Katherine Jenkins

November 2014

WHILE the eyes of the world were focusing on the George Clooney/Amal Alamuddin wedding in Venice, Katherine Jenkins was also tying the knot, to New Yorker Andrew Levitas at Hampton Court Palace.
It was a private affair, with just 200 guests, and there were no photo sales to glossy magazines.
“It’s amazing, I’m incredibly happy, I love being a wife... it’s the best thing in the world,” says the 34-year-old mezzo soprano.
“It’s a very happy time.”
Give it 15 years and he’ll be driving you up the wall.
“Oh please,” she laughs. “I don’t want to hear that.”
She’s in the back of a car heading from York to... she’s not sure. It’s a promotional tour of the UK to push a new album, Home Sweet Home and the corresponding theatre tour that lands at the Royal Concert Hall on Valentine’s Day.

That date generated a few fan suggestions on Twitter that she should run a competition to win a romantic meal with her.
“I’m not sure what Andrew would say about that”, she laughs, of her new husband, who is also in the entertainment industry, as a film director, producer and actor.
She has said that he likes her music.
“Well, he’s got to, hasn’t he? He’d be in trouble if he didn’t.”
The couple have made their home in London, where Jenkins moved from Wales at the age of 18 to study at the Royal College of Music.
Will they move to New York in the future?
“No,” she says firmly.
“We’re staying in the UK. I feel really proud of where I come from, my sister’s just had a baby and all my family are here. It’s going to be nice to have family in New York to go and visit but I’m staying in the UK.”
Home Sweet Home, indeed - although the album is more about her return to her original record label, Decca, where her career started ten years ago.

“In some way it’s unbelievable that I’ve been lucky enough to make ten albums. Reaching that landmark made me look back. Along the way I tried to bring different genres of music into the classical sphere but I think the music I enjoyed the most, and suited me most, was the sort I was making on my first few albums.
“I’ve still got a desire to make classical music accessible and Decca really understand classical crossover.”
She adds: “I’ve gone full circle in a way. Musically I’ve come home.”
Songs on the new album, released on November 17, include World In Union, We Are The Champions, Barcelona (with Alfie Boe), Silent Night and How Great Thou Art.
“The songs were chosen for having a classical footing but they had to be anthemic and inspirational... will they make the hair on the back of your neck stand on end?” says Jenkins, who was teaching singing when she signed to Decca.
“They are songs that everybody will know. Even if you don’t know the composer you’ll know the tune.”

In terms of the songs she’ll sing on the tour, she took to Twitter to ask her fans for requests.
“Somebody said an AC/DC song. I was meaning the songs from my ten albums but that did make me laugh.”

When Jenkins started out, there were no other female classical crossover singers but many have since followed, including Nottinghamshire’s Lucy Kay, who came second on Britain’s Got Talent and Victoria Gray, who had a reasonable level of success with the group Amore.
What advice does she have for others who want to follow in her footsteps?
“Get as much experience as you can, join choirs, get involved in amateur productions of shows, enter competitions... because you have to be prepared for the opportunity when it comes.
“And work hard. I’m not scared of hard work and being tired and that kind of stuff. That’s what you’ve got to put into it.”
Jenkins, who music tastes range from Maria Callas and Judy Garland, to Beyonce, Rihanna, Sam Smith and Adele, will be spending her first Christmas as a married woman back in Wales.
“Family is very important to me and we’re very traditional at Christmas so I’ll be at home with mam. It will be my first as a wife but also my first as an aunty; my sister had a baby five months ago. I’m excited about that.”
Which begs the question...?
“Oh gosh! It’s something I really want, I’ve always said that but it’ll be when I can take a little bit of a break.”
Since her breakthrough ten years ago, Jenkins has sold eight million albums, won numerous awards, performed all over the world, been awarded an OBE and become a wife. How has she changed as a person in that time?
“Like anybody, I’m a bit more confident, I feel I’ve learned my job a lot more and I’m definitely more settled within myself.
“Yes, I live a very different lifestyle but I don’t think I’ve changed that much as a person.”

Tickets to see Katherine Jenkins at the Royal Concert Hall on Saturday, February 14 are £29.50- £55 from the box office, call 0115 989 5555 or go to trch.co.uk. Meet and greet packages are also available priced at £85 and £135.

Victoria Gray: Amore

May 2012

I DIDN’T even like opera until I was 15 when my mum took me too see a production of The Marriage of Figaro at Glyndebourne. My cousin was playing the trumpet in the orchestra and he got us tickets for the dress rehearsal.

Neither of us thought we’d enjoy it. We saw it as simply a good day out. I thought that if it was boring we could leave at the interval and go to the pub.

But I just fell in love with it. Even though I knew nothing about it.

Even now I can go to see an opera and not have a clue what’s going on without reading the synopsis.

But that experience really affirmed what I wanted to work towards.

I’d already been singing with (Mansfield girls’ choir) Cantamus when I was at the Minster School. We travelled to Germany, Italy and China, where were crowned Olympic Champions in 2007.

Because of Cantamus I didn’t see a lot of concerts but I loved pop music. At school we put on a show as the Spice Girls and I was Posh Spice. Because I was Victoria and I had a bob. Although secretly I wanted to be Baby Spice.

My poor parents... when my friends came round we’d create a new routine and perform it for them. I think we did The Shoop Shoop Song with teddy bears at one point. I did see Will Young in Nottingham because my mum won a competition on Trent FM by singing down the phone.

I went to the Royal College of Music in London when I was 18. I’m still finishing my masters there. I’ve a couple of exams left to do.

It’s where I met the other members of Amore. We’ve known each other for a long time but we only got together as Amore because we heard that Warner Music were looking to sign a new opera group.

We signed a six-album deal with them we’ll be releasing the first at the end of May.

We had a showcase in London recently in front of the media and concert bookers to show what we could do. I don’t think any of us have ever been that nervous.

We’ve performed in operas together and individually all over the world but we’ve only been together as Amore for a few months.

It was all a bit surreal. The hotel was so posh; there was a TV in the bathroom, which made us a little hyper.

From that showcase we went on to appear on BBC Breakfast and Sky News. Eamonn Holmes was lovely. Even though I did have to do my Katherine Jenkins impression for him, which was quite embarrassing.

We’re appearing on This Morning on May 28, which is the day our album is released.

From this coming Monday until the Jubilee on June 3 we’ll be performing all over the country as part of an event called Serenading Britain. On our website people can contact us and request that we perform at a special event or a birthday or anniversary. We’ll come and serenade you.

My boyfriend is the captain of Kimberley Cricket Club and we’ll hopefully be performing at a night they have there soon. That would be our first performance in Nottinghamshire.

After that we’ve a number of festival dates booked over the summer, including a few dates with Russell Watson.

There’s likely to be another album before Christmas and hopefully we’ll do a tour of the UK early next year.

We aim to perform a full opera next summer. Il Divo and Katherine Jenkins have done amazing things for classical music and brought opera to the masses but we’re hoping to take that a step further by really showing what goes into presenting an opera.

I live in London but I’m back and forth all the time. I was out in Nottingham last weekend. I was in Revolution. It’s probably not where you’d normally find opera singers.

Amore’s debut album, Stand Together, is released May 28, with their debut single, The Brindisi, out on May 21. For a video of that go to www.weareamore.com. You call follow Victoria on Twitter: @Vic_GrayMezzo.

Victoria Gray

February 2010

She is inbetween movement classes.
Eh?
“Thinking of different centrepoints for different emotions.”
Eh?
“When you have to take on a character from an opera, say, you’re being snooty you think of your chest and sticking it out and being pompous.”
Nope, don’t get that.
The classes, whatever they’re for, are part of an eight year course at the Royal College of Music in London which Bilsthorpe opera trainee Victoria Gray is half-way through.
It’s the stage at which Katherine Jenkins quit to become a popera star.
Victoria, 22, wouldn’t mind the fame and riches but her focus is on finishing the course and becoming a professional opera singer.
But she needs to raise £10,000 per year to carry on with the post-graduate degree then opera school.
“The tuition you get here is the best but it’s so expensive,” she says.
The figure covers the tuition fees. She pays the rent with a part-time job as a singing waitress.
A what?
“It’s a restaurant in Lancaster Gate called Bel Canto. People will be eating their dinner, the piano will start up and one of us will sing opera while walking around the tables. It’s such a funny concept but it really works.
“And it’s great practice. You’re testing out new pieces and new arias all the time.”
The former Minster School pupil was a member of Cantamus, the all girl choir based in Mansfield, travelling to Germany, Italy and China, where, in 2007, they were crowned World Choir Olympic Champions.
“I was with the choir for ten years and it’s where I got my passion for it and the necessary discipline,” she says.
Victoria was also the first singer to win The Nottingham Young Musician Competition, in 2005.
Dad, a former boxer, is a court usher while mum works for the NHS. Her musical gift comes more from her grandparents.
“Both my parents are tone deaf,” she laughs.
“The voice comes from my grandma. She did music at university. My grandad was one of the first members of the Salvation Army band and he played trombone with the Edwinstowe Colliery Band.”
As a petite blonde Victoria knows she’s far from the traditional bulky opera singer.
“The first opera I saw, I thought it would be somebody fat with horns on their head, screaming.”
I’ve had those nightmares.
“But it was so much more than that. They were so physical and their acting conveyed every emotion you could possible imagine. And even though it was in Italian you’d be laughing with them, then crying.”
Aren’t most opera singers great hefers?
“No, not at all. These days you’re turned away if you’re overweight because you have to be so physically fit to sustain a role. I once had to leap on to a tenor’s back while singing.”
As part of a sponsorship deal with Mansfield’s Direct Recording Systems, Victoria will soon record a demo and video to help sell her to prospective sponsors.
So, following Katherine Jenkins isn’t out of the question?
“I really respect what she’s done in bringing opera to the masses but she’ll never have a career in an opera house. And that’s what I really want. To travel the world singing opera.”
You could do both.
“I’d love to eventually.”
So if Simon Cowell offered you an album deal singing Westlife opera style...?
“I would. It’d be a great way of earning the money to continue my studies.”
Should she make it as a professional singer Victoria will be following in the footsteps of another ex-Minster School pupil: Alvin Stardust
“Who?”
Ask your dad.
Maybe you should change your name to Victoria Starburst.
“I like that. I’m going to use that.”
You read it here first...

Victoria Gray, with Anthony Gregory, the Cantamus Ensemble and Michael Neaum, Queen Elizabeth School, Mansfield, Saturday February 20, 7.30 pm.
Tickets: £10, 01623 627764

Katherine Jenkins

October 2009

She has been everywhere of late promoting her latest album Believe but nowhere more so than on Twitter. Katherine Jenkins, the girl-next-door with the multi-million pound voice, loves to Tweet.
Her followers get daily updates as to her whereabouts, including photos. There she is getting into a helicopter. At the Pride of Britain Awards. Dressed in a rubber outfit with hundreds of Swarovski crystals glued to her skin for a performance at G-A-Y... Even her attempt at making a lemon drizzle cake.
Many send her messages and sometimes she'll respond. But not to me.
A few weeks ago Katherine Tweeted to all her followers asking what they were up to. I, as @thesimonwilson, replied: "I'm sat in my underpants, eating Pringles, waiting for the missus to come home from the bingo."
"I read that!" she laughs.
You remember it?
"I do!"
And immediately notified the authorities?
"Nooo. No that's fine," she says, inadvertently giving me the green light for more inappropriate Tweets.
The Welsh beauty has more than 7,000 followers but only follows around 90 people on Twitter. There are a few Welsh celebrities and sports folk but The Osbournes – Ozzy, Sharon and Kelly – is a surprise.
"I've met Sharon many times and had lunch with her and she's just lovely."
Does she understand Andrea Bocelli's Tweets (they're in Italian)?
"I've only recently started following him and I'm not convinced it is him. I'll ask him when I see him."
She also follows Piers Morgan. Was she worried about the TV interview – broadcast last weekend – for fear of him being too probing?
"Well, yeah, because his style of interview is almost like an interrogation, so it was quite frightening. But I enjoyed it once I got in to it."
There was nothing in the programme about her relationship with former Blue Peter presenter Gethin Jones. Did he try and get something out of you about that?
"Of course," she giggles. "I explained why I didn't want to talk about it and I think he accepted it."
Another person she's following is TV psychic Sally Morgan. Does she believe she can talk to the dead?
"I believe that she's got a gift."
Has she "done" you?
"She has done me. And it was absolutely fascinating. Lots of things she said would happen did happen."
Was she a believer before the reading?
"When you've lost a close family member, I think you always want to believe they can contact you. So I went to see if there was any contact with my dad." He died when she 15.
"Then she talked about other stuff which blew my mind."
Always keen to put my subjects at ease, I blurt, "I saw you yesterday!", referring to her appearance on BBC current affairs yawner The Andrew Marr Show. Was it intimidating?
"I've been on it a few times."
(Note to researcher – must do better.)
(Note to self – hire a researcher.)
"I am interested in politics, it's just not something I choose to talk about because I think it's something to keep to myself."
David Cameron was on the show and there was a photo in the nationals of Katherine looking as if he'd said something outrageous. So what did he say?
"(Laughs) I think he did say something shocking. I can't remember."
I bet you can remember really and it was a mucky joke. There's another chuckle but nothing more.
An interview with Katherine Jenkins from her website:
The 29-year-old has been using Twitter to plug her new album, another collection of her take on rock and pop songs, film themes and classical pieces. I call it popera.
"I call it popular, because it's not pop music but it's easy listening, accessible music. It's the album I always wanted to make, in that it's still classical. It's what people expect from my singing but it's my most commercial album."
Which is odd considering you want to move away from that and in to "proper" opera.
"No, I don't want to move away from it completely. When I'm 30 I'd like to start doing opera but also my CDs and live concert work."
Katherine reveals her top three favourite songs, both new and old:
Songs on Believe include Til There Was You (The Beatles), Who Wants To Live Forever? (Queen) and No Woman No Cry (Bob Marley). The toughest challenge was Bring Me To Life by Evanescence.
"It's a rock song and to try to adapt it and make it sound believable was quite an undertaking."
Was she a pop fan as a teenager?
"Yes. I loved people like Madonna and Take That and, I'm embarrassed to say, New Kids On The Block. And I loved Kylie and Jason."
Did you cry when they got married?
"Yes."
And you were 20.
"Yeah (laughs)."
She promises to "look me up" on Twitter and encourages me to "keep Twittering."
I promise I wasn't sat in my underpants or eating Pringles.
"I'm sure you weren't."
Katherine Jenkins is still not following me on Twitter.

Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/kjofficial.