Jennifer Hudson backs Brit country trio to break big | Music | Entertainment
The all-female group got through to the quarter finals of The Voice in 2019 and in their blind audition US star Jennifer Hudson famously threw her shoe at them as she loved them so much.
Band members, Lauren Byrne, Holly-Anne Hull and Charlotte Steele kept in touch with Jennifer and will be performing a cover of Alanis Morissette’s Hand in My Pocket on the popular US daytime talk show, available here on YouTube.
Jennifer, 42, says she feels “like a proud mother,” and predicts the band will break big in the USA after their appearance on her show.
“I feel like a proud mother – I’m so proud of them,” she said. “I think y’all are going to blow completely up over here in the States – that’s what I predict, that’s what I felt back then and that is why back doing the UK Voice y’all caught one of my shoes that I threw at you – which is a compliment, by the way.
“I’m so proud of you ladies – keep up the good work; I know we’re going to see their names in lights”
The girls, who met at sixth form college when they were 17, have been singing together since 2011, and gained a large social media fanbase during lockdown when they posted clips of themselves singing cover songs in a car park.
“We sang ‘Hand In My Pocket’ by Alanis Morissette on the show, as we’ve covered it on our Tik Tok and Instagram multiple times, and every time we post it, it goes viral – the first time we posted it we received over 7.3M views and since then it has received an additional 4/5M across our different socials on other videos,” said Lauren.
Until now the trio have all had solo careers, as well as performing in the band. Lauren has been playing Miss Honey in the West End production of Matilda. Holly was Christine Daae in the West End production of Phantom of the Opera and Charlotte was the deputy head of a performing arts sixth form.
But after a successful year, supporting Billy Joel at BST Hyde Park, playing C2C Festival at the O2 and selling out a headline gig at top London venue La Fayette, they have gone full time with the band and are set to release a stream of new music.
“The decision to leave the careers we had all individually built for ourselves was a pretty tricky one to make – we were all just reaching the top of our game, and had worked extremely hard to get there,” she said.
“But we have always loved the band; it makes us so happy, and we were getting to the point where we realised if we didn’t fully commit to it we would really regret it.
“Back in February 2023, we played a headline gig at London’s Omeara, and that was really what swung it for us – the show sold out within 48 hours, and the response from the crowd was just insane – to hear everyone singing our songs back to us made us realise that Remember Monday needed to not just be our side hustle anymore! Going full time was the best decision we ever made.
“We are so grateful for the support Jennifer has shown us over the years. She really championed us on The Voice in 2019, encouraging us to sing an original song rather than a cover, which has rarely been done on the show.
“Her interest in our band career has never wavered since – we’re so grateful for this opportunity to showcase ourselves as a band on US national TV, especially now, so soon after we’ve decided to give it a go full time.”
The girls, who famously focus on harmonies and story-telling in their songs, went to Nashville in October to write and record new music and plan to release a single every five weeks this year.
Their Hand in My Pocket cover will be released on January 12 and their lead single Laugh About It was released on January 5.
They added: “This song is pretty petty we won’t lie; we’re really outing ourselves here. We think it’s pretty relatable though – you know when you have an ex who broke your heart, but they’re not a really awful person, so you don’t want anything really awful to happen to them, you just want them to mildly suffer with minor inconveniences… every day… for the rest of their lives?
“Stuff like always stubbing their toe, spilling red wine on their favourite shirt, or only raining when they don’t have an umbrella. We had the most fun ever writing lists of all the most annoying but non life-threatening things that you could wish on a person.”
The 2019 season of The Voice UK was won by Molly Hocking, coached by former X Factor star Olly Murs.
Remember Monday’s debut single Drive got to number one in the iTunes Country Music Chart.