SINGER FINDS VOICE IN ITALY
CRACKING the music industry is notoriously hard. But one Welsh singer has gone the extra mile to make it big – by competing in Italy’s version of hit show The Voice – despite not speaking a word of Italian.
With less than a week to prepare, 25-year-old Callum Taylor, from Merthyr Tydfil, wowed judges at his blind audition with his version of John Legend’s Ordinary People.
And after picking one of the four judges at random to be his mentor he will now prepare for the show’s next battle round, balancing his singing with a full-time job in Cardiff.
SSE worker Callum said: “I didn’t get on The Voice over here but I’m signed up to a record label in London.
“They approached me and asked if I wanted to go over to Italy to do it.”
Travelling to Bristol and back for daily singing lessons, Callum had just six days to learn the song for the first time before travelling to the Voice of Italy’s studio in Milan.
With no translator on set, he was left to guess the judges’ feedback, after three out of the four were impressed enough to press the red button, spinning around in the song’s last seconds to meet the Welshman.
Callum said: “I work a full-time job in Cardiff Gate so I had singing lessons at seven in the morning and was in work for nine and had another lesson after I finished at six.
“They gave me the song last Tuesday and I had never heard of it before in my life.”
For the competition’s next stage Callum will return to Italy in six weeks to sing against another team member in a bid to impress his judge and mentor Italian rapper Emis Killa.
Attracting headlines across the world, previous winners from the competition’s four seasons include Ursuline nun Cristina Scuccia , be low , who blew judges away with her version of Alicia Keys’ No One.
Speaking about his audition, Callum said: “I was scared – the thought of not getting it and having to go back on my own was awful.
“There was about a 10-minute wait to go on stage and it felt like a lifetime waiting for the music to start.
“It came to the last 20 seconds of the song and I could feel myself welling up. I forgot the last couple of words I was so scared.”
While the singer had to rely on the help of Italy’s version of UK presenter Emma Willis for translation he is confident language won’t be a barrier in the next stages.
Callum added: “The show presenter had to come on stage and translate for me and when [the judges] did their pitch I wasn’t understanding them and they weren’t understanding me. I didn’t know what was going on.
“It just happened so fast. It was an amazing experience having the opportunity to do it, especially in another country – it was quite emotional.”
For the singer the audition comes after eight years of trying to make it in the music industry after auditioning for the X Factor in 2009.