

I loved France’s song from 2021, Barbara Pravi was amazing. But I do have another favourite song that I couldn’t get out of my head and it was Cornelia from Sweden this year. That song just covers me in goosebumps. For the UK, obviously, it is Sam Ryder, but I also just wanted to say how exceptional Amy Wadge’s songwriting skills are with “Space Man” as well as other hits too.

And finally, you also have an app out as well, Tell us more about it.

I always had an idea for an app. As a singer, I felt there wasn’t any quick easy way to do a warmup that you can just play. I found all the exercises on YouTube really boring. As singers, we have to warm up but sometimes it can feel boring like a chore and after doing research, I couldn’t really believe the lack of apps that helps Pop singers, Soul singers, and Theatre singers that can put an app on with some cool tracks.

I wanted to make an album of warm-ups that was like a Bruno Mars album. In lockdown, I got on with it and I cannot believe the response I have had; nearly 30,000 downloads in a year and a half. It’s been the number 1 paid music app on the apple store multiple times.

I get messages everyday about it on how much it helps people. These are tried and tested exercises that I’ve used with previous and current clients that I’ve just put into this app so that they were accessible for everybody at a reasonable price.

You have access to the entire app with the gold membership; £4.99 a Month. Any time I add anything, you get all the updates. For each exercise, there’s a matching video; with me teaching you how to do each exercise. It’s super simple and effective and even I use it myself. I have a gig at the Palladium this week doing backing vocals, so we will all be using the app to warm up to it.

https://eurovoix.com/2022/11/27/inte...abel-williams/