Drew Barrymore plays Billie Offer, a struggling singer looking for a new start in 'Lucky You'

Drew Barrymore was left so scarred by a singing nightmare on the set of Woody Allen's 1996 film Everyone Says I Love You she insisted on taking singing lessons for five months before crooning in her new film Lucky You.

Even then, Barrymore admits she was a bag of nerves on the day she had to perform her first song - and she burst into tears in front of director Curtis Hanson.

The actress, who plays a Las Vegas performer in the film, insists her singing fears date back to Allen's musical, in which she was the only star whose voice had to be dubbed.

She says, "They said, 'You're so horrible, you can't sing,' and I just thought, 'OK, you don't wanna get fired...' That haunted me for the next 10 years because I sort of said OK and I didn't face the fear.

"With practice and will, I could have done it and it always niggled at me that I didn't try hard enough."

And she took her fears to the set on the day she had to sing in Lucky You for the first time: "I burst into tears because I was so convinced it was going to be the Woody Allen all over again.

"He (Hanson) just listened to me and said, 'You'll get there...' and I did it."

Barrymore also showed off her vocal skills in 2007 romantic comedy Music + Lyrics.