Laura Wright knew it would be no everyday performance when she stood in front of a packed Oval four years ago and prepared to sing the national anthem.

The mezzo-soprano was already vastly experienced in singing at sporting events and had carved out a niche for herself as the go-to performer on the big cricketing occasion. But nothing prepared Wright for the honour of becoming the first soloist to sing God Save the King at a public event in 70 years, two days after the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

“It was such an emotional day,” Wright tells The Athletic. “Even though only one word of the anthem was different it was such a massive change and I was very nervous. A cricket crowd felt like the best environment to be in on that day. They were so respectful and calm and I remember people almost holding their breath before I sang ‘king’ for the first time.”

There was no need for anyone to be concerned as what followed was an historic and word-perfect a cappella performance by Wright — followed by the equally impressive feat of singing the anthem of England’s opponents that day, South Africa, complete with its five languages.

“Whether you’re a fan of the royal family or not, it was a huge moment,” says Wright. “It was just it being so new and how important it was to get it right. I practised over and over beforehand repeating the word ‘king’ and I had to tell my family ‘please, no one say queen to me’ for weeks. I needed to get that word out of my head. It was banned from conversation.”

Laura Wright performed God Save the King after the death of Queen Elizabeth II (Phil Brown)

The ‘new’ anthem in honour of King Charles III has become second nature now to Wright, who is as familiar a face at the start of Test matches in England as the players.

After training at the Royal College of Music, combining her twin loves of music and sport has created a flourishing career. Wright has sung all over the world, and is regularly heard before rugby union internationals, NFL games in London and boxing bouts. It all started in her native Suffolk.

“I was asked to sing at Ipswich Football Club when I was 16,” says Wright, now 36. “They knew I’d become a signed artist by then and that I was a local girl, so they asked me to sing at Sir Bobby Robson’s memorial game.

“All of his old players and friends along with his wife were stood in a circle as I sang ‘My Way’, and I remember standing there thinking: ‘This is magical’. Just seeing all those football fans joining in. I thought it was incredible and moving and from that moment I was always searching for that feeling again.”

Laura Wright sings the national anthems ahead of England Women’s game against France in November 2020 during Covid-19 (Julian Finney/Getty Images)

The feeling came again when Wright, who played hockey, netball, tennis and javelin at county level in her teens, turned her hand to rugby.

“I was playing at Rosslyn Park a few years later and England Rugby were interested in having anthem singers,” she says. “I said: ‘Let’s build something and create a story’.

“I loved the sport, played it and understood it, and felt it would be great to build a relationship with the crowd so that the singing of the anthem became something even bigger.

“It moved from that into writing music for sporting events like the Invictus Games for Prince Harry, and then I got involved in cricket. I wanted to work in women’s sport and help it grow so I wrote a song for the England women’s team called Heroes ahead of the 2017 World Cup and my cricket went on from there.”

Wright will take that involvement to the next level at Headingley on Wednesday when she performs not only God Save the King but also Qaumi Taranah, the Pakistan anthem, in Urdu.

It follows her singing the Indian anthem, Jana Gana Mana, in Bengali ahead of each of the men’s Tests against England last year, and before the first women’s Test at Lord’s last month.

“It’s such an honour to be asked to sing any anthem, and I’d never take it for granted,” says Wright. “The Indian and Pakistan ones are real challenges and when I’m asked I really do think about it before I say yes because I have to be sure I can get it right.

“I need to know I’ve got enough time to learn it and I’ve been working on Urdu for the last six months. This is not someone saying: ‘Can you come in and sing Jerusalem’. It’s much bigger than that, but this will be a huge privilege for me and I just hope to do it justice.

Laura Wright sings the anthem ahead of an England Test match (Phil Brown)

“Singing the Indian anthem for the first time was probably the most nervous I’ve ever been. When you study classical music you’re given a basic understanding of Italian and German, but when you do anthems you come across so many different languages.

“I spent so long listening to the Indian anthem and time with two or three people speaking it so I could listen to the pronunciation, the phrasing and understand what the words meant. That’s part of this career that people don’t see.”

Working in sporting stadiums rather than opera houses can provide its challenges. “I’ve had some difficult situations,” she admits. “There was one occasion at Twickenham when my microphone just didn’t work. It was totally out of my control but the crowd started singing along, almost for me, until I got a replacement mic and there was then this big cheer. It was fine in the end, but it was a quite stressful moment.

“Then there was the time I was singing the anthem at Wembley Stadium before a Tyson Fury fight and that was a cappella. It was on St George’s Day and there were lots of England flags and everyone was so loud singing the anthem I could barely hear myself.

“I had to almost close my eyes and hope I was in tune and on time and doing the right thing at the right moment. The sporting environment can be quite tense at times in the nicest possible way.”

Laura Wright sings the national anthem prior to Miami Dolphins’ game against the New York Jets at Wembley Stadium in October 2015 (Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)

Wright has become used to mixing with royalty — “I met the late Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh and they were lovely, kind, generous people” — and her sporting heroes, but she remains starstruck whenever she meets one team and one player in particular.

“For me the 2003 England rugby team stand out,” she says. “I met a lot of them during that time after they’d won the World Cup and I was singing at Twickenham.

“When I met Jonny Wilkinson I was like Martine McCutcheon in Love Actually. I went to speak and no real words came out. I thought I would say something really cool and nothing came out.

“You put your heroes on a pedestal and you always imagine you’d have this amazing conversation with them, and then the moment is over in a flash.”

Laura Wright tries her hand at batting (Phil Brown)

There now remains just one sporting event in particular where Wright would like to perform. “I think they should have a performance at Wimbledon again because it’s been a long time since Sir Cliff Richard sang there,” she adds with a smile.

“They don’t often have music and it’s such an iconic place. It would be very exciting to see whether I could ever do something there.”