I was invited to perform in The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park for the Sainsbury's Sport Relief Games on Sunday 23rd March. I was so excited; this was my first trip to the Olympic Park AND I was going to be singing there! It was a cold spring day but the sun was shining for the 75, 000 people flooding round all the stalls and stands of food, merchandise, sports, games and sporting materials.
After some time getting ready in the Green Room and some time to warm up, I was escorted across to the stage. Cameras were set up to transmit the performance to huge TV screens set up around the whole park. Jeff Brazier was the MC and we had a little interview on stage before my set began, and then I introduced my first song 'Did I Make the Most of Loving You?' the Downton Abbey Theme by Don Black and John Lunn. After the huge success of Downton Abbey, it’s a hugely recognisable theme, but only a small percentage of people who watch the show know that Don Black wrote lyric to the theme and that there are sound track albums available! So I love to spread the word about that as often as I can because the music is just beautiful.
The Downton Abbey Official Soundtrack album is available here and The Essential Collection is available here.
My second song was Stand As One from my debut album Shine. Just before the 2012 London Olympics, P&G launched their very first self-promotional advertising campaign using the slogan 'Proud sponsor of Mums'; Stand As One was chosen for the music for one of these adverts and so it felt right to sing it during my set in the Olympic Park.
I then sang 'Glorious', the second single from Shine which was also on the 2011 Rugby World Cup 'World in Union' album, and has been used by the BBC for a Formula 1 montage on successive F1 champions. I then finished my set with one of my favourite Chinese songs 春天的芭蕾 (Chuntian de Balei) Spring Ballet.
After my set I stayed back stage for a few minutes, and while I was there I met Louie Spence and Steve Backshall very briefly before they went on stage to talk about how they'd been raising money for Sport Relief. Lovely guys!
The runner who took me to the stage and then back to the Green Room was asked if he saw my performance, to which he replied that unfortunately he couldn’t stay as he had to go backwards and forwards with other guest performers, but he did say ‘She looks like a Disney princess, so I’m sure she sounds like one too!’ What a lovely comment! I’m still dreaming about landing a Disney role... maybe one day!
To donate to Sport Relief visit the website: www.sportrelief.com