The Singer Takes It All is a talent
show with a completely
revolutionary concept at its heart,
isn’t it?
Yeah, that’s right. I’ve never been
involved with anything ground-breaking
before! But this really is! That was one
of the reasons I signed up to do it. It’s all
interactive. Whereas with other shows
you’ve got a judging panel and all of that
stuff, with this, the people at home are
the judge and jury, via this app - they
press hit or miss – and that’s what I
really like about it.
The show has a very unusual stage.
How does it work?
While the singers are performing their
song on the show, they’re standing on a
conveyer belt called The Track. If you
like them, you press ‘hit’, if you don’t
you press ‘miss’. The more hits they get,
they move towards the gold zone, where
they could win up to £15,000. Or, if it’s
all ‘Misses’, you could disappear
backwards through the flaps to a life of
misery. But people can’t vote unless
they’ve downloaded the app. Well, they
can shout at the telly, but it’s not going
to make a blind bit of difference.
How is it determined how much
the singers win?
It depends how long they spend in the
gold zone, the money keeps going up
and up and up while they’re in there. So
if you’re belting out a Mariah Carey-style
ballad and you’re note perfect, in theory
everyone will say “Wow, this is
amazing!” and press the hit button. And
you can press it every 15 seconds, so if
you’re killing the song, wonderful, you’ll
go home with a lot of money. But if
you’re tone deaf and it’s crap, you’ll go
back through the flaps to a life of
obscurity.
Some of the singing/talent shows
can be a bit self-important. This
sounds a bit more fun…
Yeah, we’re not making dreams come
true on The singer Takes It All. I almost
feel this is a bit more like Eurovision.
People will come out and you just don’t
know what you’re going to get. Some will
be brilliant, some will be less than
brilliant, and some will just be a bit
I wanted to sing
a song at the
end of the show
like Cilla Black
did on Surprise,
Surprise.
Strangely, they
said no.
bonkers. We’re not giving anyone a
record deal at the end of this. It’s
basically just a really fun singing show,
except on this one the Great British
public is the judge and jury. And there’s
a live audience, everyone’s up for it, I’ll
have a celebrity singer with me to give
guidance and feedback. But I think, if
you’re coming on this show, I wouldn’t
book the Albert Hall just yet. We’re not
looking for the next superstar.
Is it easier dealing with the general
public, or with celebs?
I like the general public. I feel like, with
The Voice and things like that, they
tended to have the singers with a good
nature, they didn’t really go for the nutjobs. I think a smattering of nut-jobs is
no bad thing, like a Wagner [from XFactor]. I’m more drawn towards them.
And I suppose, when it’s the public
voting people onto the show, there’s
every chance you’ll end up with some of
the more eccentric characters?
Oh I’m expecting sabotage! I know there
will be lots of people just putting people
through to the show because they want
to see people disappear through the
flaps. But I think once it settles in and
people get into the spirit of the whole
thing, I think it’ll be very entertaining.
Everyone I’ve spoken to about it has had
a smile on their face when I explain the
show to them.
The show’s going out on a Friday
night. It’s good telly to watch with
some mates over, isn’t it?
Yes. It’s fun, it’s irreverent. It’s going to
have new faces every week, so you’ll
never know if the next person coming on
is going to be brilliant or absolutely shit!
There’s always something new. And
what’s not to love about watching
someone who’s murdering a favourite
song of yours disappearing out of view
on a moving conveyor belt, never to be
seen again! I’ve been on the conveyor
belt, by the way, and it’s very offputting. When it jolts when you hit a
bum note and the audience decides that
you’re rubbish, and it starts to move, it’s
really tricky. I would wear flat shoes,
that would be my hint. Or put some
stones down your Uggs.
Will there be a clock running? Will
we know who the fastest person
ever to be voted off is, things like
that?
Oh yeah, yeah, they’ll be all of that. Cos
also, we need to see how long the person
who makes it to the gold zone is in there,
to decide how much money they get.
There’s a lot to think about. You’re
singing a song live on telly, on a track
that’s moving, and you’re at the whim of
the Great British public. It’s very tense,
it’s not for the fainthearted.
What made you want to get
involved?
When they said it was a singing show, I
thought “No, no, no!” But when I saw
this app, I thought it felt really different.
The thing with talent shows is you do
quite often get the same old people
turning up – like that woman on
Britain's Got Talent this year who won
Spain’s Got Talent last year. But this is
different. It’s more like karaoke. We’re
not saying “Ten million records.” If you
can hold a tune, come down. It’s got the
same feel to is as when you do karaoke
down the pub. There’s no pressure, just
come and have a go. And there’s all of
that rubbish on the talent shows of “I
don’t lie you…[pause]… I LOVE you!”
“You’re a dark horse.” “This competition
just got exciting.” Here isn’t any of that,
it’s stripped bare. Nobody’s cat has jus @