Calum Scott’s last visit to the UAE was more of a victory lap.
Riding high on the success of hit single You Are the Reason, the English singer arrived in Dubai to headline 2017's RedFestDXB music festival.
In a touching gesture, Scott brought his mum out on stage mid-set, in front of 15,000 fans, to show how “her boy made it".
If she could hardly believe the crowd, you can only imagine how her son was feeling.
Speaking to The National ahead of his Dubai Opera concert on Wednesday, Scott, 32, recalls how only two years prior to that momentous gig, he was holed up in an office cubicle in the British port city of Hull.
“It was grim, man,” he says. “I was working in human resources for a small government office and all I was doing was dealing with people's complaints every day.
"I am so grateful for what happened since. I just view myself as a normal person who just happened to come with some songs that did incredible things for me."
Instant success resulted in 'anxiety'
While the cliched term “overnight success” is often bandied about when it comes to artists, Scott was the real deal.
As the frontman of a four-piece Maroon 5 cover band called Maroon 4 – "not the most creative name, I admit," – Scott auditioned for the 2015 season of reality show Britain's Got Talent for a bit of fun.
While a seasoned singer, Scott didn't expect his rendition of Dancing On My Own by Swedish electro-pop star Robyn would induce notoriously grumpy judge Simon Cowell to press the Golden Buzzer, thereby catapulting him to the live rounds of the competition.
That swift rise to the top was also echoed when the audition eventually aired.
"The whole experience was the steepest incline when it comes to overnight change," he says.
"I remember posting on my Facebook page, which only had a couple of hundred likes, to check out my audition on Britain's Got Talent tonight and I only got three likes and one of them was my mum. After the show, I got thousands of likes and my phone ran out of battery twice due to all the messages."
With his Twitter followers also jumping from 400 to 25,000 overnight, how did Scott react to such sudden acclaim?
"It was really scary and that gave me a lot of anxiety," he says. "It is, of course, an incredible and magical moment, but to be an unknown lad from a small corner of the UK to having the country at your doorstep, so to speak, is a lot to take in.”
Finding his voice
Another experience Scott needed to adjust to was the recording studio. With his profile high after finishing a respectable sixth place out of 12 in the final live round of Britain's Got Talent, Scott began working on his debut album, Only Human.
"It took a while to find my voice because I was Adam Levine for the best part of a year and I am a good impressionist with accents and voices," he says. "It was tough to find out where my own voice can take me."
To do that, Scott spent time studying and understanding his own musical influences.
"A lot of it came from my mum's taste, which is people like Tina Turner, Whitney Houston, Prince and George Michael. I realised it was the big ballads my heart lent itself to."
Those type of numbers are all over Only Human, which features a reworked version of his calling card, Dancing On My Own, and the aforementioned You Are the Reason.
Scott credits the success of the latter, a song he co-wrote, with quelling his career doubts.
"Anxiety is something I was regularly dealing with but, honestly, with You Are the Reason doing well, it really stopped me worrying about being a one-hit wonder," he says.
"That song could have been a make or break moment and the positive response gave me that extra confidence I needed.”
The audience knows best
Scott’s initial self-doubt is something many former contestants of television talent shows face.
While programmes such as Britain's Got Talent are a great way to kickstart a career, the acknowledgment that comes with experience is strong.
"People do sometimes turn their nose up at talent shows and view it as an illegitimate way to be discovered," Scott says.
"The way to get rid of that stigma is to be authentic and genuine. The thing about audiences that I love is that they can smell if you are fake. They know when something sounds real or put together by somebody else.”
With an enthusiastic crowd waiting for Scott in Dubai, he will take to the stage knowing exactly where he stands.
Calum Scott will perform at Dubai Opera on Wednesday, January 20. Tickets from Dh195 at dubaiopera.com
