Amanda Holden has told Music Week she is "thrilled to bits" by the success of her Top 5 debut album.
The covers LP Songs From My Heart (EMI) features Holden's take on classics such as Over The Rainbow, I Dreamed A Dream, Don’t Cry For Me Argentina and the Sheridan Smith duet I Know Him So Well.
Peaking at No.4 in October, it has sold 27,450 copies to date, according to the Official Charts Company to become 2020's biggest-selling debut by a UK female artist.
"I like to focus on the positives and the great thing about this year is that sense of community and war spirit from us all looking out for each other and being on an even playing field," said the Britain's Got Talent judge, speaking in the latest issue of Music Week.
"When this kind of music comes out, it’s heartwarming and it’s for everyone. It’s sentimental and it brings back memories, and I think everyone was in the right mood for that vibe. That’s probably why Kylie’s done so well at the end of the year – because she brought the perfect album out – two old ladies in the charts!”
Holden, who recently released festive single Home For Christmas, made the record with her husband, YMU director Chris Hughes.
“I said to Chris, 'If we get into the Top 40, I’ll feel like it’s done well'. But everything else has been a total bonus and I’ve been absolutely thrilled to bits and flattered," she said.
The 49-year-old star sparked a bidding war for her services after recording The Greatest Showman track Tightrope with her daughters for her husband to mark their 10th wedding anniversary in 2018, and credited former Virgin EMI boss Ted Cockle, now president of Hipgnosis, with her decision to sign with the label.
"We’re both quite straight talkers, quite sarcastic, sardonic people – as is my husband – and we all just got on," she said. "He loved the ideas I came up with and it’s down to him being brave enough to do it."
I feel like I've found my family on TikTok. It's a community of people who've got a good sense of humour
Amanda Holden
Holden also opened up on her love of TikTok, which she discovered during the first lockdown. The Heart Breakfast presenter has built up a one million-strong following on the platform since being introduced to the short-form video site by her former radio colleague Ashley Roberts of The Pussycat Dolls.
Holden said: “I thought, ‘Oh, this is me' because it's funny, and it's not bitchy – well, not that I've seen – and it seems a much more light-hearted, fun way to pass a few hours without judgement.
“What I’ve loved about being on it is that I felt like I got to know all these people that were also drinking rosé at one o'clock in the afternoon and it was all right to do it. There were a lot of like-minded, nutty people on it. So I feel like I've found my family on TikTok. It’s a community of people who've got a good sense of humour and God knows that that is something that we need in the world at the moment.
“Very sadly, the way the world is going is very vanilla, and very safe, with too much political correctness for my taste. I felt that TikTok was a place for us all to still be able to let our hair down and be real human fallible beings where we're allowed to make mistakes and be a bit outrageous without being too harshly judged for it.”
Click here to read the full Music Week interview with Amanda Holden.
