counts as one of her close friends, and as well as giving her advice about music, he gave a more practical tip when she was first making her way in the industry.
The 33-year-old has revealed that while supporting Ed, also 33, on tour in 2018, she regularly found herself learning from him.
‘Ed really championed me so I was really lucky with that friendship. I learnt something from Ed every day that we were together,’ Anne-Marie, who , told Metro.co.uk.
‘I remember that he said to keep in contact with your parents because when you’re on the road, you can get lost in it.
‘I always keep that in my mind.’
With seven UK top ten singles, Anne-Marie is well-established in her career, but she will never forget what Ed and Rudimental, who she also toured with, did for her while she was finding her feet – now, she’s keen to pay it forward and help other less-established singers.
Her mission has led to working with Volvic to help search for emerging artists who were then offered the chance to perform at . They chose 27-year-old Lancashire-based singer-songwriter Grace Davies, who also will get a recording studio session and a cash incentive.
‘Ever since doing The Voice [Anne-Marie was a judge on the ITV show between 2021 and 2023] it really excites me to bring new talent up and help in any way that I can.
‘If I can help anyone and that’s like with music or just in life in general, I will because when I make people smile it makes me feel great.
‘I just love being involved in the Volvic campaign because there are so many talented people, which is the amazing thing in the world, but then it’s really hard to be seen,’ she shared.
Anne-Marie pointed out it’s even tougher now with social media showing a broad range of singers, making some people feel like they may not be able to break through. ‘It feels like every single person in the whole world has a talent. I found it hard coming up into this industry, and to make my way out of everyone else, now I think it’s extra hard and quite overwhelming.’ She has even found herself offering advice to people during chance encounters but finds it more difficult to reply to her many social media messages due to the sheer amount.
With so much competition, it can be difficult to keep pushing on, but Anne-Marie personally felt compelled to keep going due to her ‘pure love’ of singing.
‘Every day there was just something that excited me and made me want to keep doing it so you keep going. When you have a passion for something you don’t really stop ever,’ Anne-Marie explained.
The Rockabye singer was speaking to us from BST Hyde Park, where she also performed later that day. Entertaining thousands of revellers, who are screaming back her lyrics, appears to come naturally to Anne-Marie but that isn’t the case.
‘I’d always struggled a lot with anxiety and people looking at me which is kind of strange in this industry because people are going to look at your face, then lockdown happened.
‘I think it was either gonna make me say, “You know what, I can’t handle this. I’m not gonna do it anymore” or it was gonna make me realise that I need to do it.
‘Luckily, it did the latter and spurred me on to keep doing it because music just makes me happy,’ she recalled.
While sat in a trailer at the London festival, Anne-Marie was giving us regular updates on the weather ranging from ‘It’s sunny luckily’ to ‘Oh My God it’s raining now’ before the finale ‘Nooo, there’s thunder’, while reflecting on what an incredible summer (in the loosest sense of the word) she’s had so far.
Just days ago, she fulfilled most artists’ bucket list dream of performing at . Looking back on the moment, she said: ‘It was pretty mad.
‘Before I went on, I thought “Why would people come to see me?” Glastonbury is old school, rock and roll and for legends, so I was expecting like five people to be out there.’
Her doubts were unrealised as a sea of festival-goers turned up to hear her hits including Psycho with Aitch, who surprised fans by turning up to perform his part live.
‘It was a completely full crowd so I was so happy. I screamed a lot afterwards. Everyone backstage was screaming and then I went out and joined everyone for the party so that was fun.’
Volvic is an official partner of American Express presents BST Hyde Park this summer and joined forces with Anne-Marie to search for the UK’s best new emerging arts to perform on the Birdcage Stage presented by Volvic. Volvic is bringing summer beyond your expectations by supporting artists in the industry and helping festivalgoers stay refreshed with the new Touch of Sparkling range.
