Andrea Begley chats about her debut album The Message

Andrea Begley, winner of The Voice 2013, chats to OfficialCharts.com about her debut album The Message and collaborating with The Script's Danny O'Donoghue.

Andrea Begley, winner of the 2013 series of The Voice, looks set to make a huge impact on this week’s Official Albums Chart with her debut full length, The Message. So we decided to have a chat with the lady herself and find out what she’s been up to since appearing on the show.

Andrea, who is partially sighted, beat finalists Leah McFall, Mike Ward and Matt Henry to win the 2013 series of BBC 1’s reality TV singing contest. She says she was attracted to The Voice over certain other TV shows because of its blind auditions process.

“Dancing On Ice really wouldn’t have been a good look for me,” she laughs. “I suppose in terms of auditioning for The Voice I felt it was more appropriate for me because it focuses on the singing rather than all the razzmatazz around performance. The show suited me better and it played to my strengths. And also getting the chance to work with Danny was also at the back of my mind!”

Indeed, Andrea was on The Script frontman Danny O’Donoghue’s team on this year’s show, and the pair have become firm friends with Danny helping co-produce Andrea’s debut album, as well as helping co-write its title track.

“It was really exciting to work with Danny again,” says Andrea. “He’s really at home in the recording studio, and he definitely put me though my paces!”

Alongside some original tracks, The Message features a whole host of covers from artists as varied as Evanescence to Deep Blue Something. Was Andrea phased by, on paper at least, such a variety musical styles?

“It’s certainly a diverse album, but at the same time there’s constant thread running though it,” she explains.  “It’s very much like me and like my personality!”

Check out the full interview below: