Q&A with Belle Voci

By Natasha Barbieri

From the moment they stepped onto “The Voice” stage for the blind auditions, Belle Voci seemed fresh and approachable. Their beautifully matched voices impressed the judges but they were kept in suspense. Their bond was evident as they battled nerves and managed to keep their composure to perform a lovely rendition of “The Flower Duet.” Of course, a few seconds before the song’s end, Jennifer Hudson’s chair turned and from then on they were firmly on team JHud.

Both ladies have been singing since before they were teens, Emily began as a Chester cathedral chorister and Sophie sang at her school. Emily studied at the Royal College of Music while Sophie attended the London School of Musical Theatre. They met while working at a country pub.  “Emily was dicing an onion one day (she was a chef, Sophie a waitress) whilst singing and Sophie came in and said, “Are you a classical singer? So, am I, what are the chances, let’s join forces and sing together at weddings etc.”?

 The pair began singing together but didn’t realize how unique their blend was till later on. “We took this for granted before we started talking about it with people. It is really hard to find another voice you like singing with so much but as we have been doing it for 4 years we often listen back to recordings and can’t remember who sang what!”

 They deserve themselves as “very different people.” Sophie is described as the “cool” one and Emily “nerdy” but they agree that their differences “make the duo work.” Their individual strengths are needed in order to keep the partnership successful. They tell us, “Sophie comes from a Musical Theatre background and Emily comes from a Choral background growing up so we sort of meet in the middle to create a

version of opera that is easy to listen to (we hope!). Sophie is brilliant at choreography due to her dance background and Emily is a dab hand at writing new arrangements for us to sing. Dream team!”

Sophie handles most of the social media while Emily works out their harmonies. “We are always bouncing ideas off each other. There is always one dreamer and the other is realistic and the next day we will switch places. We think it’s a great combination.”

Talent aside the ladies are clearly hard working and determined. Their first showcase pointed to the success ahead but wouldn’t have come about without their own grit. “We begged Piste Tarporley to let us put on an opera dinner there for free so we could film it and set up our website and it sold out within 24 hours!”

Emily and Sophie began performing at parties, wedding, did some recording and then began to break into the corporate world. “We used to contact around 60 companies a week between us, emailing them about Belle Voci, looking for new bookings.”

It’s eventually how they got their big break. Emily saw an e-mail with the subject “ITV Looking for singers” and naturally she went for it thinking it was for a Christmas gig. “Next thing we know they called Sophie up saying they had received our application, and the rest is history.”

 The girls appeared down-to-earth on their pre-audition interview with Emily hyping that “I can’t wait to get out there!” and a questioning, “Really?” from Emily but on the day, the girls took turns feeling nervous. At first, it was Emily helping Sophie relax with assurances like, “It’ll be fine, we do this for a living, it’s The Flower duet, we know it inside out,” but the roles quickly reversed. “Then it came to standing on the steps to go on stage and we completely switched places!”

 There was also occasionally a moment when one of the girls got starstruck. “Emily went a tad weak at the knees whenever Olly Murs was around” while “Sophie actually forgot to sing in our rehearsal for the Final with Jennifer Hudson, she was so overwhelmed by JHud’s insane voice!” There was also that candid moment when they were chosen to continue to the next level and Sophie blurted, “Are you sure?”

The show was an amazing confidence builder for them and the celebrity guests only helped them grow. “All the coaches and their guests were so amazingly normal. We were both so worried about meeting Jen in case she turned out to be a diva, but by the

end, we really did feel like we were friends; talking about what we were going to wear etc. having a good ol’ girlie catch up!”

Making it to the final of The Voice also changed the trajectory of their career. No longer are the girls sending out 60 e-mails a week and searching for gigs. “Now we have an amazing agent Paul Fitzgerald and work with a few bookers which mean that the work comes to us instead of us going out to chase it. It is full-time too which is just the dream!”

 The music that they learned for the show also became part of who they are as a duo; now they really embrace those crossover moments. “We are always performing new music to keep things fresh but actually, we learned so much from the show about how to turn something like Skyfall into an opera song that we keep them in our sets quite a lot. It has sort of become who we are – another level of our mission to bring opera to people who wouldn’t necessarily hear it, now we can do it with songs that everyone knows. We like to sing songs like Skyfall and then either side put an opera song like Habanera or Flower Duet so people experience something new.”

Belle Voci released their first Christmas album in 2018. “The process was so much fun. We did the album ourselves without a label, however, we are working with Absolute Label Distributors who are selling it on online platforms etc. We first selected what songs we would like to sing (way back in March which was so weird!), then we booked Kensal Town Studios for our one day of recording, then we spent a few days arranging the well-known Christmas songs so they had our unique Belle Voci Twist we try to bring to all our songs. Then we recorded it in September.”

They credit their “genius” sound engineer George Murphy and the Christmas spirit (“Who doesn’t love Christmas?”) with helping to keep the sessions stress free and tell us, “It was one of the best days in our Belle Voci career. A real milestone for us.”

 Many artists get lost after their big moments on reality television but Emily and Sophie seem invigorated and determined enough to keep the momentum moving forward. What are their plans? “Where to start! We are always dreaming and talking with our agent about our next steps. We have just had the best December ever so the new year can be about planning a potential tour one day, maybe another album – one with our songs from the Voice on it, and we are going to Antarctica, Monte Carlo and Dubai for gigs in 2019! It’s all go! We are just having the best time.”

To keep up with Emily & Sophie visit: belle-voci.com

Natasha Barbieri, Editor

Editor

Creator of Classical Crossover Magazine. For Natasha music has always been closely tied to her faith. At age 18, Natasha made her opera debut playing the part of the mother in Menotti’s ‘Amahl and the Night Visitors’ with the Eastern Festival Opera. At 20, she was a winner of the 2011 Young Artist Competition at Andrews University. Natasha graduated in 2012 with a Bachelor’s of Music. Natasha has released a series of Holiday singles “A Place Called Home” (2020), “One Little Boy,” and “The Perfect Year” (2021). In 2021, she was nominated for the ‘Future Classic Women Awards’ show on Men’s & Women’s Radio Station. Natasha is the creator and editor of ‘Classical Crossover Magazine’ a venture that has allowed her to interview many of the top stars in the genre including Sarah Brightman, Celtic Woman, Mirusia, Paul Potts, and more. During the covid-19 pandemic, she created an online concert series for the magazine that has seen her perform in the same line-up as Alex Sharpe, Lucy Kay, Barbara Padilla, Classical Reflection, and more on the virtual stage. In 2022, Natasha was included on the charity album “Stars of Classical Crossover: Christmas” in benefit of the Wallace & Gromit Children’s Charity.