Entertainment
‘She wasn’t confident or cocky…just a normal, sweet girl’: Amy Winehouse’s vocal coach shares memories of meeting late star at 16
Amy Winehouse was ‘a sweet, normal girl’ far removed from the headline-grabbing talent she later went on to become, her vocal coach Annabel Williams has said.
Annabel was 19 when she first met the late singer at 16-years-old and recalled witnessing her ‘raw talent’ first hand during her coaching workshops helping people to sing jazz and big band music.
She affectionately described Winehouse’s ‘moody’ demeanour coupled with her iconic ‘black frizzy hair’.
‘I was coaching, I was running a jazz Big Band workshop on a Saturday morning for other singers as part of the national youth Jazz Orchestra, which is where I trained in my craft.
‘She came in this kind of slightly moody, black frizzy hair, curly haired teenager. I remember really vividly because we would rehearse in this clapped out old theatre called The Cockpit Theatre in Edgware Road, just a small little theatre.
‘We would be backstage and we would do their workshops, and on the first day she came in, we were in the props room – it was the most unglamorous thing you’ve ever seen. And we all smoked like chimneys, and you could smoke indoors.
‘I just remember me and her and the rest of the girls sat there all smoking with this Ella Fitzgerald record, and Dinah Washington records and going, “Wow!” and it just blowing our minds. Amy loved Dinah Washington. She loved her tone, she was a big influence of hers.’
Annabel taught the workshop to sing a jazz song which they each got to perform and Amy, who died in 2011, stunned everyone.
‘You could see something in the room just happened like, “Who is this girl?” She wasn’t that chatty in the sessions, she wasn’t confident or cocky, she was just a normal sweet girl. And she just opened her mouth and she just loved to sing. She sung the crap out of this song.’
The singer added: ‘She just had that voice and that raw musical talent, so much to the point that I feel like Amy Winehouse has become a genre in itself.’
Annabel is still helping others with their singing, most recently working with James Newman for Eurovision last month (‘He worked so hard. We’re not going to focus on the result, because there’s nothing he could have done’). Her other credits on her impressive CV include Britain’s Got Talent, The X Factor and Little Mix – now a trio after Jesy Nelson quit in 2020 – who she praised for their hard work following their historic Brit Awards win.
‘I’ve vocally produced for them and they’re always like, “Make it really hard and give us some really cool, risky stuff or stuff in harmony.” They’re never, like, “Make it easy.” It’s like they want the hardest stuff, which is amazing for me as an arranger because I’m like, “Okay, you asked for it.”
‘They’re brilliant, brilliant girls who really work hard and are just lovely. I don’t think they’ve changed really from from how they started.’
She is now passing on the talent, knowledge and advice she bestows on the stars to anyone and everyone through her new project, The Vocal Coach App, and she proudly declares there’s ‘nothing like it’ out there to give singers – or anyone wanting to learn – a hand.
Annabel has poured her over 20 years of experience into the app to help people improve their singing technique with a series of exercises, varying in levels of difficulty, to warm up ‘safely and properly’ and help preserve their voices for longer.
It has even been endorsed by the likes of Rick Astley, Amanda Holden, Louise Redknapp, Ella Henderson and Megan McKenna.
The vocal coach explained: ‘It’s just growing and growing. I have thousands of downloads and hundreds of reviews from people who have found the app organically from around the world. People have called me a ‘lifesaver’ and it’s really amazing.
‘I have a lot of people that come to me, teenagers and young people that are just starting out and wanting to know what they should be doing and how they can get into the right sort of practice for their voices. This is a great app for that.
‘But it’s also designed for current singers and artists. It’s for beginners, medium, intermediate, and advanced, and there’s something for everybody on the app.’
The Vocal Coach App is available on Google Play and Apple Music.
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