A VOICE COACH IN TINSELTOWN
Calgarian works behind scenes on top TV shows
Vocal coach may not seem the likeliest of professions to prepare for a life of secrecy.
But in some ways, Calgary’s Tamara Beatty’s background made her uniquely suited for her longtime stint behind-the-scenes in reality TV. She has spent the past eight years working on shows such as The Voice and, most recently, Fox’s recent sensation The Masked Singer. As with anyone who has worked in the strange world of reality TV, staying mum has been one of the job requirements. After all, shows are taped months before they air and keeping the results secret is paramount. But this hasn’t been a problem for Beatty, who proudly describes herself as a “walking vault” in that regard.
“I’m often walking around with secrets,” she says. “I’ve learned not to say anything at all.”
As a longtime vocal coach who often works with high-profile clients beyond her TV duties, Beatty is used to it. She is often sent secret tracks from major record labels that have yet to be released. She has worked with singers who are looking for help in rehabilitating their voices. So she has become accustomed to keeping the who and the what on the down-low.
“Oftentimes, they don’t want the public to know that their voice is in trouble,” she says. “So I have to sign an agreement to say that I won’t say that I’ve worked with that person. So a lot of the work I do nobody really knows about.”
Still, even by these standards, Beatty’s recent chat with Postmedia had some odd dynamics due to a peculiar combination of reality-tv secrecy and early newspaper deadlines. The interview was conducted on May 20, the very day that the Season 3 finale of The Masked Singer was set to air. So any fan reading this story will already know by now that the true identity of a contestant named the Turtle, for instance, is actually Jesse Mccartney.
But at the time, Beatty certainly couldn’t reveal this to a reporter. She may be used to such things, but one got the impression that keeping quiet about this one was a bit tough. After all, when asked her favourites among the celebrity singers behind the masks on the show, she pointed to the Astronaut (revealed to be country singer Hunter Hayes), Kitty (revealed to be singer Jackie Evancho), White Tiger (revealed to be awkwardly rapping New England Patriot Rob Gronkowski) and ... Turtle.
“I can tell you that Turtle is an incredible human being with so much talent,” she says. “And if I were to have a brother, I would be choosing Turtle. He’s an incredible human being.”
The Masked Singer has become a huge hit for Fox in the past three seasons. The strange, high-concept export from Korea involves celebrities singing covers of famous songs behind costumes and masks that hide their identities. The identities are revealed if they are eliminated from the series. So far, the American version has offered several cheerfully odd moments, including a rapping pink teddy bear unmasked to be former Alaska governor Sarah Palin and hair-metal singer Bret Michaels disguised as a creepily grinning singing banana.
It’s Beatty’s job to help contestants do their best in the singing department, which has also been her role for 13 seasons of NBC’S popular competition The Voice, where she trains starry-eyed, not-yet-famous contestants behind the scenes. In 2013, Beatty received a call from producers of that show, which also had its season finale earlier this week with celeb coaches John Legend, Kelly Clarkson, Blake Shelton and Nick Jonas. Beatty was aware that an acquaintance had recommended her for the series, but was still taken aback when she received the call at her house just outside of Calgary.
“I was vacuuming when I received the call,” she says. “I actually thought it was a prank. It was basically an interview. A couple of people had recommended me. They asked me if I could start work and I didn’t really know all the ramifications but I just said yes. I once had a mentor that said ‘Say yes and figure it out fast.’ That’s what I learned to do with this situation.
“The moment I arrived there was not long after I had had that conversation. I had no idea what the parameters were, how long lessons were, how many we had. I wasn’t given any information. I learned a lot about artistry and how to stand out.
“When you hear 100 people back-to-back and you work with them, the thing I took away was that with all these great singers, at the end of the day, it was very difficult for me to remember them. I was like ‘Who am I remembering? What is it about somebody that makes them memorable?’ It has really altered the way I coach because I try to work toward those authentic elements that people have that are the real things that make people stand out.”
Born in Saskatoon and raised in Vulcan, Beatty was a track-and-field athlete with Olympic ambitions while growing up in Alberta. But she also always sang and began taking voice lessons at a young age.
At 16, her vocal coach encouraged her to become a coach rather than a student and Beatty has been doing it ever since. Alongside her reality-tv duties, Beatty offers private lessons and workshops. As a coach, she has a long history of working remotely and has even built her own app so she can offer lessons, voice rehabilitation and mentorship to clients around the world even when she was spending a good deal of her time on sets in Los Angeles. Both The Voice and The Masked Singer have been renewed for another season and Beatty says she hopes to return to both, although she has yet to sign a contract. As with everything else, if production on either show starts anytime soon, it could be a very different experience due to social distancing and other restrictions amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I don’t have any clue what they are going to end up doing,” she says. “But it’s the entertainment industry and I think people are creative at problem-solving. I’m really looking forward to seeing how they do it.”
(It) altered the way I coach because I try to work toward those authentic elements that people have that are the real things that make people stand out.