Ahead of her new Channel 4 show, Your Song, This Morning star Alison Hammond has named the one song that means the most to her – and explains the emotional story behind it
In her unabashedly sentimental new TV show, Your Song, Alison Hammond chats to members of the public about a song that means something special to them. Almost everyone has one, and Alison herself is no exception.
She told the Radio Times that the song that means most to her is Shallow by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper. She explains that the powerful ballad from the 2018 movie A Star Is Born reminds her of her mother Maria, who sadly passed away in 2020.
“She was obsessed with that song,” Alison revealed. “Since she passed, the tears come as soon as I hear it. She loved Bake Off and For the Love of Dogs; she’d have loved Your Song. My whole career is centred around my mum, because she got me into showbiz.”
But, Alison admits, her emotions are close to the surface in almost every episode of Your Song: “Your Song shows my softer side because I cry most episodes. When you hear someone talking about how much a song means to them because they were bullied, or they’ve been ill, it’s moving.”
She says the show demonstrates the power of music: “It can literally change your mood – put a smile on your face, make you sad, make you reminisce, so I’m really excited about this new show which is about real people telling us their stories, through song.”
Your Song clearly means a great deal to Alison. Enough, in fact, that she’s turned down one of the most coveted jobs in show business because of her hectic schedule.
Alison has revealed that she was approached by the Strictly Come Dancing team as a potential replacement for Tess Daly or Claudia Winkleman after the duo quit the series last year. However, she says she’s just too busy.
“I’m so busy,” she said, “I’m not sure it’s going to happen. It’s unrealistic.”
She added: “I’m so happy they considered me but, like Traitors, I can’t do it because everything clashes. I would have loved to have done it —anybody that gets it, they’re going to land the perfect job. But I’m so happy with everything I’ve got. What would I drop, to do Strictly?”
Alison has already scored some of the top jobs in telly. Initially coming to public attention on Big Brother in 2002, she’s been a virtual fixture on screens since 2020, when she and Dermot O’Leary replaced Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford on This Morning’s Friday slot, triggering a reported 44% increase in viewership.
Not content with her This Morning job, Alison also replaced Matt Lucas on Bake Off in 2023 and Paul O’Grady on For the Love of Dogs in 2024. Last year she was handed her own BBC One interview series, Alison Hammond’s Big Weekend.
But her near-constant presence on our TV screens inevitably brings some criticism too, with some viewers saying they find her larger-than-life personality rather grating. Alison, who earns an estimated £600,000 a year from ITV, tells the Telegraph that she’s not bothered by the critics.
“It’s part and parcel of the role; this is the reality of the industry,” she says. “For the first 18 years of my career no one was talking about me; the press wasn’t interested. So now they’re talking about me; it means I’m doing well. All bad press is good press, I suppose.”
Your Song begins on Sunday night at 9pm on Channel 4.
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