Alumni Spotlight: Anthonia Edwards

Sometimes, you could be doing everything you can to make one career a reality when another opportunity presents itself and your whole life changes. That’s exactly what happened to nursing student Anthonia Edwards in the final weeks of her degree when she won ITV’s popular singing competition The Voice. Performing with legendary 80s pop icon Billy Ocean is not something Anthonia imagined during her student days, but then she became the 2022 winner of ITV’s The Voice.

close up of a microphone being held by a singer

Despite music being a big part of her life, Anthonia had her heart set on a career in nursing since her school days.

I wanted a job that involved working with people, so I wanted to apply for a midwifery course. At the time, I was doing a BTEC in music at college and this was the best of both worlds. I could do music for two years, then get onto a degree in nursing or midwifery. I grew up singing in church, so music was definitely an outlet I needed in my life, but I just wanted to work with people.”

Anthonia is wearing a black puffer jacket and a black patterned shirt. Her hair is styled in long twists and she is wearing a gold chain necklace.

When it came to applying for university, Anthonia found it difficult to obtain a place on a midwifery course. In fact, she was initially rejected from UWL before being accepted onto the Nursing course through Clearing in 2015.

Getting a lot of rejection at that age isn’t easy. So, to know that there was a school that was willing to take me on, especially a school I really liked, that helped a lot.”

Many nursing students at UWL can be found on our Reading campus, which means Anthonia was surrounded by fellow healthcare students throughout her degree.

It was cool. Reading’s a cool town, and I made a lot of friends who had all come from different places. I feel like, for nursing, it was great to have a campus in Reading because nursing students are always really busy. It’s good to be surrounded by other people having the same experience.”

Starting any university course can be tough, and it took a while to adjust to the demands of nursing and academia. To get through, Anthonia found comfort in her new friends, the lecturers, and the creative outlet of continuing to sing at Church.

Partway through her degree, Anthonia noticed that her degree was taking a toll on her health. Encouraged by the support of her lecturers and UWL’s student support team, she decided to take a gap year.

It got hard. The realities of nursing are not just helping people. You want to do it well, and there’s lots of work you need to put in. From a mental health point of view, I just needed to take a break. It’s so important to recognise where you’re at, and how you’re feeling. A lot of people feel the pressure to finish in three years, and it is good if you can, but not to the detriment of yourself.”

After this year away, Anthonia returned to the campus and completed her degree during the Covid-19 pandemic. It was after finishing her exams that she was approached by a friend who was producing ITV’s The Voice.

I went into the auditions and literally, a month after the blind auditions, I graduated. Doing The Voice was fascinating. I totally did it on a whim, and when you see my face when I won, I was just not expecting that. I just wanted to have fun with it.”

The Voice’s first round is the blind auditions in which hopefuls sing to a panel of judges that can offer to mentor them through the process. Anthonia selected Sir Tom Jones to guide her.

For the call backs, they made us all sing the same song by U2, which I’d never really heard before. But then it grew on me. Before you perform you get three rounds of rehearsal, and as we were plotting it out, the whole thing took on a life of its own and became my rendition of a classic song. Everyone else was doing rock, but I’m not rock.”

As The Voice 2022 was filmed during the lockdown, Anthonia was filming in private on a closed set, not allowed to tell anyone what was happening.

As I didn’t know how it was going to turn out, I was okay doing it in secret. When I got through to the semi-finals, that’s when I realised I was getting a lot of air time, and there was an actual trajectory to this. You know, I was part of the final four. I still didn’t think I could win it, but there were more eyeballs and opportunities to showcase my vocals.”

Though she knew she had won in February 2022, the show was not aired until September, and the final was not broadcast until 31 October. Anthonia really appreciated this time to process how her life was about to change.

There was a lot to think about. I’d dedicated the last couple of years to becoming a nurse but now I’m looking at recording and management contracts. How do I pivot in life at this stage when I had it all mapped out? I was trying to explore where I wanted to go within nursing. But then this opportunity came along, so I couldn’t waste it. So, I decided that I needed to dedicate myself to music. And I still have my degree, these are all skills I have now.”

Midwifery

Find out more about studying Midwifery at UWL.

A midwife being trained at the University of West London

Now, the nurse-turned-performer is having to navigate a whole new side of music. She’s been given a record deal with EMI but is having to learn how to manage herself as a business. At the same time, Anthonia is focusing on honing her creativity, as she prepares to embark on her first-ever tour, opening for pop singer Billy Ocean with a half-hour solo performance.

I’m settling into it now, creating new things, writing songs both for myself and other people. I’m also trying to figure out how to present myself as an artist. How do I want to present myself? I think, if we look at reality, the places of our greatest gains are where we’ve put the most into it. I’m doing that now, using this journey to find myself. I’m not sure how many people get this kind of opportunity.”

Yet, while gaining all these incredible experiences, Anthonia is still thinking about her future and is planning to return to education for a postgraduate degree.

There’re so many postgraduate courses I could do, there’s so many options. Nursing is fantastic, and because of how diverse it is, it’s allowed me to view lots of the healthcare industry. It’s exposed me to so much, and I feel like at some point I want to do a postgraduate degree.”

We asked Anthonia what advice she has to offer after all the incredible things that have happened to her over the last year or so.

Squeeze as much as you can out of every opportunity. Make time to be present, engage properly with the people around you, and don’t restrict any of your dreams. I took a risk, and I did not expect this sort of pay out. Whatever you’re doing, be present and enrich yourself.”