From city centre busker to supporting Sam Smith

When she was a teenager, musician Josie Oliver was performing in pubs and could regularly be seen busking in Stoke-on-Trent city centre.

Now, the 24-year-old singer-songwriter is preparing to support Sam Smith when they play at the London Coliseum on 16 September.

Oliver, from Stone, Staffordshire, was one of 10 up-and-coming artists who won the chance to open for Smith at their upcoming residency shows in Manchester and London.

She said she first heard of the competition, run by Smith and BBC Introducing, when her mother saw it and told her she would be "perfect for this".

"I just thought it was never going to happen but I did it anyway," Oliver told BBC Radio Stoke.

"Then I kind of forgot about it until I got the email through and I had to check it was real so many times because I was like 'surely not'."

She said she was "buzzing" for the opportunity, adding that it meant a lot, as an unsigned artist, to be given this kind of platform.

"It's such an incredible opportunity. I'm so excited."

Oliver has also been supported by BBC Introducing since first uploading her music in 2022.

Since then her tracks have been played more than 50 times and she has performed multiple sessions for BBC Introducing, including at The Complex in Burton and The Lexington in London.

Oliver said she had loved music for as long as she could remember, citing Genesis, Pink Floyd, James Blunt and Birdy among the artists she listened to while she was growing up.

She sang in her school choir, performed in pubs from when she was 14 years old and regularly busked in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, when she was a teenager.

She was also one of 10 third year students at the Liverpool Institute For Performing Arts selected to perform in front of Sir Paul McCartney.

Remembering the occasion, Oliver said it was "such a blur" and recalled how he had reassured her by telling her not to be nervous because they were "just sharing two songs".

For the competition to be one of the opening acts for Smith, she performed two new songs, including her single Killing Flies.

Oliver said the nerves were starting to kick in, but she was very much focusing on "the exciting part" at the moment.

"It's definitely the biggest thing I've done", she added. "Honestly [I'm] just rehearsing and I just have to trust that I know what I'm doing."

She said she had not spoken to Smith yet, but had been listening to their music since she was 12 years old.

"I have so many memories of singing their songs to karaoke so I would love to get a chance to speak to them."

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