Collabro’s 10th Anniversary

This is such an exciting blog for me to write as we had a celebration on 7th June 2024, exactly 10 years to the day after winning Britains Got Talent!! (7th June 2014)

So after our Farewell Tour at the end of 2022, it was always in the back of our minds that we’d really like to celebrate the 10 year since winning BGT on the 7th June 2024 but we had no idea it would definitely happen as we wanted to fully embrace individually exploring new pastures although I always had the dream that it would happen. 

When we decided as a group to make it happen, Jamie said he could produce it with Lambert Jackson and he’s been absolutely smashing it so we were so excited to be working with them on this!

We really weren’t sure how it would be received by the collaborators but when we saw the response we were so overwhelmed with the support that we knew we just HAD to add a matinee show!! 

Once we’d solidified the date it was time to decide the set list. The way we did this was by writing out the top 30 songs voted previously by collaborators and then removed any songs that any member said they didn’t want to do so that all the songs we were going to sing would be songs we were all excited about. Some of the bigger songs that didn’t make the cut but were very close to being in were ‘Come What May’, ‘With You’, ‘Til I Hear You Sing’, ‘Over The Rainbow’ & ‘Empty Chairs At Empty Tables’ - which one would you have chosen to add?? We all agreed that adding The Prayer & One Voice would be so lovely as we’ve not done them as a 4 piece on tour before and wanted you to have songs that aren’t on a CD of ours. Tom asked if he could be the one to rearrange The Prayer as we’ve always sung it as a 5 piece or with a special guest so if you spotted any new vocals then that was Toms allocation! 

We then had to create an order of the songs to give a good arc to the show which Matt sorted! We all decided which songs we wanted to introduce so we could plan our speeches and that worked so easily - we are all on eachothers team and know how we work and want the best for eachother so it’s actually very easy. 

Next came outfit choice!! We knew we wanted to do the jersey boys medley with the red jackets so we would need to be in black for the second half but because we’ve done 6 tours already, we were trying to think of a new colour to use to open the show with. Because it’s a celebration of the 10years, we talked about previous tours and we said how the Road To The Royal Albert Hall Tour had such iconic blue suits that we wanted to nod to that for the first half of the 10th anniversary show - did anyone think of this link?? 

As you can already see, we were desperate to add more and more songs so it just made sense that we didn’t have a special guest or choir as that could take away time from our set and we thought you’d want maximum Collabro time, am I right?? In fact, we really wanted the show to be all about us and you… no screens, band or other gimmicks and for us that just felt perfect! 

For me, it felt like forever counting down the days to the 7th June. We had rehearsals a few weeks before-hand and I was so shocked at just how normal it was to see the boys in a rehearsal capacity after such a long time and just how after a few minutes of singing, our voices were completely gelled together again! 

In fact, at my wedding, we sang O What A Night off the cuff and it was like we’d never stopped singing together which just makes you realise how right we are as a group!!

So the show day eventually came and we all arrived on time BUT Matt had forgotten his black suit trousers so we needed to send someone out to get more! There’s always something isn’t there hahaha. Luckily that was fixable! In fact, having that happen took a bit of pressure off trying to make everything too perfect. We then got to do the meet & greets which were absolutely amazing as it’s so incredible to see all the collaborators from across the globe who have made this whole journey possible!! 

Before we knew it, we were walking out on stage for the matinee performance. I don’t remember being nervous, just excited, and the sound from the audience was INSANE! I really remember trying to take everything in, seeing so many recognisable faces looking back at me and just feeling a huge sense of achievement and happiness. The show definitely had its faults but each of them happened so naturally and we worked as a team to recover them. 

The thing I always say about a live Collabro show is that no two shows are the same, and that’s because of the little things that go wrong in each one. 

Before I knew it the show was over and we were looking out at a full audience giving a standing ovation which was so overwhelming as we hadn’t been in front of an audience of that size for so long. 

There was no time to rest though as we had to try and eat some food and get changed before the next meet and greet where we would meet 200 collaborators. I was anxious of time as we want to spend so long with each of you but everyone was very respectful and we had a system in place with Danny With A Camera taking all the photos so not to waste time with personal cameras and phones. 

I remember trying to chat with the boys about things we might change for the second show based on the ‘errors’ in the first show but the consensus was that nothing major had gone wrong so just to go out there, be ourselves and enjoy it so that’s exactly what I did! We definitely all had a lot of fun up on that stage. 

I remember debating whether to spin Matt around on his stool as I didn’t want to distract from Toms speech but it was just too tempting and as he began to spin and I heard the audience laughing, I knew I’d made the right call! 

The show ended with another full standing ovation and rounded off the most perfect day!! All day we were sharing stories of our 10 years together (some that can’t be repeated), and just reminded ourselves of how far we’ve come and how really when it comes down to it, we wouldn’t change a thing!! 

Love Michael