COACH YVIE ON NEW SHOW
added: “The good thing for me is when I work with people when they’re not famous and then they become famous, that’s the best because they wouldn’t dare suddenly be a diva because I would be, ‘Excuse me, I remember when you were nobody. Why are you suddenly acting like you’re somebody really important because you’re not’.
“Occasionally I have to put on this air of, ‘Oh, I’m really confident in what we’re doing’, but underneath it all I’m thinking, ‘Oh my goodness, I’m telling whoever…’ It would be like telling Beyonce she’s flat.
“Funnily enough, I remember back in the day, when Beyonce worked on The X Factor with Alexandra Burke and did that famous duet, coaching Alexandra on the stage and Beyonce said to me, ‘Could you just check me as well, could you tell me if I’ve got any bits that are not right?’
“I thought, ‘I just cannot go up to Beyonce and say, ‘Excuse me that note’s a bit…’
“I said, ‘I think it would be better if you sang this note rather than that note’. She said, ‘Fair enough’.
“That was being brave but you’ve got to. If you’re employed, no matter who I’m employed by to improve their voice, it’s my job. Because nobody’s perfect, it’s an art, it’s not perfection.”
More recently, she has been working a lot with Sam Smith, as well as Leona Lewis, Bastille and Lewis Capaldi.
Yvie said: “Lewis mucks around but he does take it seriously.
“We will do our exercises and I’ll make funny faces. He is a fun person to be around and will have a laugh.
“Spending time with Sam is never a dull moment. I have a laugh with most people. We’re doing something that’s incredibly fun.
“We’re travelling around the world doing this incredible job.
“We do have a laugh but I make them take the technique bit very seriously, because in these days, with these huge gigs that people do for so much money, if a singer cancels a gig, the insurance company spend so much money. It’s big business.
“So looking after your voice is so important.
“I don’t tend to get star-struck. Sometimes the first meeting I’ll be a little bit like that.
“I remember working with Katy Perry for a little while. And you’ll be in her dressing room. She’s warming up her voice at the same time as someone’s putting moisturiser on her legs.
“I remember one time they were trying to get her into this dress which was almost rubber… and I’m helping to pull the dress on plus warming her up. Things like that can be very funny. It’s a very intimate job in a way.”
Yvie’s own singing career took a step back when she was introduced to Louis Walsh by her husband and was offered the job on The X Factor and the coaching took off.
But she admitted: “I was quite nervous when I was a singer. I found it quite daunting.
“Then, when I started doing TV and I’d be on talking on the Lorraine show or something and they’d say, ‘Are you not nervous on live TV?’ I’d say, ‘No, because I’m just talking’. Compared to singing, it’s just not nerve wracking. “I would get my performer thing out of doing some television and I found I enjoyed that and I didn’t feel any need to sing.” It became a juggling act with husband Gordon and their two kids, Emily, now 25, and Ollie, 22. At one point, she could be doing Britain’s Got Talent then Andrew Lloyd Webber shows and then on to America’s Got Talent then back to the UK for X Factor. She said: “We used to spend every summer doing America’s Got Talent, so we’d be in LA from June to September for the school holidays. “The children have lovely memories – although mum was away a lot during term time, they had a fabulous summer in LA. I don’t think they were that hard done by.”
YVIE BURNETT ON TREATING EVERYONE THE SAME