It's been less than 10 years since Nicky Spence started again.
It's been less than 10 years since Nicky Spence started again.
BACK ON TRACK: Nicky Spence is now an in-demand tenor after ditching a recording contract and returning to full-time training -- his best decision, he says.
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Tenor Nicky Spence ditched a record contract for a return to opera, says Kate Molleson
At the age of 21 the Scottish tenor was, in his own words, under-trained, overweight and fast on the way to becoming a commercial sell-out.
"I had seriously lost my way," he says of the year he spent recording pops classics and Scots songs for Universal and touring with the likes of Katherine Jenkins and Shirley Bassey. "I had a cliché of a manager who told me he was 'gonna make me a star'. But none of it was real. I could see my own shelf life." Eight years later, Spence is one of the most respected operatic tenors of his generation – the young talent of choice at opera houses in London, New York and indeed Glasgow. What's more, he's happy.
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