Post by gra7890 on Mar 16, 2013 18:57:01 GMT
Mary-Jess Leaverland: 'People recognise me in Jiangsu province, where the show was aired.' Photograph: David Yeo for the Guardian For a 12-year-old, I was pretty focused. I knew I wanted to be a professional classical singer – that had been a given for as long as I could remember. But I also knew that I needed a back-up, so I chose Mandarin as one of my GCSEs. It seemed like a good contingency plan. I didn't realise that decision would put me in front of 70m television viewers a few years later.
After school, I started a course in classical music and Mandarin at Sheffield university, and the second year, in 2009, took me to Nanjing university, near Shanghai. One day I was keeping a fellow student company – he was at some TV studios filming a game show – and I got bored waiting for him. I wandered about, stumbling on a studio where what looked like a talent show was going on. I asked the producer if I could be in it – life throws opportunities at you, and sometimes you just have to take them.
The show, Min Xing Chang Fan Tian (I Want To Sing To The Stars), is a Chinese version of The X Factor. They called me back a couple of weeks later. I sang Time To Say Goodbye, and sailed through the heats, ending up in the finals. You have to sing every day for two and a half weeks, so you're live on TV every night. The stylist always wanted to curl my hair and make me look whiter, because they were fascinated by my pale skin. And then I won. I thought they'd want a Chinese winner, but they voted for me. It was unreal.
I came back to the UK at the end of that year, but I can never stay away from China for long – I love it there. People recognise me in Jiangsu province, where the show was aired. You're always going to get looks in China, because being western is a novelty, especially in rural areas, but for me it was more than that. I got followed in a supermarket once. I just put down my basket and ran, though – I didn't hang around.
I would live in China again, but my boyfriend is a vegetarian and has a difficult time of it there. At the moment, we're moving in together in Warwickshire. I'd really like to break through over here in the same way. I've got an album out, called Shine, and I'm going to be Aled Jones's special guest for two dates of his cathedral tour. I'm really excited about that. I want my experience in China to have been just the start.
After school, I started a course in classical music and Mandarin at Sheffield university, and the second year, in 2009, took me to Nanjing university, near Shanghai. One day I was keeping a fellow student company – he was at some TV studios filming a game show – and I got bored waiting for him. I wandered about, stumbling on a studio where what looked like a talent show was going on. I asked the producer if I could be in it – life throws opportunities at you, and sometimes you just have to take them.
The show, Min Xing Chang Fan Tian (I Want To Sing To The Stars), is a Chinese version of The X Factor. They called me back a couple of weeks later. I sang Time To Say Goodbye, and sailed through the heats, ending up in the finals. You have to sing every day for two and a half weeks, so you're live on TV every night. The stylist always wanted to curl my hair and make me look whiter, because they were fascinated by my pale skin. And then I won. I thought they'd want a Chinese winner, but they voted for me. It was unreal.
I came back to the UK at the end of that year, but I can never stay away from China for long – I love it there. People recognise me in Jiangsu province, where the show was aired. You're always going to get looks in China, because being western is a novelty, especially in rural areas, but for me it was more than that. I got followed in a supermarket once. I just put down my basket and ran, though – I didn't hang around.
I would live in China again, but my boyfriend is a vegetarian and has a difficult time of it there. At the moment, we're moving in together in Warwickshire. I'd really like to break through over here in the same way. I've got an album out, called Shine, and I'm going to be Aled Jones's special guest for two dates of his cathedral tour. I'm really excited about that. I want my experience in China to have been just the start.
From the 'Guardian' 16-03-13
Graham C
