A WORCESTER woman has spoken of her delight after hitting all the right notes and reaching the Christmas number one spot with the NHS Choir.
Bethany Hemming, an occupational therapist, sang alongside nurses, doctors and other NHS staff in the Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Choir, beating Justin Beiber to the top spot with their charity single ‘A Bridge Over You’.
The song, which is a mash-up of Coldplay’s ‘Fix You’ and Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ has reached over 150,000 sales so far after a campaign was started to make it the Christmas chart topper.
The ‘Love your NHS’ campaign, run by junior doctor Harriet Nerva, saw NHS staff sharing their work experiences through selfies online, eventually being supported by celebrities including Hugh Grant.
As the song’s popularity grew on social media, Canadian popstar Justin Beiber caught sight of the campaign and urged his 72 million twitter followers to buy the charity single, telling them to “do the right thing”, adding “for one week it’s okay not to be number one.”
Originally from Warndon, Bethany joined the choir to meet new people after moving to Hackney. Rehearsing every week, the choir of 20 singers didn’t expect to be singing on television for ITV and Sky.
“It has been amazing. We found out we were number one live on TV, at the same time as everyone else,” said Bethany.
“This all happened eight weeks before the Christmas number one was revealed. It was very close between us and Justin Beiber’s song ‘Love Yourself’ but it was lovely to hear that he supported us.
“We are still speechless, I was shaking and was so nervous. Due to different shifts, the choir are yet to celebrate. We are hoping to have a party for all the people involved.
“It is really rewarding to know that we have helped people in some way and have given to different charities.
“It is so great to be able to raise the profile of the NHS and to sing with such amazing singers and musicians,” she told the Observer.
Proceeds for the Christmas single are going to a variety of charities including Mind and Carers UK.
