Gabrielle Aplin backs George Ezra for John Lewis advert

Gabrielle Aplin wants George Ezra to record the song for next year’s John Lewis Christmas advert.
The ‘Here’ singer shot to fame in 2012 when she covered Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s ‘Power of Love’ for the UK department store’s annual festive commercial and she is backing ‘Shotgun’ chart topper Ezra to rework an Elvis Presley classic for their 2019 campaign.
Speaking exclusively to BANG Showbiz, Gabrielle said: "I was going to say Tom Odell. I would have said Lily Allen – but they’ve both done it! Probably George Ezra, I actually saw him live a few weeks ago and he’s great, and he’s great live but maybe to be able to see him do an old Elvis cover that would be quite cool. I really love Sigrid at the moment as well too, she’s really cool."
Gabrielle – who attended the Mobvoi #LookUpLondon event in Shoreditch this week, which aims to get people to reduce their screen time – is very proud of her association with John Lewis and admits that ad, which featured a snowman brave the elements to get his ‘snowwife’ a Christmas gift, changed her life.
The 26-year-old musician added: "It was my own thing which was really cool. Yeah, with things like that you don’t really kind of gauge how it is gonna go. I was so happy to do the advert – I thought they were really beautiful. It was really nice to be involved in one that was bit more of an animation as opposed to a posh family sat around a table having a big turkey. It was nice for it to be a bit more fantasy – bit more magical. I just loved it!
"I really enjoyed being a part of it and I do feel it opened the door for me in lots of ways and I don’t feel like it hindered me at all either, so I was really lucky that people stuck around to see what I was going to put out next. It allowed me to tour lots of countries. But in the UK, it will always be associated with Christmas."
George previously revealed that he had an audition for this year’s John Lewis Christmas advert after meeting with producer Giles Martin – the son of late Beatles producer George Martin – and bosses.
However, Sir Elton John was ultimately selected to soundtrack the 2018 advert and he will also star in the campaign, for which he was paid a reputed £5 million.