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Annie Skates – Vocal Coach, Vocal Artist
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About Annie

Annie made her solo debut at the Royal Albert Hall with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for the British Motor Transport Awards, presented by Jeremy Clarkson. She has starred in ‘Symphonic 70’s’, ‘ABBA Symphonic Spectacular’ and ‘Disco Symphonic Spectacular’ with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, the CBSO, the Hallé Orchestra, the BBC Concert Orchestra and the RTE Concert Orchestra, ‘A Cole Porter Celebration’, ‘One Enchanted Evening’ and ‘Last Night of the Christmas Proms’ with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, ‘Nashville Classics’ with the Hallé Orchestra, the RTE, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and the Ulster Orchestra and ‘Sassy, Brassy Broadway’ with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic Orchestra. She has appeared internationally in tours of ‘The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber’ and ‘The Magic of Broadway’. Annie has toured the UK, Scandinavia, America and Australia with Susan Boyle, Michael Ball, Elaine Paige, Michael Crawford and Russell Watson. She sang lead vocals for 37,000 people at Hyde Park in ‘Thank You For the Music’ for BBC Radio 2 and was the female soloist at the opening of St Pancras International with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Annie has sung live and in the studio with numerous artists including George Michael, Madonna, Robbie Williams, The Jacksons, Beyonce, Cliff Richard, Diana Ross, Elton John, Kylie Minogue, The Bee Gees, Gloria Estefan, Lionel Richie, Westlife, Annie Lennox, Gary Barlow, Lesley Garrett and Jose Carreras.

Annie’s TV work includes appearing as guest artist on the ‘Mike Doyle’ series for BBC Wales and on ‘The Lyrics Game’ for Presentable Productions, and she acted as head judge on the BBC talent shows ‘Just Up Your Street’ and ‘The Voice of Musical Theatre’. She has performed on ‘Later with Jools Holland, ‘The Paul O’Grady Show’, ‘Parkinson’, ‘Saturday Swings’, ‘Divas’, ‘The Graham Norton Show’, ‘An Audience With Celine Dion’ and ‘The Classical Brits’. She has written and sung backing vocals for many TV talent shows such as ‘The X Factor’, ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ and ‘America’s Got Talent’.

Annie has sung on numerous film soundtracks such as ‘Mamma Mia – Here We Go Again’, ‘Beauty and the Beast’, ‘Aladdin’, ‘Last Christmas’, ‘Cinderella’, ‘Nine’, ‘Phantom of the Opera’ and ‘Entrapment’. West End musicals include ‘Cats’, ‘Grease’ and ‘Hair’. Commercials include T-Mobile, McDonalds and Capital Radio. 

As a vocal coach, Annie worked exclusively for Simon Cowell’s team on ‘The X Factor’  and coached the contestants on ‘Popstars’, ‘Celebrity Stars in Their Eyes’ and ‘This is My Moment’. She has worked for four years on ‘The Voice Kids’ for ITV. She has coached Robbie Williams and Atomic Kitten, as well as Ralph Fiennes, Dakota Johnson and Tilda Swinton for the film ‘A Bigger Splash’, Lily James for ‘Mamma Mia – Here We Go Again’, Emilia Clarke and Henry Golding for ‘Last Christmas’, Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams for ‘Eurovision’, Gemma Arterton for ‘So Much Love’ and Rami Malek and Gwilym Lee for ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.

Annie runs a highly acclaimed singers’ booking service, Capital Voices (www.capitalvoices.com).

Vocal Arranging and Coaching

With her own busy singing schedule, Annie Skates has built up a reputation as a renowned vocal coach who draws on her practical experience as a singer to help performers and recording artist's to overcome individual vocal difficulties.

She can help improve a singers technique through breathing exercises and vocal work-outs, and she can also give advice on the interpretation of a song.

Annie is often called into the recording studio or TV studio to work on a specific project with an artist or group.

In 2001 Nigel Lythgoe (Nast Nigel!) rang from Carlton TV and asked her to appear as an on-screen vocal coach on the 'Popstars' series having been impressed with the work she did with her own group of singers in the TV studio on previous occasions.

Following this, Annie worked with Hear'say helping them to prepare for live performances culminating in their appearance on 'The Brit Awards'.

She was then invited to coach Mis-teeq but unfortunately her own signing commitments made this impossible at the time.

At the beginning of 2002 Annie spent a week in the recording studio working on a debut album with heavy metal band 'The Shining'. Soon after this Annie coached the contestants for the TV talent show 'This is my moment' for Granada TV hosted by Mel B, and then went on to work with Atomic Kitten for the televised 'Showtime at the stadium' at the Cardiff Millennium Stadium.

In 2003 Annie was asked by Granada TV to help Uri Geller prepare for his role as Charles Aznavour in 'Celebrity start in their eyes'.

Annie's next engagement was with the Coca-Cola company for their Activity Village day. By the end of 2 hours, people who had entered the room as non-singers were singing with utmost confidence and even managing to hold their own harmony against 9 other parts! Annie has since been invited back to coach the winners of a competition where the prize is recording a song of their choice in a professional studio.

The Children's BBC TV animation series 'Little Robots' followed, and Annie prepared all 10 voice-over artists including Lenny Henry, Sue Pollard and Mel & Sue to record the song 'Sparkle Day'

In Autumn 2004, Simon Cowell asked Annie to act as vocal coach for the singers on his team on 'The X Factor' for ITV. The series ran for 8 weeks and Steve Brookstein from Simon's category won the final.

Annie was then asked to coach Stefan Booth to perform as Elvis for 'Celebrity start in their eyes' for Granada Television.

For Children in need 2005 Annie coached 10 Newscasters including Natasha Kaplinsky and Michael Buerke for their video of 'Boehemain Rhapsody', and also helped Nikki Sanderson (Coronation Street) and Elias & Luke (Casualty) for their live singing performances on the night.