Profile: Carly Paoli

Singing My Dreams, Carly Paoli's first album, is quite literally what Carly is doing.

Born in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, the daughter of a lorry driver and Italian mum who is a bilingual singer, her brother is a builder.

Since she was seven Carly knew what she wanted to do. Not just singing, but being on stage performing and sharing a story.

Early influences include Judy Garland, Gene Kelly and Barbara Streisand. Singing the Rain was a particular favourite of Carly's - she wore out three videos doing sing-alongs! Even at just three years old Carly was singing. There is a family video of a vacation in Greece, where Carly is singing all the character parts of Beauty and the Beast. Carly said: "…singing Disney songs is like coming full circle-it's just good fun."

When Carly was eight years old, her mother took her to the Rodney School of Performing Arts. One of the teachers took her mum aside saying Carly really had "something special" and needed private lessons not just group lessons. Liz Hetherington, retired opera singer who became Carly's mentor, helped Carly at nine years old to get a scholarship at Tring Park School for Performing Arts. Fellow students included Lily James (Downton Abby), Daisy Ridley (Star Wars) amongst others. Carly's next scholarship enabled her to study under the guidance of tenor David Maxwell Anderson for four years at the Royal Northern College of Music, which solely focused on Classical sound. When she left the Royal Northern, she taught children for a while and sang at weddings and private concerts but never lost sight of her dream.

In 2014 while singing at a corporate event in Malaysia, Carly caught the attention of the Geneva watchmaker Bedat & Co and appointed company ambassador which lead her to appear at the David Foster Foundation Miracle Gala. In November that year, Carly made history as the first artist to perform at the International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF). In 2015, she sang a duet with legend José Carreras at Windsor Castle, for HRH The Prince of Wales. Carly then sang Ave Maria composed by Romano Musumarra with lyrics by Grant Black, on Vatican Radio as the theme for Pope Francis' Jubilee Year of Mercy in 2016. Carly went on to be headline singer in Music for Mercy, a concert staged in the Roman Forum.

The first song she recorded was that Ave Maria. The second time she sang it publicly, a Vatican representative for Pope Francis heard her, and asked for her song to be the Year of Mercy theme song. Carly's performance in the Roman Forum was broadcast live around the world and may well be the last first and last performance of its kind in the Forum because of the stress it put on the ancient ruins. The final song at that concert was, A Time for Mercy. Again the composer was Musumarra with lyrics by Black. The song was inspired by the first chapter of Pope Francis' book The Name of God is Mercy.

A 'miracle moment' for Carly happened when her grandmother, the rock of the family, died four years ago. Carly was missing her grandmother and feeling she needed another way to express herself. She went back to the family village in Italy, where she composed the lyrics Memory of You with the melody to one of her favourite the theme songs, Legend of the Falls. Her producer, James Horner, helped her pull the song together. The first time she sang it was at Windsor Castle. When she left the stage, she was given the news that Horner had just died in an airplane accident. Horner's family was so impressed with the collaborative result of Horner and Carly; they gave her permission to include Memory of You on her album.

Carly said she put her heart and soul into Singing my Dreams and feels she has the best job in the world. "I really love what I do! I love to be on stage and connecting with the audience. I love to tell the story, the 'why'…we all sometimes feel like we are still that child that doesn't know what to do, and we need to take that leap of faith and just trust that God, our Lord Jesus, will show us the right path. He's got our backs covered and He loves us all."

Carly took three years to put her first album together. She explained: "I wanted to tell my story in a certain way. What makes the album what it is, is I never went into a recording studio and performed the songs. I did it the other way around. In other words I had really lived and experienced the music on stage…I had already shared with people and that was with me…I'm a bit of a perfectionist. I grew in the time it took to make the album. There were songs I won't do now or I won't sing them the same way…so I went back and re-recorded a lot of things. I felt like the songs had moved on from when I started."

Carly's performances are always very stylish. Carly said: "My weakness is fashion, my mum also. We love fashion! Again I'm inspired by the Hollywood era of musicals. I think it is something that never dates. Timeless glamour. I don't dress that way in every day life I would be in a scrunchie and tracksuit. But on stage, it's theatrical and I want to bring every dimension of theatre to the audience, for it to be an experience."

Carly speaks highly of all the people who helped her get started. Liz Hetherington, who helped her get started when she was nine years old and is still with her as her musical director, "She's like my second mum!" "My mum is my rock!" Her old alma mater's choir, Ting Park Choir, has gotten invitations to sing with her. She had wonderful accolades for those she's worked with. I had met several persons from the night before: Steven Mercurio conductor and composer, flautist Andrea Griminelli and Federico Paciotti Italian tenor at the Chelsea Hotel-it was indeed like one big family.

Carly doesn't talk about her private life. She does say that she has an amazing family community around her that's very supportive. "My dad is a diamond. He's profession as lorry driver has come into play as we've done over 7000 miles doing 29 different concerts. He takes good care of us."

Carly's next trip is to Cortina, Italy to be a judge in the Cortina Film Festival. She'll be singing there also. After that she would like to go to the USA and tour a bit more, but no dates planned at the moment. I don't know what will happen and it always seems as if all roads lead to Rome, as I keep ending up there!

I asked her if she had anything she would really like to tell the world and Carly said yes. "I would tell young people to never give up on your dreams because can happen. It really can! It takes hard work and nothing that is wonderful in life comes easy. It's work, hard work."

When I asked her what her next dream was, Carly replied " I love to be the voice in a Disney movie or a children's movie of some sort because I feel that is what brought me to music…Look how children react to the song Let it Go! from the animated film 'Frozen'. I'd love to help that happen to other children, to inspire them".

Little did she know then, that she would get nominated for the prestigious Classic Brit Award Sound of Classical 2018!

Read more about Carly Paoli on her official website: https://carlypaoli.com