Nathan Amzi was recently seen competing on the current series of BBC1’s The Voice. He wowed the Kaiser Chiefs’ Ricky Wilson at his blind audition and went on to compete in the battle rounds, impressing the nation with an epic rendition of ‘The Power Of Love’ alongside Christina Marie, which was broadcast last weekend. Despite losing the battle, the performance has been described as the battle of the night with many bowled over by Nathan’s epic vocal talents.
Nathan was most recently in the original West End production of Rock Of Ages which premiered at the Shaftesbury Theatre before transferring to the Garrick. Prior to Rock Of Ages Nathan performed two seasons at Shakespeare's Globe in The Merry Wives of Windsor including touring to LA, New York and around the UK.
His other theatre credits include: Eddie/Dr Scott in The Rocky Horror Show (West End/Tour), Wolf in Hansel & Gretel (Theatre Royal Stratford), Roy Rustin in Alan Ayckbourn’s A Small Family Business (Watford Palace) and Miss Saigon (UK Tour). Nathan is also a respected producer (Amzi Entertainment), recently producing Scott Alan’s acclaimed concert at The IndigO2.
In part one of my interview with Nathan we discuss the huge response to his appearance on The Voice, the stereotype surrounding musical theatre performers on reality programmes and what was going through his head before, during and after that epic battle…
You have received such an overwhelming response following your time on The Voice, have you had a moment to take it all in yet?
No, it has been absolutely mental! On Saturday night I had something like 700 mentions on Twitter in one go – it crashes your phone [laughs]! Facebook went mental, but the thing that was nice for me was that the theatre audiences, who have stood by me through all the shows I’ve been in, were prolifically Tweeting – even WhatsOnStage said ‘@TheAmzi did the West End proud’, you wrote something and so did @WestEndProducer. It’s hard when you go on a show like The Voice because being in theatre can be a hindrance – people can think things like ‘if he was good in the West End he would still be there’.
What do you think about coaches or judges on shows like The Voice or The X Factor using the West End to criticise a performance? Or presuming that all theatre performers are just theatrical?
It really, really narks me. I think we have the best performers in the West End. I remember when Shayne Ward came to Rock Of Ages rehearsals he thought all the West End was clicked – he thought it was all backing tracks. When he realised it wasn’t he was like “You guys sing this eight times a week?! That’s incredible!” He was shocked and said “I went to see Wicked, there’s no way they sing that eight times a week.” People talk about being theatrical as a derogatory thing when in reality some of the best vocalists I know are in the West End and performing arts. The thing that makes me most angry is that it was only mentioned once on The Voice that I had been in the West End, and then immediately people make that assumption and just go “oh he’s too theatrical”… and I’ve probably got the least theatrical voice in the West End [laughs]!
It’s just such a stereotype! There is nothing theatrical about some shows, like Rock Of Ages!
Even Wicked and Defying Gravity – and then you see that Frozen was at #1 in the charts and nobody says “oh that’s too theatrical” and then it wins an Oscar. It’s just good music performed by good singers. The main point I was trying to get across when I was asked “do you have to change everything you do and tone it down because you’ve done lots of theatre?” (which wasn’t shown on screen) was that no I wasn’t having to tone it down because in my eyes all of us performers are in the business for the same reason – to entertain and because we enjoy what we do. We’re artistic and it’s our chosen career path. There’s no difference between Michael Bublé stepping out on stage and singing one of his songs and a musical theatre performer singing a song – we’re all just singing to entertain people! There are also thousands and thousands of people who go to the theatre every week and enjoy it, but it’s as if people think theatre performers should stay in the theatre – but why?!
Exactly! Right, so going back to your time on The Voice, how was that period between filming your battle and waiting for it to be televised? It must have been tough?
It was so hard, when I started the auditions – something like seven months ago – I was still doing Rock Of Ages. I auditioned because Oliver Tompsett made me. I’m the kind of person who enjoys listening to other people singing and never rates himself – I could listen to somebody like Oliver Tompsett sing all day long. He said “Dude you should go for it” and then gave me a whole list of reasons why. I don’t often push myself or make myself stand up at the front on my own, so I thought ‘Why not? Test yourself and you can only get a no [laughs]’. I had to go through lots of preliminary rounds which you don’t see. Then you get there and somebody like Ricky (Wilson) says “yes, you’re good” which suddenly changes your whole opinion! So then I went back to Rock Of Ages, the show closed and then literally the next week I went back to The Voice for The Battles. It was a weird double depression of Rock Of Ages closing and then being kicked out of The Voice!
But you didn’t go quietly!
The nicest thing for me is that I went out with a bang. I was obviously absolutely gutted, but Ricky contacted me the next morning and said ‘yesterday was so horrible’. He genuinely cares and has kept in touch non-stop – he even text on Christmas Day! He’s always checking in and has said that even though I’m no longer in the show he still feels like my coach. He sent me this message which was so cool, it said ‘I’m no will.i.am’ – as in he’s not a producer – ‘but I am in the music business and I do know a few people and I hope that we can continue to take this further because I believe in you and you’re a great talent’. Even for that to come out of it is just amazing!
Christina Marie and Nathan competing on The Voice
will.i.am loved you too!
It’s an opportunity to sing for some amazing people – will.i.am really backed me up! He’s massive and said something like “a supreme being exits the scene”. It spurs you on. This business that we’re in is so difficult; I’m overweight and play the chubby, funny character. There’s not that many roles for me, but when they come along they’re often really good. For people to say you’re good at what you do is so nice – I can go into a dance call with loads of people who have just come out of Arts Ed and Laines and its like ‘oh my gosh, what’s going on with my life? I’ll never keep up with these kids’. I love what I do and want to keep doing it!
Good – so you’re not going to leave us and become a rock star?
Oh no! This is the thing though, I did two years at the Globe before I went into Rock Of Ages – I don’t see the lines are any different. The lady that runs the Kaiser Chiefs PR and is Ricky’s PR manager said that she told Ricky he was going to be the indie Gary Barlow – the featured member of the band. She then said to me “I think you should be the new Shane Richie” and I was like “What do you mean?! That’s horrible?!” and Ricky was like “You can’t say that” but she said “Think about it. He’s in EastEnders but he’s also done lots of theatre shows and has released music. You don’t have to become Beyoncé or Rihanna, but you can have a really good career doing what you’re doing.” I do love theatre – it’s my thing and as soon as I heard that Andrew Lloyd Webber is doing School Of Rock I was like ‘Ahh I want to do that!’ so I’m doing everything I can to be seen for it!
The battle was just incredible, I think most people were probably sat watching with their mouths wide open. What was going through your mind at the time?
We didn’t have long before we went into rehearsals with Ricky and I don’t think I had registered how high it was. Yvie Burnett, who’s the vocal coach on the show, said “You know you’re singing in her (Christina Marie) octave, that’s impressive!” She could go higher and higher but I was right at the top end of my range, bursting a blood vessel, a bit like doing a poo while singing. I was so nervous just before I went on stage and looked through the side and could see my girlfriend, mum and Simon Lipkin and Shayne Ward who had come up to visit. They were sitting in the audience waving at me and I was just thinking ‘oh my god, how are you going to beat this girl? She’s ridiculously good!’
You had great chemistry!
The great thing about it was that we said let’s not fight, let’s just do the best we can do. I felt like we acted it and told a little bit of a story rather than just taking it in turns to sing. I remember doing it and the audience going mental, I didn’t even want to look at the coaches – it was like ‘Oh s**t – we’re doing it!’ It was 11pm and we had been waiting since 7am, I was so tired! I was thinking ‘please god let it come out, let me hit the notes!’ I didn’t want my voice to crack. Then I just looked at Christina when she hit that massive note about a minute in and I thought ‘wow – whatever happens this is just awesome’. It was a weird experience because everything you’ve been doing previously builds up to two minutes of time and then everything’s a blur – she goes through, I go out, am rushed backstage, get out of clothes, get out the building, go back to a hotel where Kenny Thompson is just sitting there nursing a pint in the bar. I sat there shell shocked like ‘what just happened?!’
What was it like watching it back?
It was cool watching it back, I had forgotten the stuff that people said. I know Tom Jones made a big speech as did Kylie, but I obviously hadn’t seen what will.i.am said to camera which was amazing. I felt proud because musical theatre people like Kerry Ellis, who is ridiculously talented, haven’t got through but none of the coaches put me down and said ‘oh you’re just musical theatre’.
Watch out for part two of my interview with Nathan about all things Rock Of Ages, Scott Alan and Amzi Entertainment.
Interviewed by Andrew Tomlins (Editor)
Follow Nathan on Twitter: @theamzi
Visit his website: www.amzi.co.uk
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