Yvie Burnett is stepping into her former TV boss Simon Cowell’s shoes to find a shy superstar that could become the next Susan Boyle or Lewis Capaldi. The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent vocal coach is fronting a new search for a global singer from Scotland… and she can’t wait.
The 54-year-old will search the country for singers who don’t think they are capable that she can turn into stars.
Yvie said: “I think Scottish people underplay their talent a lot of the time. It’s a thing we have as Scottish people. We’re all a bit humble. There is a thing in our make-up that stops us being overly confident but we want to really bring out that confidence.
“We all have friends and family who will say, ‘I’m great at singing in the shower,’ and many who have a really good voice but wouldn’t ever sing in front of anyone. Then we’ve got all these people who have been socially isolated and don’t really go anywhere but secretly they can have this talent.
“So we are looking for these people and there are more of them than we know. There will definitely be few hidden gems. A few Scottish Beyonces, maybe.”
Scotland Sings will follow her across the country in a search for the best talent who will go on to form a pop group. Yvie’s clients are a roll call of the industry’s greatest talents and include Capaldi, Sam Smith, Snow Patrol and Katy Perry.
But it’s people like Leon Jackson, from Whitburn in West Lothian, winner of the fourth series of The X Factor in 2007, and Blackburn’s Boyle, who soared to fame in 2009 after an appearance on Britain’s Got Talent, that she is looking for.
Yvie, from Aberdeen, said: “Twenty years ago, when I started doing TV talent shows, we had a lot of shy ‘can I do it?’ types of people. Then there became a fashion of people who thought, ‘I’m going to work for a year on my voice and then I’ll enter the talent show and I can make it big.’
“They were preparing themselves and many by that point were already ready to roll. But I want to go back to basics, go and find those people who are not ready. Those who have no confidence and we are going to transform them into a confident performer and unleash this voice that we just didn’t know was there.
“The first time Leon came into the room to work with me, he ran back out as he was scared of me. He thought I was on the TV and maybe thought I was an ogre. But he got much more confident and ended up winning the show. So he’s a great example of a humble Scottish person who got better.
“And then there’s Susan Boyle. She was just this little lady who went and did that audition and then became an international superstar. Lewis Capaldi is still just Lewis. He doesn’t have any airs and graces or ‘I’m a big superstar’ attitude. He is just exactly the same.”
Yvie’s TV career kicked off in 2005 when she joined the second series of The X Factor. She’s also been seen on The Voice, Britain’s Got Talent, America’s Got Talent and an Andrew Lloyd Webber show to find a Eurovision entry for Great Britain.
She said: “I think what people don’t realise is a lot of these big famous singers who I work with, I worked with them when they were starting out, when they maybe were not very good and made a lot of bum notes.
“And they still do. When we’re in our little studio, there’s a lot of privately bum notes that go off. People are not as polished as you might think when you take away their microphone, their audience and they are just learning their song.
“And what I think I’ll bring to them is the same thing to what I bring to everyone. That is to have as much technique under your belt as you can so that when you’re nervous, your voice still works the way it should.”
The show, which has been commissioned by BBC Scotland, will be aired across two 60-minute episodes next year. Nominations can be made on the BBC Scotland website. The closing date for applications is October 31, at midnight.
Yvie added: “People can nominate themselves but you can also nominate your auntie, your friend or the postman. The more, the merrier – we want everyone.
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