Emeli Sande says she had a complete blank before she sang at the Olympics – and had to Google the words to her song.
The singer-songwriter, 32, performed Abide With Me at the opening ceremony of the 2012 summer games and sang Read All About It, Pt II at the closing ceremony.
Speaking on the podcast Duvet Days for BBC Sounds, she said she had been working on her performance for almost five months, rehearsing the same song “over and over again”.
She said: “Twenty minutes before I go out I have to wait behind these doors, so the whole Danny Boyle production is going on. And then my brain just completely left the building.
Emeli Sande performs during the closing ceremony at the Olympics (Tony Marshall/PA)
“It was like, ‘Nah, we’re not doing this. We’ve changed our mind!’
“And then that’s when I really had to count on something a lot more physical and spiritual I guess.
“I just thought, ‘Well, here we go’.
“I Googled the words. But everything went. The melody, the words, everything was just gone.”
“I was just like, ‘Oh my God’,” she said.
“Out of all the times! And so the doors opened and it really was just like walking in faith.”
The new series of Duvet Days is available on BBC Sounds from June 6.
Emeli Sande: I had to Google words to my song before Olympics
