All About Connie Talbot
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Holiday Magic [2009]
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©Sweet Connie 2007 - 2009
Britain's got talent:
Talbot initially auditioned
for the first series of television reality show Britain's Got Talent for
fun, but her confidence increased when Simon Cowell, whom she is said to
have idolized, described her as "pure magic" and said that he would make her
earn "£1 million-plus this year". The judges expected a "joke" performance
and she had never taken singing lessons, but Talbot's initial performance
received international press coverage. She reached the final round after
winning her semi-final with a live performance of "Ben" by Michael Jackson.
On the night of the final, she sang The Wizard of Oz's "Over the Rainbow",
but lost to Paul Potts as a result of the call-in vote. Talbot and Potts had
been joint favorites to win the series.
Talbot during the recording of "Smile" for Sony BMG According to journalist
and Britain's Got Talent judge Piers Morgan, Talbot's performances resulted
in many children, including Faryl Smith, auditioning for the second series
of the show. After his victory, Series 2 winner George Sampson spoke of his
participation in the first series, where he was knocked out before the live
shows, saying "I don't think I had any shot of winning last year ... When
you look at the standard of Paul Potts and Connie Talbot. Paul Potts is out
of this league, and Connie is out of this league - I wasn't good enough."
Talbot voted for Sampson, saying "I liked his dancing - he was good on the
lamppost".
Cowell had preliminarily agreed to sign Talbot with his own record label,
Sony BMG. After recording two songs in London with Talbot ("Over the
Rainbow" and "Smile"[), the label pulled out of the deal. Talbot's mother,
Sharon, said she was told that her daughter "...was too young to be their
sort of artist", adding "We have been told to look for a company which looks
after children." In a statement, the label said "there was some deliberation
over the possibility of recording with Connie ... However, the decision not
to proceed was made with the best intentions for Connie, taking into
consideration her age and that it would not be right to do so at this time."
Cowell himself said that "when the time is right, [he would] be delighted to
see if [they could] make it work". The Talbot family decided to search for
another label, saying "while [Talbot] loves what she's doing it would be
cruel to stop her. Fame and money will never matter."
Over The Rainbow:
In October 2007 Talbot
signed with the Rainbow Recording Company for a six-figure deal. Rainbow
Recording Company, an offshoot of record label Rhythm Riders made
specifically for Talbot, was due to release Talbot's first album on 26
November 2007. It was later reported that the album was named Over the
Rainbow, and the first single, "Over the Rainbow"/"White Christmas", would
be released on 3 December 2007. Experts predicted that she had a good chance
of getting the Christmas number one, but the single was cancelled in
favor
of an album-first release. Before the album was released, there was much
speculation about Talbot and the album, with music experts describing her as
potentially being "the next Charlotte Church".
Talbot during the recording session of Over the Rainbow on 12 October
2007The team behind the album consisted of John Arnison, who also managed
Gabrielle and Billy Ocean, and Marc Marott, former managing director of
Island Records. It was produced and mixed by Simon Hill and Rob May. Arnison revealed that he and his team "are not going to give [Talbot]
singing lessons – we don't need to", and said that when he met Talbot, he
was "blown away". A schedule was worked out allowing Talbot to continue with
her normal school activities while recording the album in her aunt Vicky's
spare bedroom, which her mother described as "a better solution [than Sony
BMG offered] which has not robbed her of her childhood". Although Arnison
claimed he did not "want to put her through the promotional grind which most
artists go through because she is too young", plans were made for an
appearance on daytime television programmer This Morning, as well as an
appearance on Children in Need on 16 November 2007. The album was released
on 26 November 2007 and Talbot's mother said that "All the family is really
excited, but Connie is quite blase about it." The album was certified gold
in early December, with Talbot being presented a gold disc by Phillip
Schofield on This Morning. Initially, 50,000 copies of the album were
pressed, but an additional 120,000 had to be made after the album sold out
in days.
In late 2007, public appearances by Talbot included headlining the Great
Bridge Christmas and Winter Festival, which local police threatened to
cancel unless crowds clamoring to reach the tent in which Talbot was
performing could be brought under control. At the event, on 7 December 2007,
Talbot said "I love it here, it’s brilliant, really fun", but had to be
ushered off-stage by the police. Talbot performed publicly in Walsall's HMV
store, and in Birmingham's Centenary Square. TV appearances included GMTV
and Channel 5 news, both on 26 November 2007. According to her mother,
Talbot has received offers for film roles. Sharon said [Talbot] been sent
a script, I haven't had a good look at it yet but it's really exciting ...
Connie's a singer, not an actress, so we'll see what happens. It's
completely up to her whether or not she wants to do it. I can't believe it,
though."
Sharon Mower of Allmusic praised Over the Rainbow by saying "She can sing,
for a seven year old, and most of the notes (if not all of them) are in the
right order and sung to the right pitch; the timing is fine too". However,
she criticized the album, saying "there's no feeling, no emotion, no
realization of what each song is about; they're just pretty little songs",
giving the album 2/5. Nick Levine, of Digital Spy, said in a review of the
album that Talbot had a "sweet, pure voice", but that there is "no nuance or
depth to her performance". However, he said that "There's something
inherently wrong about awarding a star rating to a seven-year-old", and that
"the decidedly adult concept of musical merit should have nothing to do with
[her music]", awarding the album 2/5.
The album was re-released on 16 June 2008, but was available for pre-order in
May, with three new tracks to replace its Christmas-themed songs. The first
single from the album, "Three Little Birds", was released in June 2008, and
a video for the song was shot in Jamaica. In April and May 2008, Talbot
toured Asia to promote Over the Rainbow. Asian press attributed her success
to her videos on YouTube, with the Sun. Star mentioning that her most viewed
video had been watched over 14 million times, and The Straits Times saying
that videos of Talbot's performances have been watched over 30 million
times. The tour made stops in South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore,
and Talbot and her family returned to England in late May. Following the
tour, it was reported that the album had reached number one on the charts in
Taiwan, South Korea and Hong Kong, as well as reaching number three in
Singapore. After the tour, Talbot traveled to Poland, where she performed on
television.
In August 2008, it was announced that Talbot had signed a contract with Data
Design Interactive for production of a video game on the Wii console. The
game will feature 15 songs from Over the Rainbow, allowing players to sing
along with a computer-generated image of Talbot or against other players in
a karaoke mode. Talbot has rerecorded the album for the game, but there are
other elements that need to be completed. The game is scheduled for release
in the first quarter of 2009, and is called Connie Talbot: Over the Rainbow.
It was also revealed that Over the Rainbow was due for release in America in
September, resulting in attention from American press sources including Fox
Business Network and Market Watch. The U.S. version was eventually released
on 14 October, with Talbot appearing on American television shows including
The Ellen DeGeneres Show to publicise the release.
Christmas Album:
In November 2008, it was
announced that Talbot had produced a series of new songs for an album.
Recorded in her bedroom studio, Connie Talbot's Christmas Album was released
on 24 November. It is a Christmas themed album, featuring, according to
Talbot's official website, "a mix of classics and modern Christmas tunes".
News was also released of a one-off Christmas special to be shown on ITV1 in
the days leading up to Christmas, featuring footage of Talbot's journey to
America and a "secret concert" at her primary school. The documentary,
Christmas with Connie, was shown on ITV Central on 18 December. Talbot
appeared at Walsall's HMV branch shortly after the release of her Christmas
Album to sign copies and meet fans. She then embarked on a promotional tour
making stops around the world, which included a performance at Ewha Womans
University in Korea, and a performance on the A Heart for Children
television charity gala in Berlin, Germany. She returned home in mid
December, to have "a quiet family Christmas". There are plans for a
promotional trip to the U.S. in 2009.
Connie Talbot's Christmas Album was difficult to obtain in Britain after the
distributor, Pinnacle Entertainment, went into administration. Talbot's
mother, Sharon, was quoted as saying "We don't really know what's going to
happen at the moment ... We think they'll probably wait and promote the
album later this year. It's a shame, but they can still get the album in
Asia and the US." Reviewing the album for Female First magazine, Ruth
Harrison gave it 4/5, saying that Talbot has "a great voice when it comes to
swing, but lets us down in parts".
In April 2009, Talbot again travelld to the U.S. in order to publicise her
new single, a cover of "I Will Always Love You". The single was released in
the U.S. on 7 April, along with a newly recorded "You Raise Me Up". Talbot
then travelled to the U.S. on 30 April, and returned on the 2 May.
Appearances included a performance on Good Day New York on Fox Broadcasting
Company's WNYW. The single peaked at number six on the Billboard Hot 100
Singles Sales.