Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow
Sunday 2 May 2010
Who would have known that 500 ‘Over the Rainbow’ fans could sing a beautiful (but very long) song together within two hours? Not me; and I’m sure plenty of the fans were sceptical too.
Everyone had arrived at Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall on Sunday 2 May to attend a singing workshop arranged by the BBC to further publicise and meet the fans of their talent show ‘Over the Rainbow’. I say everyone, but the elderly lady next to me had no idea she was there to sing and thought she could just watch, but she joined in and sang beautifully too.
All of the ‘Dorothys’ who had previously been voted off – Amy, Bronte, Dani and Emilie – were there to help the audience learn the song.
Also there were Tim Steiner, the BBC singers and the wonderful Jodie Prenger, winner of “I’d Do Anything” and award-winning West End star.
The audience were split into three groups to sing different sections and before you knew it, it had all come together beautifully.
The Dorothy girls sang ‘Over the Rainbow’ and Glasgow sang with them. This is how it sounded:
Jodie Prenger was by far the star of the show with her hilarious banter and fantastic performances, though she was almost upstaged by Glasgow’s very own Dorothy, a little girl who had come in full costume.
After the show, the girls and Jodie did a signing for fans.
I had a quick chat with the girls, and most importantly, saw their Dorothy dresses close up.
Watching the show on television I thought the dresses looked very pretty but what I didn’t realise was that the corset section was a proper corset and made of a very hard canvas-like material.
I asked the girls how they could sing and dance with them on and Bronte replied: “With great difficulty.”
However, Emilie chipped in: “You get used to it though and I actually find the corset quite nice to sing against because it gives good support.”
I had a chance to chat with Jodie Prenger, and, asked how she was finding her time in Scotland:
Jodie wasn’t the only one to fall in love with Scotland. The youngest of the Dorothys, Dani, was very chatty and loved being in Glasgow. She said: “I’ve never actually been to Scotland before but I love it. I wish I had time to see more of it but we have to be in London for tomorrow morning.”
With the day being all about the ‘Dorothys’ I felt it was only fair that we spoke about the search for Toto. Somehow I don’t think Jodie is the Simon Cowell of the judges:
With that it was time to bid the girls goodbye as they headed off to prepare for the second show of the day.
