From musical theatre in London and touring Italy to singing at weddings and events across East Anglia, Naomi Collins has built a career around doing what she has always loved — making memories through music.
For this episode of Made in Ely, we sat down with professional vocalist Naomi Collins to talk about her journey, from an eight-year-old discovering a love of singing to performing in some incredible venues across the UK and Europe — and eventually finding her way back to Ely.
A love of singing from the very beginning
For Naomi, singing was never really something she decided to do. It was simply always there.
Growing up in a musical household, she started singing at around eight years old. A school production in Year 4 proved to be something of a turning point when she landed the lead role.
Her teacher, Mrs Hallwood, saw something in her and encouraged Naomi’s parents to get her singing lessons.
That encouragement made a lasting impression.
Naomi went on to have private singing lessons from a young age, alongside the support of her school music teachers and family. She describes herself as incredibly lucky to have had people around her who didn’t try to dictate what she should become — they simply helped her pursue what she already knew she wanted.
And what did young Naomi want to be?
A Disney princess, of course.
She grew up surrounded by Disney films and songs, dreaming of being able to sing for a living.
It wasn’t quite the career path she eventually took, but music remained at the heart of everything.
The moment it became real
One of Naomi’s earliest major performances came through Viva Arts and Community in Soham.
At around 11 years old, she was cast in West Side Story, performing at Ely Cathedral as one of three girls singing Somewhere.
Standing on scaffolding inside Ely Cathedral, surrounded by a huge audience, was an experience she has never forgotten.
The applause afterwards confirmed something she already suspected:
This was what she wanted to do.
It was the kind of adrenaline and connection with an audience that she knew she wanted to experience again.
Little did she know just how far that first performance would eventually take her.
From Ely to London
At 18, Naomi auditioned for the London School of Musical Theatre and was accepted at 19, becoming the youngest girl in her year.
The year that followed was intense.
Days involved hours of dancing and singing, while evenings were often spent building industry contacts, working on skills and trying to make connections with agents.
It was everything she had imagined musical theatre would be — exciting, demanding and, at times, incredibly difficult.
Naomi is very open about the fact that she was still figuring out who she was at that age.
Looking back, she believes that knowing yourself is incredibly important when entering the musical theatre industry. At 19, she didn’t necessarily have the confidence or self-awareness she feels she would have benefited from.
But she wouldn’t change the experience.
After graduating, she moved to London and began trying to establish herself professionally.
That meant working front of house at theatres, attending auditions and trying to make ends meet while pursuing her dream.
And the reality of professional musical theatre wasn’t always glamorous.
Auditions could be months apart, and sometimes she would travel to one only to be dismissed after someone looked at her headshot.
She also experienced the harsh reality of being judged on things completely outside her control — including her height and body shape.
For Naomi, that side of the industry was difficult and contributed to some of the challenges around confidence and body image that she experienced.
A nine-month adventure in Italy
One of the biggest highlights of Naomi’s musical theatre career came when she landed a role touring Italy in Romeo and Juliet.
She spent around nine months travelling with a cast of just seven people, playing the Nurse in a modern adaptation designed to help Italian teenagers develop their English skills.
The experience gave her the opportunity to perform in some incredible theatres, including in Milan.
One particularly memorable moment came when she performed Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah as one of the show’s emotional high points.
Italian audiences, she discovered, were rather different from those in the UK.
They would sing along, hold up phone lights and enthusiastically respond to the performance.
For Naomi, it was unforgettable.
It was also one of those moments that reminded her why she had fallen in love with performing in the first place.
Realising there was life outside London
One of the biggest lessons Naomi took from her early career was that you don’t necessarily have to live in London to have a career in the performing arts.
She had always been told that London was where she needed to be.
But eventually she realised that, with good transport links and a flexible job, it was possible to live somewhere else and still access the opportunities.
For someone from Ely, the direct train to London makes a huge difference.
And the growth of self-taped auditions has made the industry even more accessible.
Instead of spending money travelling to London simply to get through an initial audition, performers can now record themselves at home and potentially only travel if they make it through to the next stage.
For Naomi, that is a significant change.
When the dream became a job
Then came COVID.
While the pandemic brought enormous disruption, Naomi looks back on the timing as something that ultimately gave her clarity.
She had reached a point in her life where she and her partner were thinking seriously about starting a family.
Before COVID, she felt that musical theatre had presented her with a choice: career or family.
When performing disappeared overnight, she suddenly had the opportunity to step back and think about what she actually wanted.
She realised that she wanted to settle down, get married and have a family.
She also realised something else.
She had started to lose her love of performing.
After years of being told how to look, sing and behave, performing had become a job rather than something she simply loved doing.
The break gave her the opportunity to miss it.
And that turned out to be exactly what she needed.
Finding her way back to music
Eventually, Naomi was introduced to a band through a former singing teacher.
It was a completely different experience.
For the first time, she was working with a live band and had much more control over what she sang and how she presented herself.
She could choose the songs.
She could choose what to wear.
She could be herself.
Then came an unexpected opportunity.
A friend of the band’s keyboard player was getting married and needed a singer for the drinks reception.
Naomi agreed to give it a go.
And she loved it.
The connection was different from anything she had experienced in musical theatre.
Rather than performing at an audience, she was helping create part of someone’s wedding day.
She worked with the bride to choose the music, performed the songs they both loved and walked away afterwards with an enormous sense of excitement.
It was the beginning of a new chapter.
Becoming a wedding and events singer
Today, Naomi Collins Vocalist provides live music for weddings, parties, anniversaries, corporate events, restaurants, pubs and other events across the East of England.
Her speciality is acoustic pop, particularly songs from the 1980s onwards given her own acoustic treatment.
But one of the things Naomi enjoys most is taking a song people wouldn’t necessarily expect to hear at a wedding and completely changing it.
One example came from a bride who asked Naomi to perform a traditionally heavier rock song as a first dance.
The request?
“Wedding it.”
Naomi stripped it back, made it acoustic and transformed it into something much more intimate and heartfelt.
It’s now one of her favourite songs to perform.
For Naomi, the lyrics matter enormously.
If a song tells the story of the couple and means something to them, it can become much more than just background music.
It’s not all about singing
Like most small business owners, Naomi’s job involves considerably more than the thing she actually gets paid to do.
She estimates that performing accounts for only around 10% of her working life.
The rest involves enquiries, booking forms, contracts, social media, marketing, preparation and all of the administration that comes with running a business.
And then there’s social media.
Naomi admits she finds it difficult to keep up with the constant stream of trends and platforms.
For a local service business, she also recognises that follower numbers aren’t necessarily the most important metric.
Having thousands of followers around the world doesn’t necessarily help if the people who are actually going to book you are within a relatively small geographical area.
For Naomi, local relevance matters.
She primarily works across Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Norfolk and parts of Essex, allowing her to balance her business with family life.
Collaboration over competition
One of the most positive things Naomi has found since returning to the local music scene is the willingness of performers to support one another.
She describes herself as a big believer in collaboration over competition.
Rather than musicians seeing one another as rivals, she has found that performers regularly pass opportunities to each other when they aren’t available.
That sense of community is something she particularly values.
It’s also something she has experienced at RBK in Ely, where she regularly performs as a solo artist and with her duo partner Alex.
Naomi was one of the early performers at RBK’s Soulful Sundays and has become a regular fixture.
She is particularly enthusiastic about the role live music can play in bringing people into local businesses.
Music creates atmosphere.
Atmosphere brings people together.
And people staying longer, laughing, drinking and enjoying themselves can ultimately help create a more vibrant local hospitality scene.
Why Ely matters
For Naomi, Ely isn’t simply somewhere she happens to work.
It’s home.
And she believes the city has the potential to develop an even stronger live music scene.
She points to the growing number of venues and events taking place locally and believes there are plenty of talented musicians in the wider area.
From performers to venues, there is an opportunity for the local community to support one another and create more reasons for people to go out and enjoy live music.
It’s a sentiment that fits perfectly with what we love about Made in Ely.
Local talent supporting local businesses, creating experiences and helping give Ely its own personality.
And finally… the quickfire round
We couldn’t let Naomi leave without putting her through the Made in Ely quickfire round.
Favourite artist at the moment?
RAYE.
Dream duet?
Sam Ryder.
Guilty pleasure song?
9 to 5 by Dolly Parton.
Most requested wedding song at the moment?
Olivia Dean is currently dominating, with Man I Need and So Easy to Fall in Love among the popular requests.
Dream venue?
Eastern Grange in Woodbridge — where Naomi herself got married.
Favourite place in Ely?
Jubilee Gardens by the river, particularly taking her young daughter to the park, feeding the ducks and grabbing a coffee afterwards.
Find Naomi Collins
If you’re looking for live music for a wedding, party, corporate event or another occasion, you can find Naomi online at Naomi Collins Vocalist.
You can follow her on Instagram at @NaomiCollins_Vocalist or get in touch through her website:
And if you want to catch Naomi performing live, keep an eye out for her regular appearances at RBK in Ely.
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