Craig: Voice is the winner

‘MENTAL HEALTH ADVICE A HIT’

THE Voice winner Craig Eddie has praised ITV producers for providing proper mental health care while he was on the show.

The Scottish singer/songwriter revealed that staff were on hand 24/7 to listen to his anxieties – and always took him seriously.

He told me: “The support and the producers have been amazing.

“I found that if I did have any problems they always told me to go directly to them.

“They made me feel not shameful about going to them for any of my problems or any of my queries – or if I was feeling down, or alone, or anxious.

“They were really open-minded and always on hand for me, which is really important.”

Now he has a huge platform, Craig is keen to use his voice to raise awareness about mental health.

“I said from the get-go, before I even knew I was on

The Voice, that if I was ever given an opportunity like this I will always use it for talking about mental health.

“I’m really passionate about it as

I feel incorporating the subject matter of mental health in casual conversation will break the stigma – and talking about how you’re feeling that day will become the same as talking about what’s for dinner that night.” He added that he and coach Annemarie bonded over their outlook of life, too: “Anne-marie is amazing. I feel as if our brains work very similarly – we both had this epiphany moment where we realised we are like the same person.”

His winner’s single is original song Come Waste My Time, and he revealed he has fresh material that he’s desperate to release.

“I really am focused on writing as much original material as possible. I already have hundreds of songs on the back burner, so now it’s just about finding new sounds that people haven’t heard before, because that excites me.”

And he’d love to follow in fellow Scot Lewis Capaldi’s footsteps and write for other artists, too. “I’ve written a lot of songs that don’t necessarily make sense for me at the moment, but if I’m tooting my own trumpet for a second, they are good enough for someone else, so I’m happy to write for them.” His dream collabs? “Yungblud or Machine Gun Kelly,” Craig smiles. Come Waste My Time is out now.