“It makes me calmer”: Cynthia Erivo reveals her unusual ‘yacht rock’ ritual for Dracula

This morning, the powerhouse actor and musician Cynthia Erivo joined Capital XTRA Breakfast with Robert Bruce and Shayna Marie, where she pulled back the curtain on the intense and surprisingly "easy-listening" preparation behind her acclaimed one-woman show, Dracula.

During the interview, Erivo detailed a marathon-like daily schedule—quite literally. “I’m training for the London Marathon,” she revealed. “And during my runs in the morning, I run a lot of the sections of the show.” Once at the theatre around 4:00pm for a 7:30pm curtain, the preparation shifts into a meticulous mental and vocal routine. “I run small sections of the show just to get my mind agile enough,” she explained.

However, it was her specific method for battling pre-show jitters that caught the presenters by surprise. “I do a mini meditation, because I get quite nervous before I go on, and it helps me sort of like calm my nerves,” Erivo said. “And this is going to sound very strange, but I listen to yacht rock.”

As Robert and Shayna questioned the genre, Erivo clarified: “It's like rock music for yachts, but it's not really for yachts… It's kind of like easy-listening rock music.” She specifically pointed toward the smooth 70s and 80s sounds of artists like Christopher Cross and Michael McDonald. “There's a song called ‘Sailing,’” she noted, explaining that the track is a staple of her pre-show meditation.

The scientific results of the playlist are apparently undeniable for the star. “I’ve tested it, it helps my heart rate drop, so it actually makes me calmer before I go,” Erivo revealed. It seems the high-stakes drama of Dracula requires a little "Sailing" to keep the performer grounded before she takes the stage.

Tune into Capital XTRA Breakfast with Robert Bruce & Shayna Marie weekdays from 6:30am-10:00am, also available on the Global Player app.