Ordinary people: What it’s really like to be a wedding singer

Private schoolboys dropping their pants, guests taking over the bongos ... a band sees a lot from the stage.

Lai Utovou, who is an architect and wedding singer. Picture: Jamie Hanson

LAI UTOVOU

CORPORATE SINGER, ENTERTAINER, ARCHITECT

34, FORTITUDE VALLEY

I was born in Suva, Fiji. I’m one of six children and grew up singing in churches.

Most Fijians have a bit of a conservative, reserved demeanour, but somewhere along the line I picked up this attitude of throwing myself into the deep end of situations and seeing if I sink or swim. I just figure you have to give things a go.

That’s how I came to win Fiji’s version of Idol when I was 18.

After Guy Sebastian won Australian Idol (in 2003), it inspired some producers in Fiji to run a similar thing the next year. They called it Join the Band Fiji and the format was choosing four winners to form a music group.

It was low budget but it pulled a lot of talent out of the woodwork so I was very surprised when I was chosen as one of the winners.

A few bits and pieces came out of it but the gigs weren’t financially viable so I gave music away. My dream was to be an architect so I came to Brisbane on a study visa when I was 21 and studied a Bachelor of Architecture at the University of Queensland.

That four years was the most harrowing time of my life because I was pretty homesick and I was also having to juggle study with working to support myself.

I got a job in a car detailing place in the basement of Toowong Village shopping centre, which was hard yakka.

When I was in my third year of the degree I walked into the city one day because I needed a break from uni and wanted to listen to some live music.

I got talking to this guy at a music venue who suggested I come along to a jam session the next week in Caxton St (in nearby inner-city Paddington).

I went, but I was so shy – I still felt like a Fijian in a big city. I was encouraged to get up on stage, so I joined in on backing vocals and the bongos, and returned each week.

A lady in the audience who had a corporate entertainment agency approached me after one of the sessions and invited me to sing at an event she was running on the Gold Coast; the rest, as they say, is history.

I was hooked on music again and I soon worked out I could earn way more money singing gigs than I could cleaning cars.

I was fortunate to be thrust into the corporate and high-end wedding scene.

By the time I graduated uni in 2010, I was completely immersed in that world and I’ve been doing it pretty solidly ever since, around architecture.

I was employed as an architect straight out of uni and the firm was happy to be flexible around my gigs. I still work for them when they need me.

I formed my own band in 2014 – Hamilton Band. As well as performing locally, we’ve been to Hong Kong, Hayman Island, Port Douglas, Uluru, Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney and Queenstown.

There are so many bands out there so you need something that makes you stand out: for me it’s my afro and my bongos which I always play on stage.

Plus I always make sure I’m having my own party: if you exude joy on stage people want to party along with you. I’m also not a snob about songs: if a client wants me to sing Brown Eyed Girl, I’ll do it. Song selection is very important and by now we’ve got a set list that we know will connect with all audiences. Whitney Houston’s
I Want to Dance with Somebody will always get people up; Eagle Rock resonates strongly with Brisbane private schoolboys in particular.

I’m not sure what it is but when it’s played they’ll often get in a circle, drop their pants and do magic hands in the air. You’re the Voice and The Horses get people overwhelmed with emotion.

There’s always one person who goes overboard so we get people up on the stage singing into a microphone stand with no microphone, or wanting to play the bongos.

My tolerance level is quite high – I don’t get easily offended.

I met my wife, Rachel Everett-Jones, 34, when we were doing backing vocals for a mutual friend; we married in 2013 and have just had our first child, Zion, in October. Rachel was the main female vocalist in the band until Zion arrived.

Performing and travelling without Rachel has been a big adjustment for both of us, but Zion has been an amazing blessing to our lives.