I Tried Falling Asleep To Cynthia Erivo’s Voice & Was Out In Minutes

Cynthia Erivo is known for her powerful pipes. She’s been recognized for her work on Broadway in The Color Purple and on the big screen for her Oscar-nominated song “Stand Up.” Right now, the spotlight is shining on her role as Elphaba in Wicked, where she continues to belt out ballads like the already-viral rendition of “Defying Gravity.”

If you’ve heard Erivo in her recent press interviews with Ariana Grande, you know she also has an extremely comforting speaking voice. It’s really no wonder the British-born actor narrates a popular (ha!) Sleep Story on the Calm app called “Behind The Velvet Curtain.” The audio lasts just 36 minutes, but I didn’t even make it halfway before I drifted off to sleep.

This soothing story is set somewhere Erivo knows very well: backstage in a theater before a show. “It’s a place bursting with creativity and imagination, history and tradition, energy and excitement,” she says in the app. “But it’s also a place of careful concentration and hard work [...] That’s why so many performers rely on rituals to help them focus and stay calm.” Here’s what it was like to peek backstage — and fall asleep to Erivo’s dreamy voice.

What To Know About Sleep Stories

Alongside soothing sounds, meditations, and relaxing music, the Calm app also has a section called Sleep Stories, which is a tab that includes what can essentially be considered bedtime stories for adults. There are over 300 options and some feature celeb narrators, like Idris Elba, Jennifer Garner, and Harry Styles.

The goal? To help you fall asleep without scrolling on your phone or catching Zs with a flickering TV nearby. The stories also include soothing ambient background sounds, like rain or wind, to fully paint the picture of the subject matter and drown out racing thoughts and other distractions before bed.

Erivo’s Sleep Story Is Very Popular

Erivo’s narration — which is currently trending on Calm — follows an actor getting ready to step on stage one rainy night in London. Once I got comfy in bed and hit play, a relaxing stormy soundtrack began as Erivo asked me to follow the sound of her voice, almost as if she was casting a spell.

Rain is always a good go-to when it comes to falling asleep, but I immediately appreciated the beautiful details in this story, too, which helped me paint a mental picture, like a movie in my head. “Tall, iron lamps cast pools of amber on the cobblestone sidewalk. A flower seller walks by in her worn shoes, offering petals for sale [...] And a single figure stands motionless gazing up at the luminous marquee. An actor. She’s wrapped in a coat beneath the cover of a large, green umbrella.”

Like a meditation or visualization, Erivo took me along as the actor went inside the theater and headed backstage. The story hadn’t even made it to the dressing room, though, before my eyes started to get tired, especially since Erivo’s voice detailed the “thick and heavy” pre-show energy that can be felt before the auditorium fills with ticket holders. “Each folded seat will soon cradle a mind to be awed and a heart to be opened” — a feeling any theater fan knows well.

From there, I relaxed even more as Erivo spoke of set designs, prop shops, and the lucky ritual the actor always does before going on stage: running her fingers down the piano. While I quickly crossed over to dreamland, and therefore can’t tell you the end of the story, it does make perfect sense to me that Erivo’s silky, soprano singing voice would translate so well to this type of storytelling — and why it could successfully lull anyone to sleep.