Creativity Quote by Lesley Garrett

Admiration, here, doubles as a quiet credential check. When Lesley Garrett names Julie Andrews as her greatest inspiration, she is not just praising a beloved star; she is staking a claim in a particular lineage of British vocal culture where “popular” and “serious” aren’t enemies, just different rooms in the same house.

The tell is the second clause: “who is a classically trained soprano herself.” Garrett could have stopped at the first sentence and still conveyed fandom. Instead she reaches for the technical tag, the insider verification that Andrews is not merely a screen icon but a musician with bona fides. That’s strategic. Andrews is widely recognized for film and stage charisma, but classical training signals discipline, breath, placement, the unglamorous labor behind the gleam. Garrett, long associated with opera and crossover repertoire, is effectively saying: my role model isn’t just famous; she’s legitimate in the way my world counts.

It also hints at the cultural squeeze on female vocalists: the expectation to be effortlessly “natural,” to make hard work look like charm. Andrews’ public image is poise and precision, and Garrett is drawn to that template - artistry that reads as classy rather than showy, accessible without being unserious.

Context matters: a British singer coming of age under the shadow of a national treasure who made technical excellence feel mainstream. By invoking Andrews, Garrett aligns herself with a tradition that refuses the snobbery of genre borders, while still insisting that craft is the point.