‘So do you sing?” Scottish star tenor Nicky Spence asks, smiling encouragingly. We’re talking in the marble bowels of a Mayfair hotel after a preview screening of Sky Arts’ new four-part series Anyone Can Sing – and this isn’t how the conversation was supposed to go. I find myself confessing my embarrassment about being an opera historian and music critic who, no, does not sing. And about the time I sang a folk song in a school music competition, crossing the fine line between the just-tolerated nerdery of a teenage violinist and instant social death. “I love you for that!”, he squeals, as I recoil from the horror dredged up from over 20 years ago.
That single solo outing aside, I enjoyed singing in choirs as a child. But these days I’m long out of the habit and will do anything to avoid having to sing on my own in front of others. I’m far from alone, of course, which is where Sky Arts’ series comes in.
