Mary-Jess first became known in China, winning their version of the X Factor in front of 70 million viewers.
Mary-Jess English Show Reel
Whilst studying Mandarin Chinese in Nanjing, China, Mary-Jess won 民星唱翻天 ‘The Chinese X Factor’, a televised singing contest with a live viewing audience of over 70 million people. Shortly after, she released her début album ‘Shine’ with Decca Records, which won numerous awards.
Mary-Jess has toured with Russell Watson and G4 as their special guest soprano, performed with Sir Tim Rice and Don Black, sang to royalty in Windsor Castle, appeared on numerous national TV programs both in the UK and in China, and was chosen to sing the Downton Abbey theme tune: ‘Did I Make the Most of Loving You?’. The lyrics were written by Don Black and the theme has now been included in three of the Downton Abbey Official Soundtrack albums. This has since been performed by Mary-Jess all over the globe, including a performance at Royal Festival Hall with Don Black using the full orchestral arrangement, and on the JSBC Variety Channel in the Jiangsu Province of China, televised to 70 million live viewers.
Mary-Jess performed at the FA Cup Final in Wembley Stadium singing 'Abide With Me' in front of a live audience of 90,000 people and a worldwide television audience of 300 million people.
Mary-Jess released her winter album ‘Prayer to a Snowflake’ in November 2016 to critical acclaim. Her latest album, ‘Inspire’, which aims to help young singers get a foothold in the music industry, was released in April 2018. As a patron of The Door Youth Project in Gloucestershire, a charity that helps troubled, disengaged young people and their families, Mary-Jess loves to give opportunities to young people when ever she can, therefore, ‘Inspire’ features duets with some of the UK’s most exciting young artists: Tazmin Barnes, Beth Ford, Ffion Rebecca, G4 Young Voices, The London Chinese Philharmonic Choir and Kyle Tomlinson. “I believe that their voices are so incredible” said Mary-Jess “that the world should here them, so I decided I must record an album with them to showcase their talent”.
Besides her own début record, Mary-Jess has also featured on 15 other albums with covers as well as her own original self-penned songs. These include: ‘Now That’s What I Call Classical’, the official Downton Abbey soundtrack albums, the Rugby World Cup ‘World in Union’ album, and she was asked to sing Faith Hill’s ‘There You’ll Be’ for the Band of H. M. Royal Marines' album ‘Summon the Heroes’ due to her family connections with the forces. This was then included on the album 'Music for Heroes'. To see more, go to the music page.
Mary-Jess was appointed one of the first five ‘Leading Lights’ for the Generation UK China Network, an initiative set up by the British Council UK and China, and she was also chosen to be the first Western participant of Lord Wei’s Diaspora Emerging Leadership Programme in the House of Lords, due to her strong connection with China. The programme aims to create networks within the Chinese and Western communities through it’s leaders in many fields.
In 2019, Mary-Jess sang in the new year with Katherine Jenkins, Aled Jones, Shane Filan, and many other special guests for BBC Songs of Praise’s ‘The Big Sing’ from the Royal Albert Hall to a viewing audience of two million people.
As well as her own solo tours in the UK, Italy and America, Mary-Jess also tours with her Christmas production ‘Christmas at the Musicals’ to sold out audiences in the UK.
Mary-Jess was invited by the UK Government to sing at the Entertainment Innovators Summit (TIF-IN) in Qingdao, China, her performance was televised live to 1.3 billion people.
After singing at The GREAT Festival of Creativity in Shanghai, Mary-Jess was invited to Number 10 Downing Street where she was asked to become the next representative of The GREAT Britain Campaign, and so she now represents UK music in 144 countries around the world. She is also a 'Leading Light' of the Generation UK China Network, an initiative set up by the British Council in China to encourage links between the UK and China.
Mary-Jess is a member of the Royal British Legion Gloucester City Branch, patron of The Door Youth Project, and she is an ambassador for Half the Sky, a charity that helps orphaned and abandoned children in China.
As well as all of the above, Mary-Jess now gives inspirational talks and presentations about the importance of learning languages and how learning Chinese changed her life forever. She also gives singing work shops and masterclasses, working with young singers and choirs to develop their voice, and the transferable skills that music and singing can bring, like confidence, determination, diligence, and dealing with nerves.