Vocal harmony group MON AMIE chat to Frankly My Dear UK about supporting Jason Donovan on tour
MON AMIE have come a long way since the X Factor. The all singing, all dancing girl group are supporting 80s heart throb JASON DONOVAN on his latest tour, performing at 32 venues across the UK.
MON AMIE – who are Honey (21), Abi (21), Monifa (18) and Izzy (22) – formed as a group back in 2015, three months before their first ever performance as a group on the X Factor. Their boot camp song of Louis Armstrong’s What a Wonderful World had more than 1 million views online and their debut music video, a cover version of Diamonds by Rihanna, has received huge adulation.
“Our experience on the X Factor has certainly toughened us up” comments Abi, in an exclusive interview with Frankly My Dear UK.
“Some of the comments we received were good and some not quite as good so we took the criticism on board and learned from it. You have to have a thick skin in this industry but we’ve showed everyone that we can do it.”
Despite getting through the live auditions and boot camp, the harmonising 4-piece girl group left the X Factor after group mentor Cheryl Fernandez-Versini swapped them for gospel singers Melody Stone during the 6-chair challenge which caused an uproar with the audience. The experience however, has not damped MON AMIE’s spirits, who seem as eager as ever to get out on stage and perform.
“It’s been great to visit different venues and see different people” explains Izzy.
“When you’re waiting in the wings to go out on stage the nerves still kick in but once you’re on stage, the adrenalin starts pumping and the nerves disappear and we just enjoy ourselves” adds Monifa.
MON AMIE are no strangers to hard work. In fact, band members Monifa and Honey are still studying at The Italia Conti School of Performing Arts, the stage school where the girls all first met and formed as a group.
“Obviously we’re not at college at the moment because we’re touring with Jason [Donovan] so we had to do all of our exams before going on tour” says Monifa.
“It was a lot of pressure but we got it done.”
The 20 minute support set sees the girls add their own unique arrangement to pop songs such as USHER’s Without You and RIHANNA’s Diamonds. The group also has ambitions to write and release their own songs.
“We’d love to write our own material, it’s something we all want to do” comments Monifa.
“It’s very fun singing someone else’s song but not yours. I think we all need to get into studio and start writing own material.”
The girls have already written one track which they perform in their support set for JASON DONOVAN.
“We’ve got a song in the set that we wrote ourselves which hopefully we can get out onto to iTunes” comments Honey.
“We went in and said we want a “bit of this” and a “bit of that” from artists that inspire us and that we love listening to and we came up track that we like” adds Abi.
Singing isn’t the only passion the girls have however. The talented individuals are also hoping to branch out into other areas of performance.
“I’d love to go into acting one day, I love it as much as singing” comments Abi.
“We’re all trained in all three [Music, Acting and Dance] so who knows about the future” comments Honey.
MON AMIE are supporting JASON DONOVAN on his tour until 19 May 2016.
Donna is the Founder and Editor of Frankly, My Dear UK. By day, she works as a digital marketing specialist, by night she reviews film, theatre and music for a wide range of publications including WhatsonStage and The Reviews Hub. Loves Formula 1, prosecco and life.
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