A Welsh couple with a passion for classical singing impressed all four coaches on The Voice UK when it returned to TV screens on Saturday. The ITV show, which is back for its eleventh series, saw Olly Murs, Sir Tom Jones, will.i.am and Anne-Marie coach singing hopefuls.
Two of those hopefuls were Emilie Parry-Williams, 30, and her partner Thomas Mottershead, 25, who are both from south Wales. The couple, who are both a romantic item and singing duo, sang 'Bring Him Home' from musical Les Misérables in a bid to impress the coaches.
The couple's efforts were successful and all four coaches turned their chairs for them while the studio audience gave them a standing ovation. will.i.am said: "You guys did an amazing job. Spot on, brilliant and everything was in key... Damn, that was awesome!"
Naturally, Emilie and Thomas decided to choose fellow Welshie, Sir Tom, to be their coach and therefore, became one of the first to join his team this series. Making their decision, an emotional Emilie said that they had chosen the 82-year-old legend as he was the "King of Wales".
Talking about their victory from a hotel in Florida, where they are currently holidaying, Emilie said: "After the last two years of not being able to perform at all, I had quite a few people tell me to apply for these sort of shows and I never did.
"When the pandemic came, I thought 'I'm going to do it, why not?' and then I was going through the application process as a soloist and then, when we started dating, we thought that maybe we should do a duo thing."
On the show, Thomas and Emilie recalled how they fell for each other when she commented on one of his Facebook photos. After they started singing duets together in lockdown, Emilie described how she "fell for Tom's voice and knew he was the one". The pair also attended the same university together.
Thomas said that despite having an "open mind" when it came to which coach they'd choose, Sir Tom Jones turning for them was "insane". Emilie echoed this and said there was always a "patriotic pull" to the legendary singer. But how has the reaction been for the couple since they began telling people that they were appearing on the show?
"It's been really positive," said Thomas, "We've had quite a few messages from people saying that they will watch it. It's all just been a really positive experience." In a similar vein, Emilie mentioned how her grandmother had told everyone in her local chapel.
"Apparently she went to coffee morning yesterday with all her friends and told everyone. We've got such a nice local coffee morning in Glascoed, where I'm from, and my Mum said she'd announced it at coffee morning. I just melted inside!"
The Voice airs every Saturday at 8pm on ITV. For more showbiz and television stories, get our newsletter here.
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