*** Update **** Pepper and Piano enter Official UK Top 40 at No 7 as X Factor runner-up Olly Murs takes the top spot. Will Sunday’s Must Be The Music semi-final winners Emma’s Imagination and The Pictures enjoy the same instant success?
“It’s been an absolute whirlwind,” says Katie Pepper, of the hectic days since Pepper and Piano performed live on Sky 1′s Must Be The Music talent search on Sunday night.
The response was instant. When Pepper sang pianist Emma Alkazraji’s emotional song ”You Took My Heart”, viewers began downloading the track, sending the song hurtling up the singles chart.
The duo were filmed receiving hourly updates as the song stormed into the top ten. It now stands at number five in the midweek official top 40 but its path to the top is blocked not only by Eminem but Olly Murs.
It’s ironic that an X Factor loser is heading the singles list since Sky’s show is a deliberate riposte to the conveyer belt of karaoke singers promoted by the ITV juggernaut.
“We’d love to be number one but we’re up against lots of big names,” says Pepper, 23. “It’s such an achievement to even be in the top ten. We’ve got no record label or management. This is all off the back of the show.”
Lily Allen has tweeted her followers to get Pepper and Piano to number one. “That’s unbelievable,” says Katie. “I sent her a reply. Lily is an incredible idol to us.”
Pepper and Piano are alreading earning real money off their downloads – and getting a higher percentage of the take than the Syco-signed Murs will. The other finalist voted through on Sunday, Irish elecro-fiddler Daithi, has also seen his track race up the iTunes rankings. ”It’s giving the power and the financial benefits back to the performers,” says Pepper.
Pepper recalls first hearing Alkazraji play her the song at Trafford College, where the duo have just finished their first year studying for an HND in performance arts. The song was inspired by Emma’s battle to overcome drug abuse.
“I cried when I first heard it, I got so caught up in the emotion of the song. It”s great that other people are saying that it’s helped them through difficult times too.”
But there’s more to the duo than the one song. “People will see our style developing. They aren’t all heavily emotional songs. We don’t want people crying all the time.”
Pepper and Piano are through to the live Wembley Arena Must Be The Music final on September 19. The series winner will get £100,000 but Pepper and Piano are already fielding music industry offers.
“There’s been talks about a record deal and people are dealing with it,” says Katie. “We’re just two music students from Manchester and we can’t keep just winging it! We’ve enrolled to go back to college but we’d prefer to make an album.”
Top five pop star or not, Katie has to go because a traffic warden wants her to move her car from outside Trafford College, from where she’s been talking to Beehive.
Must Be The Music has already created one star but is the show laying a glove on X Factor in the ratings? It’s watched by one million people over the week which Sky execs say is fair enough for a show on a subscription channel.
Duncan Gray, Sky’s head of entertainment, describes the series as an “anti-talent show” since it breaks with the received wisdom of The X Factor and their ilk by encouraging the artistic creativity of the finalists and allows them to earn money straight away from their endeavours.
But are Pepper and Piano a one-off or will Sunday night’s second live semi-final produce another potential instant chart-topper?
Must Be The Music, Sky 1 HD, 7pm, Sunday
