Oxford comedian Amy Webber has won Audience Favourite at the national Musical Comedy Awards.
The former Bartholomew School and Cherwell School pupil, who appeared on Radio 4’s Front Row in April, studied opera at the Royal Northern College of Music.
After a spell teaching, she was embarking on a Masters in Popular Music when she started writing comedy songs and performing them to friends.
She said: “I was met by roaring laughter so I got the courage to sign up for a comedy competition night called Beat the Frog. To my surprise my songs went down just as well with strangers and I won that night.”
On Front Row, she wrote and performed a song in a day.
She said: “They found my name on the Musical Comedy Awards website and as part of their feature about artists like Paul Simon selling their back catalogue for millions of pounds, they commissioned me (that morning!) to come down to London and write and sing a song in the style of 50 Ways to Lose Your Lover but make it 50 Ways to Monetize Your Catalogue.
“I literally had two hours to write the song and lyrics before getting a train down from Manchester and going live. ”
Next week she will sing the lead role of Mabel in Pirates of Penzance with Oxford-based company Opera Anywhere in the new Chipping Norton Theatre open air venue, Heath Farm.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here