Something very cool happened, and although the title of this blog sorta gives it away, let me just savour this for just a moment… I sang with the one, and only, Australian pop princess, Kylie Minogue.
Screenshot from Kylie Minogue – ‘At Christmas’ with the Warner Music UK Choir (facebook.com/kylieminogue)
Right, now that’s out of the way, let me give you a bit of context: I recently (2 months ago) started working for Atlantic Records, which is owned and based in the same building as Warner Music UK. Besides the fact that Atlantic is an awesome record label to work for, I was so bloody happy when I found out that there was a ‘Warner Music UK Choir’, that met during a lunch time once a week to learn harmonies and songs for performances throughout the year. I started mid October, so as you can imagine it was all about Christmas songs and carols for some festive performances in December, however I never imaged that before December was up we would be singing with Kylie Minogue!
Giant group selfie of the Warner Music UK Choir
The filming took place at the world famous Air Studios, which is huge Grade 2 listed Victorian former church building, in North London. Founded by The Beatles producer Sir George Martin, it has hosted a range of hugely suggessful musicans including Adele, Biffy Clyro, Placebo, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bon Iver & Coldplay (to name a few)!
I was a little unsure of how the day would pan out, would she speak to us? Would she be friendly? Or would it feel very strict and scheduled with no interaction allowedd with Kylie? But thankfully, I couldn’t have hoped for it to be a better afternoon than it was (I mean, unless she could have hung out with us after and took a load of selfies, but she’s a busy lady – so I’ll let her off for not doing that)!
Kylie arrived as we were rehearsing (looking as stunning as she always d0es), she then sort of, half ran, half danced, into the centre of the room and proceeded to do the rounds and high five as many people in the choir as she could! She had a huge grin, and radiated enthusiasm. After our run through finished, she compliment us all on how great she thought we sounded, and seemed genuinely excited to be singing with us!
Kylie Minogue and the Warner Music UK Choir @ AIR Studios, London
The footage of Kylie and the choir singing together perfectly captures the real fun that we had on the day. I think it’s a testament to how professional, but absolutely lovely Kylie is, that she was so welcoming of performing with the Warner Choir – especially as we aren’t a “professional” choir, but just a group of people that work at Warner and enjoy singing.
I’m not a huge fan of Christmas (in the “feeling festive 24/7” sense that some people are), but after singing with Kylie on Thursday, then getting tickets through work to see her perform at Royal Albert Hall on Friday night, I’m feeling so so festive and ready for Christmas!
Overall it was such an absolutely fantastic experience, and I feel so thankful and lucky to work for such a wonderful company that aswell as working hard, encourages it’s staff to attend live music events and get stuck into stuff like this. I’m also so thankful to all the people that made it happen, and for everyone in the choir being so lovely to sing with – the whole day is definitely up there as one of the highlights of my year! It was orchestrated by the Warner Music UK Choir conductor (Emma Stevens), Kylie’s Musical Director Steve Anderson, the people that work at Parlophone (the label she Kylie is signed to).
Check out the live video below, this went out to 2.9 million fans on Kylie’s Facebook page, on Thursday 8th December at 5:30pm, and you can also watch on YouTube! After you’ve watched the video, there are some photos below it of the choir behind the scenes in the studio on the day!
(P.s. It was filmed live and the performance starts 10 seconds after pressing play. You can see pretty clear shots of me from 1 minute in – I’m in between the white stags antlers in the wide shot, behind Kylie in some of the side shots, and there’s even a few close-ups(ish) of my face!)
Hope you enjoyed reading this post, if you did, you might also like reading about the time I met Aaron Paul & Kate Winslet!
Lx
AIR Studios, Lyndhurst Hall, London
AIR Studios, Lyndhurst Hall, London
Testing the cameras for Kylie Minogue & Warner Music UK Choir performance inside AIR studios, London
Testing the cameras for Kylie Minogue & Warner Music UK Choir performance inside AIR studios, London
With the White Stag Christmas prop after filming Kylie Minogue & Warner Music UK Choir’s performance inside AIR studios, London
Selfie in my ‘Kylie Kissman’ tee after filming Kylie Minogue & Warner Music UK Choir’s performance inside AIR studios, London
Me with the Choir Conductor: Emma Stevens, after filming Kylie Minogue & Warner Music UK Choir’s performance inside AIR studios, London
