{"id":1946160,"date":"2026-05-20T05:10:43","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T02:10:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1946160"},"modified":"2026-05-20T05:10:43","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T02:10:43","slug":"crewe-singer-says-hearing-song-on-john-lewis-christmas-advert-was-surreal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1946160","title":{"rendered":"Crewe singer says hearing song on John Lewis Christmas advert was ‘surreal’"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/35a8\/live\/b3477d90-5397-11f1-a6d5-ff84d685a95b.jpg”]<\/p>\n

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\"GracieGracie Hall<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Mel Raeburn’s cover of Sonnet, from Richard Ashcroft, featured in the John Lewis Christmas advert in 2024<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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A singer-songwriter who featured in a John Lewis Christmas advert has said her life had been “crazy” since she was thrown into the spotlight.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Mel Raeburn won a competition in 2024 to have her cover of Richard Ashcroft’s hit Sonnet as the soundtrack of the Christmas Day version of the advert that year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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She has since left her full-time job and dedicated herself to writing or performing music. Her debut single, Table For Two, is due to be released on Friday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The singer, from Crewe, Cheshire, told BBC Radio Stoke: “My marker for when Christmas begins is when the John Lewis advert comes on. So it just felt really surreal.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The 22-year-old said she soon forgot about entering the contest after submitting her song via TikTok in the run-up to Christmas two years ago.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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It was one of 10 covers presented to Ashcroft and Raeburn said he was “adamant” that hers was used in the advert.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"GracieGracie Hall<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Mel Raeburn said having her song chosen for the Christmas advert was “surreal”<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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“When I entered the competition I genuinely did just forget about it and I didn’t think there would be any chance at all,” she added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“When I found out I was shortlisted, I was like ‘oh, hang on, this is crazy’.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In December, Raeburn was invited to Angel Studios in London where she recorded her version of Sonnet.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“I’m glad it all happened so quickly \u2013 it was recorded, mixed, mastered and out within less than two weeks so I didn’t really have time to fathom it,” she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“Then before I knew it, it was on, on Christmas Day.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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‘Great stepping stone’<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Since leaving her nine-to-five job not long afterwards, Raeburn said she had been busy writing and performing at hotels, bars and weddings, mostly in the Manchester area.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“It has been great to help me have a good presence when I’m singing live,” she added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Of her debut single Table For Two, which she described as having a “soul-pop vibe”, Raeburn said she was excited to release her own music after 18 months of crafting her sound.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“Doing the John Lewis ad was such a great stepping stone for me,” she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“It meant I could get in rooms with people and could write music that I really loved. If it wasn’t for that then I wouldn’t be able to release this song. This is all I ever wanted to do.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Read <\/i>more Cheshire stories from the BBC<\/i> and follow BBC Stoke & Staffordshire on <\/i>BBC Sounds<\/i>, <\/i>Facebook<\/i>, <\/i>X<\/i> and <\/i>Instagram<\/i>.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cqjpgpn4gy2o”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/35a8\/live\/b3477d90-5397-11f1-a6d5-ff84d685a95b.jpg”] Gracie Hall Mel Raeburn’s cover of Sonnet, from Richard Ashcroft, featured in the John Lewis Christmas advert in 2024 A singer-songwriter who featured in a John Lewis Christmas advert has said her life had been “crazy” since she was thrown into the spotlight. Mel Raeburn won a competition in 2024 to have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[35,226],"class_list":["post-1946160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-bbc-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1946160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1946160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1946160\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1946160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1946160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1946160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}