The Voice UK: Liberty X singer Kevin Simm auditions in a second stab at fame
"I had a gut feeling that I had to go for it. With turning 35, it was a pivotal age for me. I thought once I get past 35, I may as well forget about it all."
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Your support makes all the difference.Ex-Liberty X singer Kevin Simm has auditioned for BBC's talent show The Voice. If at first you don't succeed, etc.?
"I had a gut feeling that I had to go for it. With turning 35, it was a pivotal age for me," he explained to HuffPost UK on his decision to make a second stab at fame. "I thought once I get past 35, I may as well forget about it all. In the worst case scenario, I thought I’d show a good side of myself and keep me in work for a few years."
"When I applied, I thought if I could get the audition and didn’t fancy it, I could just change my mind," he continued. "I was very apprehensive about putting myself out there. I’ve seen similar acts to myself go on The Voice and get no turns. That would be anyone’s worst nightmare. That was scary and that stayed with me up until the audition. I put a lot of pressure on myself for it not to happen to me."
Simm's clearly decided his strongest bet was to return to his reality TV roots; Liberty X was originally formed after appearing on the first series of Popstars in 2001. Obviously, Popstars is no longer, and so Simm was forced to turn to the modern offerings of singing competitions on display; it appears as if The Voice turned out to be his favoured option.
"It’s cliché, but it’s because it was just about the voice," he explained. "The X Factor is a great show and I watch it, but I felt if I went on something like that, they’d know who I was before and react in a certain way. I wanted to have a fair shot at it with no prejudice beforehand."
Best known for the 2005 track 'Just a Little', Liberty X originally split back in 2008; outside of a brief comeback on ITV2's The Big Reunion series.
Simm will be seen auditioning for the show on its Saturday 30 January episode, and it appears as if his singing did indeed impress the judges, with Boy George and Paloma Faith breaking out into a spat over the auditionee. The Sun reports that, after Faith mocked George by pretending to be fast asleep, he hit back by exclaiming: "You said you weren’t going to be bitchy and you’re being bitchy. You’ve probably got PMT or something - you were extremely rude."
This follows a previous fight which broke out between Ricky Wilson and will.i.am over a contestant, which saw the latter state: "You don’t have to turn for it but I have to give my opinion, I can’t sit here and be fake."
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