The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
stevie hopes talent show will keep finding stars
The Voice winner and former firefighter Stevie McCrorie said he hopes the show will continue to produce talent, as it prepares to leave the BBC.
The 30-year-old Scot was famously entered into the singing competition by his colleagues in Kirkcaldy, winning it in April with Kaiser Chiefs frontman Ricky Wilson as his mentor.
Stevie is preparing to release his debut album, Big World, out next year, and said he is proud to have written all the songs himself, some of which are ideas he has had for years.
At a performance for fans in Glasgow, he said: “When I finished on The Voice I was offered songs to use for the album but I really wanted to take the hard route and show people that I’m a songwriter.
“I’ve put my heart and soul into the album and used all the ideas that I’ve had in my head for years but never really had the audience to sell it to.
“I’m so glad the record label let me write my own album because they could easily have told me to do some covers or other writers’ songs.
“It’s about family, it’s about emotions and the journeys that all families go through. I hope everyone can relate to it and I really hope it connects with people because I’ve really bared my soul in it.”
Mark Linsey, acting director of BBC Television, said: “The BBC is incredibly proud of The Voice but the fifth series, which starts in January, will be our last.
“We always said we wouldn’t get into a bidding war or pay inflated prices to keep the show, and it’s testament to how the BBC has built the programme up – and established it into a mainstay of the Saturday night schedule – that another broadcaster has poached it.”
ITV has refused to comment on speculation that the show will be moving to the broadcaster.
Of the show’s move, Stevie said: “Hopefully it can still do what it’s done for me to someone else who is maybe just not getting noticed.”
His first single, My Heart Never Lies, is available now on iTunes.