Gabrielle Aplin – “I missed my own TV advert”

It was the advert you couldn’t miss in the run-up to Christmas THAT John Lewis snowman commercial!

But Gabrielle Aplin, whose haunting version of The Power Of Love was featured and topped the charts, says she actually did avoid it because she didn’t have a telly!

“I’m the John Lewis girl without a TV,” laughs Gabrielle. “So I never really thought about the fact millions of people were watching it every night.

“I thought it was really cool but while I was very proud of it, I was already thinking about my next single and my first album.

“I didn’t want to just be branded as the girl who does cover versions for adverts.”

The song was the 20-year-old’s powerful take on the Frankie Goes To Hollywood original.

And, surprisingly, it was pretty much a one-take effort for Gabrielle.

“They filmed the advert last summer but I never saw the finished thing, just bits in stages as they went along,” she explains. “The version I did got added very late. I actually recorded it the night before the deadline and handed it in expecting them to make me record it again.

“But they used the demo, which was great.

“I got to go along to Radio 1 for the chart show and find out that it had gone to No. 1.”

Gabrielle’s debut album English Rain is out on May 13 with the third single Panic Cord out tomorrow.

And she’ll be embarking on a major UK tour in October and November, including dates in Newcastle, Edinburgh and Glasgow.

In the meantime she’s had plenty of live practice after a month-long tour of Australia with Ed Sheeran.