BECKY HILL The Voice UK star on why this is her moment
The singer is hitting new highs as she releases her debut album after a decade in the industry. Here, she talks love, surgery and coming full circle
‘It’s been wild. It finally feels like everything’s paying off. The hard work, the graft, the endlessly writing songs’
It’s been almost ten years since Becky Hill shot to fame after dazzling the judges on BBC’s first series of The Voice. But it’s only now that the 27-year-old singer from Worcestershire admits: “It finally feels like this is my moment.” She’s certainly riding high, with the easing of restrictions meaning she can get back to what she loves; performing.
A fortnight ago, she put on a stellar show at a Bulgari party in London in front of royalty and stars including Lady Amelia Windsor, AJ Odudu, Oliver Proudlock and Daisy Lowe. “The overwhelming feeling was: ‘Isn’t this amazing that we are back in work?’” she tells hello! in our exclusive interview. “Isn’t this amazing that, finally, we can start having some stability again in our lives?”
Becky’s songwriting is as impressive as her powerful vocals; she’s collaborated with Jax Jones, Rudimental, Sigala, Wilkinson and David Guetta. And with her debut album Only Honest on the Weekend due for release later this month, the Better Off Without You star says: “It’s been wild. It finally feels like everything’s paying off. The hard work, the graft, the endlessly writing songs.”
From classic electronic tracks to emotive ballads – something few might expect from the dance-pop sensation – each song on her new album holds special meaning, she says. “That’s been the beauty of being able to spend ten years writing an album,” she says. “You can pick the best work that means the most to you; that has a really vivid snapshot of where you were and how you felt when you wrote the song.”
Many of her relatable lyrics are inspired by the highs and lows of her relationship with her boyfriend of five years. She
muses: “I will always talk about love, whether it be going well, whether it be going badly.”
She likes to keep her private life private, but, recalling the first song written about her boyfriend, I Could Get Used to This, she smiles: “I remember playing it to him and he got it off me and sent it to his entire family and all his friends. Which is very sweet.” For the songs where the message is not so sweet? “You know… actions for consequences…” laughs the star, who has bought her first house in London and is moving in this summer, together with her puppy Pig.
BACK ON SONG
Becky is thrilled about the revival of the music industry after more than a year of pandemic restrictions – but she has used her time off wisely by undergoing vocal surgery.
“I was born with a cyst on my vocal cords,” she tells us. Seven months post-op, “my vocal ability, my vocal range, and my vocal stamina has increased tenfold” – something she is looking forward to testing at her festival appearances this summer. She’s performing in the headline slot at Camp Bestival and will be at Leeds Festival and Cornwall’s Boardmasters, too. When in Cornwall, she’s looking forward to “a swim in the sea with a cream tea waiting for me when I get out… and a pasty”.
But her favourite festival memory, she tells us, is in Leeds’s dance tent, which she played in 2019. “The tent was so full, people couldn’t get in. I’d just released I Could Get Used to This and I didn’t think anybody knew it. But I remember taking my earpiece out and hearing the crowd screaming the words.”
Reflecting on the past 18 months without live audiences, Becky says: “Live music is so powerful… You can really feel things that you will remember forever. I remember going to my first gig and I want to create that atmosphere for people.
“After the couple of years we’ve had, I just want to see people having the time of their lives with their loved ones.”
So, what’s next for Becky? She says she feels in a position to help somebody achieve what she did, by coming full circle and bagging a coaching spot. “Next year will be my ten-year anniversary of The Voice. So I’m after one of those chairs!”
Only Honest On The Weekend is out 20 August. To pre-order, visit BeckyHill.lnk.to/OnlyHonestOnTheWeekend.