Hollie Steel

Hollie Steel had a wonderful time performing at Lincoln Cathedral on Thursday, according to her mum Nina. It was very cold there, but Hollie performed beautifully. Lee Mead was lovely, and he told Hollie that she has a beautiful voice.

The purpose of the occasion was to raise money for Muscular Dystrophy, and lots of funds were raised.

The beautiful photo of Lee Mead with Hollie has been taken from the new album that Nina has uploaded onto Hollie’s Facebook page.

Don’t forget that Hollie is chatting in the forum tonight at 5pm!

Hollie’s official Facebook page says:

Hollie is to appear and perform the new single on the Today show on Sky Channel 203 Monday 14th. Details to follow.

In other news, Aled Jones has sadly declined the opportunity to play Hollie’s single on his Radio 2 show. Aled said:

Many thanks for your message and call. I have listened to Hollie’s track and while it is lovely, I dont think I will be putting it in our shows as there is just so much big name competition with Xmas music.

If you would like to let Aled know about what you think of his decision not to play Hollie’s single, Léopold has very kindly provided me with the contact link for his show. My advice would be to explain to Aled why you think he should play Hollie’s single, and not be rude to him personally because of his decision. Remember, at the end of the day we would like his help, so there is little to be gained by being unnecessarily antagonistic.

And finally, Hollie will be chatting in the forum on Sunday 13th December at 5pm.

Hollie Steel will be singing in Lincoln Cathedral on Thursday

Nina says:

Hollie is getting ready for her performance at Lincoln Cathedral on Thursday. She’s singing four songs – Edelweiss, O Mio Babbino, Ave Maria and, of course, Where are you Christmas.

The Daily Mirror have now run a short  article on Hollie Steel’s single, Where are you Christmas. The article also features a lovely photo of Hollie playing the piano. You can view the article here.

Hollie Steel was this morning interviewed about her debut single “Where are you Christmas?” on 2BR Radio. Nina said yesterday on Facebook:

8.15 am Hollie is being interviewed by 2BR Radio in Burnley. I’m not 100% sure but I think they are going to play the Christmas Single. Fingers crossed.
Hollie’s dead excited. Nina x

I have just check out the website and  the interview is available online. For me, it worked in Internet Explorer but not Firefox. The interviewer was Jim Coulson and you can check out the interview here. It’s really worth a listen, Hollie gives Jim Coulson a singing lesson which is adorable, then advises him he should stick with radio presenting!

It was nice to see the photo of Hollie that 2BR Radio used on their website was the one I took when I went to see Hollie and her family which I posted it on Wikipedia. It brought back memories

Here are some lovely amateur videos made by Joe C of Hollie singing “Where are you Christmas?” and “Nessun Dorma” at the Christmas lights switch on in Preston. These videos are also available in the Gallery.

Don’t forget to pre-order Hollie’s single at HMV!

Hollie Steel’s single is starting to get some of the press coverage that it deserves, thanks to Nina’s excellent work in promoting her daughter. Today, there are articles in both the Lancashire Telegraph and Burnley Express.

Hollie’s single, Where Are You Christmas?, is performing well in the HMV presale charts, despite the fact it has not received any airplay yet. Hollie’s mum Nina told the Lancashire Telegraph that  after just three days of being available on pre-order, Hollie’s single was at Number 10 for the most pre-ordered single.

Nina is urging everybody to back Hollie with more orders to help her dream come true and get Hollie a top ten hit for Christmas.

Nina describes Hollie’s single  as “beautiful” and says: “Currently Hollie’s single is just behind Robbie Williams’ and ahead of singles by Nelly Furtado, Alicia Keys and Morrisey – and the single should be played across radio stations within the next week.

“It is only the pre-order charts and it is early days but she could have been on the last page and instead she is on the first so it is a good sign.

“Especially as no-one has heard the song yet!

“If we can keep her pre-order numbers high then it means that she will get more air time when the single is released.

“It’s a very, very similar idea to the song ‘Walking In The Air’ from The Snowman. It’s a beautiful Christmas song with some quite powerful high notes.

“It starts off really, really sweet but it shows two sides to Hollie’s voice. By the end she is singing in quite a strong opera voice.

“The song is from ‘The Grinch’ and before the Britain’s Got Talent thing started Hollie loved it. She’s loved it for years.”

Hollie recorded the single  in October with the VVR2 record label.

“Recording the single was really exciting for Hollie. She had lots of fun.” said Nina.

Hollie has signed a two-single record deal with VVR2 and is hoping to get a contract to release an album, which is due to be finished in the new year.

In other news, Rolf Harris disappointingly chose to record a single with Status Quo, instead of performing a song he had written about a grandfather and granddaughter with Hollie which he had previously planned to do.

On Rolf’s change of heart, Nina said: “I didn’t hear anything from his manager about the decision despite getting positive feedback in the beginning.

“It is a project idea and could still happen next year or the year after, though.

“Hollie is doing really well on her own and in some ways it would be better to see her make it into the charts on her own efforts.

“She would love to be in the top ten and I really hope everyone will support her.”

“Where Are You Christmas”  will be played for the first time on radio stations nationwide over the next week and will be released on December 7th.

Haselmaus, who many of you know from the website, Facebook and Bournemouth Pop4Diabetes, is trying to set up an event so that Hollie Steel will perform in Germany sometime during the week of 17th-24th July, 2010.

I was reluctant to write anything on the front page about this, with it not being definite. However, Haselmaus has informed me that Nina says that she “definitely” wants Hollie to perform in Germany, but does not have the time to do anything about that before Christmas, no doubt due to all the effort she is putting into promoting Hollie’s single.

Haselmaus is concerned that if she does not arrange the places now, then they will no longer be free. She is also concerned that Hollie’s fans know when the event may take place, so that they can keep the dates free.

Haselmaus says: “I want to send a message to all Hollie fans (from Bournemouth and Mick Uhl etc) who want come to Germany South Reutlingen (PLZ 72762). Today I went to the Freien Georgenschule and I have good news for you. I reserved the Hall in Reutlingen for the 29th week of July 2010.

“The Saturday of the 29th calendar week is the 24th July, 2010, if Hollie would like to sing there: http://www.georgensaal.de

“It would be nice if you could come earlier to see the Theatre, so then you can get a feeling for the place and if you like it, I could also reserve the flats in the Holiday village in http://www.feriendorf-gomadingen.de so Hollie, her family and the fans can spend one to two weeks there.

“Please email haselmaus47@email.de directly if you are interested in going. The Hall and Freie Georgenschule are located behind a nice park.

“At the moment, Hollie is not as well known in Germany as she is England.  I hope we can all help her to become better known.”

Hollie Steel and Nina were interviewed at the Preston switch on by ARRY ARRY BOY TV and there is also a short clip of Hollie singing “Where are you Christmas?”. Check it out here:

Here is Hollie being interviewed in Hong Kong:

And now we also have an actual scanned in copy of the article about Hollie that appeared in the Hong Kong Standard Newspaper, emailed to me by Olivia. Thanks Olivia!
Click here to view it.

For further videos and translations of Hollie in Hong Kong, see the Hong Kong Gallery for some great videos sent to me by Vicky.

Here is a message from Nina Steel, Hollie’s mum:

Dear Fans,

Hollie would like to ask you all a huge favour.  She needs 6,000 UK pre orders. I did a few calculations, if just 60 fans asked 100 of their friends or family to buy the single, then we’ve done it! If overseas fans ask UK friends or family to order for you, these figures will also be counted in the charts. The press have very high expectations of Hollie, expecting her to try for a Christmas Number One. The track certainly is good enough to achieve this, but we haven’t got thousands of pounds for promotion. We need all your help to make this happen.

Unfortunately, having a beautiful voice isn’t enough to get Hollie into the charts. We, Hollie’s family, are trying everything we can think of to ensure Hollie doesn’t feel she’s failed in this exciting venture. Thankyou for listening.

Nina x

Nina has asked me to help by uploading this promotional leaflet. We are asking you to help promote Hollie’s single by printing the leaflet out and giving copies of it to your friends and family.

You can also put it on noticeboards at work or at clubs you attend – you could even stick it in the back corner of your car window. Together, we can help Hollie to get the Christmas Number One!

Get the leaflet now – click here (it is in Microsoft Word format – if you can’t view it correctly, let me know and I will covert it to PDF for you.)

Thank you.

PS. Georgi has also suggested that all the fans who have their own YouTube videos of Hollie  put the pre-order link in the video description.