A former City College Plymouth music student, Esther Cole, has hit the headlines after appearing on ITV’s The Voice.
Esther Cole, 22, lives in South East Cornwall and appeared on the popular show with her good friend Yana Bing from Torpoint. They had been invited to take part in auditions after a You Tube video of the pair singing a duet attracted the attention of the show’s producers.
After a series of virtual performances on Zoom and auditions in Manchester, they were both chosen to appear live on the second of The Voice’s Blind Auditions in January.
Esther’s stunning performance of ‘Let Me Down Slowly’ won the support of judges Sir Tom Jones and Olly Murs as both turned their chairs for her. Watch it here.
Tom said: “You have a beautiful, beautiful voice. I thought, I don’t want to let this girl go. I couldn’t not hit the buzzer. You have a lovely voice.”
Olly added: “You’re brilliant and it was beautiful. Last time I had a girl from Cornwall on the show, she won the show – just saying!”
Deciding between the two, Esther said: “It’s a really hard decision but I’m going to go with Tom.”
Before appearing on stage Esther had watched from the wings as Yana performed Lady Gaga’s ‘Stupid Love.’ Sadly, none of the judges turned their chairs – which left Esther in tears.
She said: “Having been on the audition journey together since March it really upset me when Yana failed to win over the judges, but I had to pull myself together and get on with my own performance.”
Watched by her proud parents Chris and Kerry and boyfriend Josh, Esther showed no nerves as she hit each note perfectly. Since appearing on The Voice her performance has been viewed more than a million times on You Tube.
Esther, who studied a music practitioners course for three years at City College, first started singing at school and got her first guitar at the age of 12.
Her vocal skills as well as her songwriting ability, led Esther into performing at an increasing number of local gigs and events over the years.
For the last three years she has also been a worship leader at St Matthias Church in North Hill.
Now she is preparing to appear in the Battle Rounds of The Voice when she will go head-to-head with another member of the Tom Jones team in a sudden-death duel.
“It has already been an amazing experience and I am so proud to have got through to the Battle Rounds. It will be really tough as there are some extremely talented singers in Tom’s team,” added Esther.
The Voice UK, Saturdays, 8:30pm on ITV.
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