Singer Abi Sampa wowed the judges on the UK version of “The Voice” when she sang her version of Oasis hit “Stop Crying Your Heart Out” during her blind audition earlier this month. Sampa made the song her own by incorporating Carnatic music into her performance. Watch her audition below:
Here are more fun facts about Sampa:
– Although the 27-year-old is a dentist, she always knew that she wanted to pursue her music. “Day to day it’s just fillings, root canals, the usual,” Sampa told the London Evening Standard. “There was always this little voice at the back of my head telling me that this wasn’t really for me. I’ve always been a musician first.”
– On what inspired her unique style: “I was brought up listening to a mix of Indian classical music and western pop, and I’ve always wanted to see what people would think of my mixing the two extremes.”
– She is multi-talented and has played both the saxophone and the veena since childhood. She displays her veena skills in this cover of Jay-Z and Kanye West’s “N— in Paris”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsBah4dzBkE
– Sampa also has a fan in Will.I.Am, who said after her audition, ““That sensibility, I think the world needs to hear, and that needs to be the next big pop style. There isn’t really a big international Asian artist. It doesn’t exist. So for you to be a part of the show, to be that…wow.”
– Her cover of Billie Jean is lovely.
For more on Sampa, follow her on Twitter @Abi_Sampa or on Facebook.
