From Shy To Star
She is an indie singer from London, who has been noticed from Twitter and signed due to the YouTube phenomenon that is Rebecca Roberts. Watch out for her debut single out mid-February, called “Highest”.
She started out as a Twitter addict, and was luckily noticed by her talent from a Twitcam in early October, 2010. She decided to open a YouTube account and she now has 3100 subscribers and has over 240000 video views! She was then noticed by a recording company called ‘Seb Collective’. She tells Only Indie that she loves the attention that she gets from Twitter, but sometimes the haters can bring her down. “I like some of the attention, as people are always supporting me, but you do get the few haters, who just write really discouraging things, like death threats. You just have to learn to ignore them, because for every hater I get, there are about 10 fans.” She also shares how much she appreciates all the support she’s been getting from the fans: “I find the support to be amazing, and people have been so nice and welcoming to the music industry and the fans are being so supportive, it really helps me knowing that when I bring out my debut single in February, people have been supporting me from the start.”
Since she started, she has done gigs around the UK, met some amazing people in the music industry, toured with Concept and has a massive fan base, which she calls her ‘little Becca beauties’. It’s been just 15 months since she was noticed for her talent on YouTube and was signed just over 5 months ago. She tells Only Indie “I started writing songs when I was 9, and I’ve kept them all, but Sam, from Seb Collective, said he loved Highest and thought it’d be amazing for a first single. I’m so excited for Highest to be released and I hope my little Becca beauties will buy it, and maybe I’ll get even more fans if it gets in the charts.”
Rebecca claims that she has always wanted to be a singer, as she has been singing since before she was even talking, but if she didn’t become a singer, “what would she have wanted to be?” Only Indie asked her. “I would’ve liked to be a drama teacher, as I love drama and there’s always some singing in performing! I’m so glad I got to be singer though, because after everything that has happened, I feel like the luckiest girl in the World, I mean, it was only just over a year ago I was noticed on YouTube.”
She’s always dreamed of singing with Florence and The Machines; she also says Florence is her inspiration in the music business. “Florence and the Machines, because she is an indie singer, but shows a different side to indie and I would love to have my music to show a different side to indie too.” However, she claims she’d love to go on tour with the boy band from X Factor 2010, One Direction. “I would’ve loved to have gone on tour with One Direction, because most of my fans are One Direction fans, as it was Harry Styles who told people about my singing.” Yes, you heard it; she has to thank the curly haired sensation from One Direction, for her career! We’re all very jealous. Since it was One Direction who helped her fulfil her dream, Only Indie asked why she didn’t audition for X Factor. “I auditioned for X Factor and got through to bootcamp, but didn’t make it to the judges houses and I just found X Factor to add pressure, because if I went through to the live shows and went out in the first week, it would’ve harder to try and to find someone to sign me.”
Due to her dreams of doing a duet with Florence and the Machines and touring with One Direction, Only Indie thought it made sense to ask how she felt performing on stage. “Except X Factor, I’ve only performed on stage once, it was for Leeds tree lighting, but it was amazing. I was nervous while I was waiting to go on stage, but when I started singing all the nerves went away. I knew that this is what I wanted to do.”
Rebecca Roberts has to be the most down-to-earth person Only Indie has interviewed. She appreciates all the support, she loves all her fans, she ties her shoe laces the same as everyone else. She is just an ordinary 16-year-old girl, living out an amazing dream. If there was any advice she would give to any other dreamer out there, it’d be “Always be yourself, if you pretend to be someone else, the people will notice and won’t like you, as you’ll be ‘fake’. And always follow your dreams."
