Jemimah’s night with the stars ‘very surreal’
RUBBING shoulders with the stars, the National Television Awards opening ceremony featured a Guernseywoman singing her heart out.
During Tuesday night’s NTAs, which were shown on ITV, 24-year-old soprano Jemimah Paine performed a rendition of You Raise Me Up as part of a 23-piece choral group, known as the NTA Choir, live to a crowd of around 20,000 people at The O2 in London and nationally to around six million viewers.
Miss Paine, who is very used to at singing in front of crowds, said the night’s performance was to the biggest crowd she had ever performed for.
‘It was amazing,’ she said.
‘David Walliams [the show’s host] was stood behind me just before we went on stage and we also passed Kylie Jenner, very surreal, but wonderful to do with the team.
‘I’ve never done anything for television before, it was the biggest crowd for me, plus my friends, my family and everyone who supports me tuned in too.
‘I made some new friends, too, and we got to go to the after-party, I felt very privileged to be involved with it all.’
As a soprano, she is classed as having a type of classical female singing voice with the highest range of all voice types.
The singer, who graduated in 2017 from the London School of Theology with a Bachelor of Arts in theology, music and worship, and has 16 years of singing experience, currently works as a singing teacher in West London but still has her roots firmly in Guernsey.
‘My mum was really excited,’ she said.
‘I got involved through Roy Sarre [musical director of the Festiva choir] and Steve Thompson [the organiser, part of Beracahmusic Ministries] and I’ve done lots of concerts in the island.’
She has gone from being the soloist with a 50-strong choir in Guernsey to singing background jazz music for a carol service in Amsterdam.
‘The support I’ve received has been lovely,’ said Miss Paine.
She has also just released her debut EP, Anthems, which will be launched officially on Saturday at St Paul’s Hammersmith Church in London.
