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A 22-year-old music student from Nottingham spoke about her “incredible experience” on The Voice UK. All four judges turned on her at the blind auditions, showing that they were impressed by her.

Olivia Mason auditioned for The Voice UK last year with her voice and spoken word poetry, and judges Anne-Marie, Olly Murs, will.i.am and Tom Jones all turned around. The singer, known as Long Eaton’s Lyvia Music, made it to the quarterfinals on Team Anne-Marie.

“The experience was incredible,” he said. “It was one of the best things I’ve ever done for my confidence as a singer and an artist because singing in front of those judges was like a crazy concept anyway.

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“There are also a lot of different scenarios to get to off camera. There were a lot of things that took me out of my comfort zone, singing a lot of songs that I might not have chosen to sing.

“Even traveling to and from London alone. Meeting a lot of people and doing things on my own was a learning experience. Getting my voice out there was terrifying, but one of the best things I’ve ever done.” Getting advice from Anne-Marie, who inspires me anyway, was just amazing.”

Olivia performed Roberta Flack’s Killing Me Softly, which involved her own spoken word poetry. She said that she always felt that music was an “escape” for her.

“When I was younger, a baby, a little kid, I think it was definitely musical, but obviously you don’t know what you want to do at that age,” he said. “Then growing up in school and stuff, I always felt like music was a bit of an escape from everything else.

“It was the only thing I found that was easy compared to math and science and all the things I hate. I would say I started leaning into it then, when I was in school.

“I didn’t really start taking it seriously until the end of high school, when I realized that was where my heart was. And that’s when it started to get more serious that I realized that this is something that I really enjoy compared to with other things that I found much more difficult”.

Olivia started taking music more seriously at the ages of 17 and 18 when she posted videos online and started busking. Olivia exposed herself every day in a different city, playing in the streets. She then went to Nottingham Trent University to study music.

On busking, she said: “When I started busking, I used to find it really stressful. I never went alone.

“I always went with a few friends because I was too scared to do it alone and now obviously it’s a lot easier for me to do it alone. I still get nervous, especially when I have crowds and stuff, because you can’t.” really prepare for it.”

Soon after, Olivia was approached by Voice UK, which airs on ITV. She said: “Going forward a bit, I did a few shows and then Voice UK reached out to me.

“They reached out to me, which is great, and I thought it was something I shouldn’t pass up if it was literally knocking on my door, so I jumped at that opportunity. Since then, I’ve been taking every opportunity I can to get out there and do let them listen to me.”

She added: “A lot of love is shown in Nottingham, especially since I’ve been on Voice UK, every time I’ve been busking. The people there have shown me a lot of love.”

“It’s very nice, it’s a very good feeling. It’s a buzz.”

Olivia has now amassed over 100,000 followers on TikTok by posting videos of herself singing. On February 10, she released her new single Invisible, produced by 80p and Chewsday.

She said, “It’s a good full-circle moment: from writing it to setting it all up, then putting it out there and having people hear it. Singing it at the shows and people singing the words is one of my favorite parts.”

“The song itself I started writing at home and then took it to the studio where I make all my music. I sat there with my two producers, who are the most amazing people in the world: they go for 80p and Chewsday.

“I wrote the rest with them and they produced it for me. It’s a very personal song and I’m happy it’s out in the world.”

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