Leanne aims to defy her critics

Leanne Mitchell is living proof that winning The Voice doesn’t guarantee success but she remains defiant.

A classically-trained singer who plays piano and organ, the Lowestoft singer was a bit different from the usual when she appeared on the BBC TV show.

Sir Tom Jones’ ears pricked up from the second she started to sing, and she won the show with ease.

Since then, however, she’s suffered negative publicity, her first single didn’t get to No 1, unlike many from X Factor winners, and her debut album is now struggling to make any sort of impact.

Some have even claimed she is simply too shy to be a star.

That’s a shame, because the new album shows the full range she demonstrated on The Voice, and she’s clearly a very good songwriter, too. But does the media coverage she is getting anger her?

“Anything I’ve read, I’m not sure where it’s come from!” groans the 29-year-old. “I’m definitely not the most confident, in-your-face person, but I love singing, whether it’s in front of six people or six million.

“I’ve listened to someone like Beyonce, who says she has this alter-ego, so she is not this big, confident person in ordinary situations, but on stage she loves it.

“I have been performing most of my life, in pubs and clubs at 13 and then at a leisure resort. I was the principal singer for the theatre, and I did it six nights a week, and loved it.”

So it doesn’t sound like this lady is going to give up and hide herself away, even if The Voice didn’t do what she hoped for her career.

“The Voice just seemed to come along,” Leanne shrugs. A friend texted me to say I should go for it, and I am not the sort of person who would do that.

“But I tried it, and it helped me become known as a singer to a lot of people. Now, I hope my album will show what I can do.

“Nobody has pushed me into anything, and I’m lucky that Decca Records and my management have let me be myself in the past year.”

Sir Tom was quoted as blaming her record company, while others said Leanne hadn’t done enough herself she was even criticised for still living in an ordinary house, as if singers should all reside in gold-encrusted palaces!

Now, she hopes to have the last laugh, if the public ignore the bad publicity and just give her album a chance.

“It’s a bit nervewracking, with the album out there for people to hear,” she admits. “I wrote the majority of it, with just a couple of other songs handpicked because I love them.

“Originally, I had keyboard lessons when I was about 10, and my teacher’s instrument was the organ, so I learned the coolest instrument in the world, the organ!”

The album, Leanne Mitchell, is out on Decca Records now.