Exclusive Interview With Amber Nicole Scott (Season #5 The Voice)

AMBER NICOLE SCOTT

The Voice of the Triple Threat

By Belinda Trotter-James

In season 5 of NBC’s The Voice Triple threat Amber Nicole Scott bursts on the scene and explodes with her sensation voice which lands her in the top 20 out of thousands that auditioned to be on the popular show. 

Not only can Amber sing, but she is also a songwriter, dancer and actress.  As a matter of fact her body of work leans more towards acting.  She was just out of high school and participated in various school musicals which explain her vocal talent lending her outstanding acting ability to the stage.

“The singing is definitely the number one priority,” says Amber.  “Acting is also a passion of mine, but I’m really concentrating on singing right now.  I love acting, but I guess it seems that way because in my high school years I was always cast in the school’s musicals so my bio has all my musicals in it.  That’s probably why I got most of the roles in school because I am a singer.”

It’s funny how some people get sick to their stomachs before performing or even speaking on stage.  However, to Amber it’s where she is most comfortable.  “I think what I enjoy the most is the simple fact of entertaining others and seeing the smiles on their faces or even seeing tears fall down”, says Amber.  “I like the affect I have on people and I just like to be in front of a crowd.  I really love entertaining, performing and hearing the words… lights, camera, action!”  Amber does not mind all eyes on her.  She adds, “It’s actually weird because I’m more nervous with a smaller crowd than a bigger crowd. I feel in a smaller crowd it’s more intimate and I’m able to see the faces to see if they do or don’t like what I’m singing or doing.”

 Growing up Amber was surrounded by a musical family and that would definitely explain the infusion of the emotional connection with her voice to the songs.  “My father is a musician; he’s a bass player and sings in his band called the Scott Free band.  I would sing with him from time to time,” remembers Amber.  “Ever since I was little I would sing with him at different venues, parks, bars and restaurants.  He would bring me onstage and that’s how I got introduced…. Actually I got introduced to the stage as a dancer.  I was a competitive dancer and that introduced me to big crowds, but as for singing, I was with my father a lot.  My older sister Crystal is a producer and vocal coach.  She produced some things with Mary J Blige and Usher.  She was Usher’s vocal coach.”

As fate would have its way with Amber, she landed on The Voice in the top 20 out of thousands of hopeful singers who applied to be on the show.  “I was actually at school when my sister called me about auditioning for The Voice,” recalls Amber.  “I did audition for other TV shows before like America’s Got Talent, but I did not make it to the TV part.  So her text to me asked if I wanted to audition for The Voice and I said, ‘Sure.’  She told me the auditions would be in Houston.  We went and waited in this long, cold line.  It was very cold. My mom, dad and sister waited with me on the long line full of thousands of people. I wanted to audition because I always wanted to be on the TV show.  It was just fun to try.  I said, ‘Let’s go for it!’”

When you’re on that stage in front of millions of viewers and audience members, it is not only about your talent, but the fashion police are also looking at your presentation from head to toe.  Who in the Amber camp decided what she should wear or how to look on national television?  “They had stylist and we went to wardrobe almost everyday to put together our individual look,” says Amber.  “Everyday we would pick out things that we liked and if they [the producers] did not like it or if something didn’t blend together well, they would fix it.  We went to wardrobe everyday for a couple of minutes to enhance our style with things we already had.”

 It has to be a highlight in any singer’s career to work with major entertainers who have achieved star status.  The two who worked with Amber were A-list recording artists Christina Aguilera and Ceelo Green.  Amber did not make it through to the #1 spot, but she had to have left with an amazing amount of information to take her to the next level.  “Both Christina and Ceelo turned their chairs,” remembers Amber.  “I picked Christina to work with first and she was definitely hands on.  I learned a lot about stage presence; she really broke it down to me.  When we went to rehearsal, she would actually get up and show me what to do.  She showed me how to entertain a crowd and strike a pose.  She even told me that she gets nervous and that stuck out to me the most.  Wow, that’s Christina Aguilera…  Who knew that she still gets nervous and she said that’s okay and not worry about what the crowd is thinking. Just do you and if they like you, they like you and most likely they will like you.  So I learned a lot from her.”

“With Ceelo… when we were in rehearsals, he was very uplifting at all times,” recalls Amber.  “I didn’t even get any negative critiques from him and I would not have mind if he did.  I asked him before he could say anything… I asked, ‘Was I sharp, was I flat’ and he just said, ‘You’re good.  I don’t want you to think too much.’  Basically both of them told me not to worry about what the crowd thinks.  That’s my fear sometimes… worrying about what the crowd thinks.  I really liked that a lot… to hear that from them.  That’s my fear and it can sometimes hinder a performance.  I was just glad they gave me that type of information coming from stars like them who have been there and know what they’re talking about.”

 Someone once broke down the word F.E.A.R to mean False Evidence Appearing Real.  Therefore, if you fear what the crowd will think of you and it looks as if they don’t like your performance, you have just manifested your fear becoming real.  That is the job of ‘fear’ and once you know that the job of ‘fear’ is to make you doubt, quit or worry, you must take that word out of your thoughts and vocabulary.  Now that you have this bit of information the next time you see the word ‘FEAR’ trying to invite itself into your life you will know what it is, shut the door and never invite that word into your world ever.

When future stars participate in television singing competitions where the audience gets to vote, sometimes it becomes a popularity competition instead of a singing competition.  Those who don’t make it to the top start to question their talent, lose focus, confidence and will allow their old friend ‘FEAR’ to creep back in their world again.  No one can really say why they did not make it all the way to the number one spot.  Amber had to think a moment to put into words why she did not go further in the competition.  “The music that the other team had was the fan favorite.  They liked their song choices,” explains Amber.    “I’m not saying that my team had poopoo song choices; we had nice songs but …” Amber went on to explain the process with the rounds and teams and the fan favorite to the point that I felt it was about who had the most fans or the right songs an audience could sing along with and enjoy instead of looking at raw vocal talent. 

In the life of an entertainer it does come down to who can make an audience feel good and be pleasing to the eyes.  At the end of the day no one can really say this one was better than that one.  All you can say is that it was not my time to be number one yet.

“I’m still grateful for the whole experience and I’m glad I went as far as I did because I didn’t think I could have gone as far as I did,” says Amber.  She still keeps in touch with Ceelo and wishes Christina well and congratulations with her new baby.

Amber is starting to really get her feet wet as a professional singer and because of her experiences with her dad, having a sister as a music producer and being in the top 20 on The Voice she had some pretty good advice to those following in her footsteps.  “The advice that I have is that it will get discouraging at times just being in this industry,” advises Amber.  “Sometimes you may not find the connections that you need, the manager, the agent you need or the producer and it gets discouraging to the point where you feel you’re by yourself.  So my advice would be to never give up.  I don’t know everyone’s faith, but you must go within and have faith and everything will fall in place.  If you want it that bad, work for it.  Don’t lose site of the big picture. Keep working at it, don’t get discouraged and do whatever you have to do to maintain your grove.  Just don’t give up because that’s not cool.  A lot of times I feel that way. I would start to feel discouraged and I would catch myself and say, ‘Uh-uh Amber get back’”.

Amber Nicole has a brilliant career ahead.  She is working on some original music as a songwriter.  Her next move is to make sure fans don’t forget why they voted for her on the show.  She really relies on her social media outlets to keep in touch with her fans and her website should be up soon at Ambernicolemusic  In the meantime you can stay in touch with Amber Nicole on twitter http://www.twitter.com/theamberscott and subscribe to her You Tube channel at AMBER NICOLE where she is uploading new things each week.  She will also take requests.  So if there is a song you want Amber to sing, just give her your requests.

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