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An English-Moroccan singer-songwriter who performed at the coronation concert for King Charles III suffers from a condition which causes progressive hearing loss.
Zak Abel performed Don’t You Forget About Me in a duet with classical-soul composer Alexis Ffrench at the musical spectacular in Windsor on Sunday night.
Lionel Richie, Katy Perry, Olly Murs, Take That, Nicole Scherzinger and Italian opera legend Andrea Bocelli were among those who performed at the show in front of an audience of 20,000.
Speaking ahead of the concert, Abel said he was “truly honoured and overwhelmed” to be invited to perform at the celebrations for the king after singer Freya Ridings was forced to pull out due to illness.
Abel, 28, wrote on Twitter: “I am honoured and overwhelmed to be included in the coronation celebrations.
“To have the opportunity to be part of such a historic moment is something I will forever be humbled by and will never forget.”
The BBC said Abel has overcome significant challenges, including otosclerosis, an “overgrowth and brittleness of the stapes bone in the ear” in his singing career.
Abel told Songwriting magazine last year he was diagnosed when he was 21.
“I got my hearing tested and realised that I’d lost almost half of my hearing in my right ear, so I had a CT scan and an MRI just to check that everything was OK, and [the doctors] said, ‘You’ve got otosclerosis, not only in your right ear, but also in your left ear',” he said.
“I had this operation and I was told that I’d be able to go back to work again two weeks after the operation.
“But for me, that wasn’t the case because firstly, I had stuffing in my ear for six weeks, so I couldn’t really hear much out of that ear until the stuffing was out.
“Then once it was out, I couldn’t hear in tune for six months. The way that you hear after having the operation is completely different than before the operation.
“That was a big adjustment period, which was pretty stressful, especially when you need to sing in tune and you’re assigned to a record label where there’s pressure to get stuff recorded and released.”
He said he was also losing the hearing is in left ear but wanted to put the operation off as long as possible.
“I don’t know if I’ll be able to hear in tune if I do that,: he said. “It was such a crazy adjustment period, and I don’t want to go through that again if I don’t have to.
“So for now, I’m just choosing hearing aids in my left ear and when I’m on stage, I can boost specific frequencies on my in-ear monitors, which makes it better to listen to music and hear myself, and also to protect my ears. So I’ve found solutions and ways to manage it.”
Abel shared posts on Twitter about his performance on Sunday night, including one which suggested John Lewis would be getting in touch about this year’s Christmas advert.
It said: “I suspect John Lewis will be speed dialling the hell out Zak Abel and Alexis Ffrench at the Coronation Concert and eyeing up “Don’t you forget about me” for this year’s Christmas advert …”
“My suit tonight was actually from John Lewis,” he said.
Abel has in the past collaborated with artists including Gorgon City, Kygo and Tom Misch, but is not yet a household name.
Last week he posted a video on Twitter in which he shared with his fans that his song, Dance with You would be played on Radio One that night.
In the video, which had 800 views, he said: “I just got the news that Dance with You is going to be played on Radio One tonight, on Mollie King’s future pop show, which is awesome because I love being on radio.
“So if you want to tune in I think it’s going to be towards the end of her show. Sending you guys lots of love”.
