Sydnie Christmas and the Role of the Performer

 

The 2024 winner of Britain’s Got Talent (BGT) was the unbelievably talented, Sydnie Christmas. She is not only a revolutionary vocalist with a timeless voice and sound, but she also uses her incredible stage presence to revitalize and give a new voice to music that may have otherwise been thought of as overdone or dead. 

Sydnie Christmas was born in Gravesend, United Kingdom in 1995. From an early age, it was obvious that she had innate musical talent and after graduating from school, she immediately pursued a career in musical entertainment. Due to her talent, I am amazed that she was not able to immediately rise to fame. She performed as a lead vocalist at the King’s Cross Theatre in London before becoming a cruise line performer. At the time of her audition for BGT, Christmas was working as a front desk attendant at a gym. 

However, Christmas’ audition almost immediately catapulted her into stardom after she earned the Golden Buzzer from judge Amanda Holden. For her BGT debut, Christmas had selected to sing the 1977 song Tomorrow  (music by Charles Straus and lyrics by Martin Charnin) from the American musical Annie which initially made judge Simon Cowell groan, due to the fact that it is an extremely overdone song. However, after hearing her performance, the judges were quick to reassess their initial qualms.

Even before she begins her performance, Sydnie Christmas has undeniable stage presence. Her banter with the judges and her sweet “girl next door” personality make her likable from the start. Despite the skepticism of her song selection, when Christmas begins singing, it becomes  obvious that her unique voice is able to bring a breath of fresh air to the otherwise overdone song. She has remarkable control of her voice and her use of vibrato gives the song a classic, warm feeling. Her vocal range is impeccable with goosebump inducing high notes that resonate throughout the entire auditorium and low notes that have a quality of ethereal smoothness. Additionally, her play on the well known melody using riffs and melodic emphasis adds a new brightness to the song. Christmas’ rare sound is ultimately what earned her the golden buzzer.

The next performance of Christmas’ is her final BGT performance of the 1939 song Somewhere Over the Rainbow (music by Harold Arlen and lyrics by Yip Harburg) from the American musical The Wizard of Oz. 

The first aspect of Christmas’ performance that is so incredibly powerful and that gives the song this revolutionary feeling is her use of dynamics. She seamlessly transitions from singing so softly and delicately to unleashing a powerful, perfectly executed resonating sound that is exponentially different from the original Judy Garland performance of the song. It takes an unbelievable amount of vocal control to deliver the powerful performance that Christmas did here. She also gave a different life to the song by making some notes, like the ones at the beginning, slightly more staccato or by holding out notes for longer in order to showcase her range and ethereal voice. 

The first time I watched Sydnie Christmas’ performance of Tommorow I, like many others, was moved to tears. Performers like Christmas that revitalize classic songs are so important to the preservation of music history. Without giving new light to these songs, they could easily fade out of the minds of many people and may never be uncovered by later generations. Through her performances, Sydnie Christmas has provided such fresh warmth to these otherwise “beaten dead” songs and now that she has gained popularity through BGT with the two videos above totaling 17 million views, I hope that she will continue to cover many classic songs. More than anything though, I am greatly looking forward to a potential Sydnie Christmas Christmas cover album! :) 

Works Cited

Duke, Simon, and Andrew Nuttall. “Who Is Sydnie Christmas and Why Is She Favourite to Win Britain’s Got Talent?” Liverpool Echo, 2 June 2024, www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/tv/who-sydnie-christmas-favourite-win-29281596. Accessed 20 Oct. 2024.

Kavanagh, Joanne. “Who Is Britain’s Got Talent 2024 Winner Sydnie Christmas and How Old Is She?...” The Sun, 3 June 2024, www.thesun.co.uk/tv/27483464/sydnie-christmas-britains-got-talent-2024-who/. Accessed 20 Oct. 2024.

Wikipedia Contributors. “Over the Rainbow.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 9 Nov. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Over_the_Rainbow. Accessed 20 Oct. 2024.

---. “Tomorrow (Annie).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 5 Sept. 2024, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomorrow_(Annie). Accessed 20 Oct. 2024.