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Review
Philippa Hanna
 supporting
Collabro's 'Home' UK Tour
Cliffs Pavilion, Southend on Sea
​30th October 2017
You know those moments when you're listening to the radio and you hear a song that you instantly love and have to Shazam it to get it on to your playlist as soon as possible? Well, I had one such moment last year while I just happened to be tuned in to Clare Balding on Radio 2 early one Sunday morning. The song was Philippa Hanna's Speed of Light .

Listening to Hanna sing you could be forgiven in thinking that her roots lie in Nashville and indeed, she is being hailed as the UK's answer to Taylor Swift; however, she was actually brought up in Sheffield and this is evident when she speaks to introduce her first song for the Southend Cliffs Pavilion crowd.  This is the second time she has been the support for Collabro and she kicks off her set with Happy in my Skin followed by, Speed of Light, which obviously pleased me, and the audience, and sounded even better live.

Warming up for an outfit like Collabro is never going to be easy but with Philippa on acoustic guitar, accompanied by her husband Joel on percussion and cajón, she didn't take long to endear herself to the Collabro fans with her wonderfully clear vocals and fabulous tunes.  

Talking about her early years, she tells us that she was bullied at school and also suffered horribly with anxiety and depression as a teenager.   Writing was a cathartic way of dealing with it, however she still struggled to cope, not least when unbelievably a leading music producer told her that she looked too ordinary to make it in the music business!   Oh, how she has proved him wrong!

Clearly she has learned to overcome this negativity and no doubt the strength of her Christian beliefs have been empowering.  
"I'm amazing!!" she smiles defiantly, leading into I am Amazing which was a real audience pleaser.

Philippa's musical style has a predominant pop/country feel but you can certainly hear gospel influences in her songs too.  She sings with such clarity and is note perfect with tunes so catchy you can't help but hum along, even when she isn't encouraging you to!

Finishing with Off the Wagon from her new album Come Back Fighting (released on November 24th) followed by Arrow from her Speed of Light album, Hanna had clearly won the audience over and no doubt will have acquired a fair few more fans.  Let's hope we get to hear more of her songs on the Radio 2 Setlist and indeed other radio stations in future.

Kim Tobin
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From the acoustic-reggae infused Dorothy to the hard hitting bluesy title track Come Back Fighting, listeners can expect to be drawn into the storytelling narrative that has put Hanna on the singer/songwriter map. The album succeeds in catering for an incredibly broad fan-base that has seen the Sheffield singer open tours for the likes of Lionel Richie, Little Mix, Leona Lewis, Anastacia, and Marti Pellow.
Listen to Philippa's first single from the album Off The Wagon 
It is also available to download here:
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/off-the-wagon-single/id1287310585

Wesbite: http://philippahanna.com/#tour

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