When viewers were first introduced to singer Alice Fredenham earlier this month on Britain’s Got Talent, we saw her as a nervous, casually dressed amateur.
Before her performance, she told the judges she hadn’t informed any of her friends or family she was auditioning in case she failed. All this before singing a great rendition of ‘My Funny Valentine’, which left Simon Cowell more than impressed.
Then, the following weekend, the now familiar face pops up on rival BBC show The Voice. Ironically, though for the show where the judges can’t see her, Alice was looking far more glamorous and confident.
So why the huge change in appearance and behaviour?
Well, things begin to make a little more sense when you realise that despite her audition for The Voice being broadcast a week later, it was actually recorded first. So perhaps this huge drop in confidence can simply be put down to none of The Voice coaches turning around for her, meaning Alice was off the show right away.
Either that or Alice is in fact a master tactician who realised that what people love to see most on talent shows, especially BGT, is a good old SuBo moment. An audition where you think someone is gonna be rubbish but instead turns out to be world-class.
If someone looks like they’re going to be good, then turn out to be just that, where’s the great television moment in that? More likely, though, Alice’s confidence was genuinely knocked by her earlier experience and was fearful of history repeating itself.
How viewers interpret the transformation may ultimately decide Fredenham’s chances of winning Britain’s Got Talent, but either way, she’ll probably be better off there than she would have been on The Voice.
Update
After Alice Fredenham’s audition performance of My Funny Valentine stunned both the judges and audience and earned her a standing ovation, the heartfelt delivery of the jazz standard secured her a place in the live semi-finals, where she returned to perform “Cry Me a River” on 28 May 2013. Despite her distinctive style and positive reaction from many viewers, she finished 4th in the public vote and was eliminated from the competition, falling just short of reaching the grand final.
Following her time on BGT, Fredenham continued to build a music career, using the momentum of her national exposure to explore new opportunities. In 2017, she released “Under the Covers”, a debut album that included her interpretations of beloved standards such as “Cry Me a River” and “My Funny Valentine”.