Katherine Jenkins Rejoices with GenQ

April 2nd, 2008 admin Posted in News |

Less than five years ago, mezzo-soprano Katherine Jenkins was providing singing lessons for ten pounds each. Now, after signing a 1 million pound record deal, the highest ever for a classical entertainer, Jenkins has re-written the history books across Europe. GenQ Music Editor Leigh May spoke with Katherine about her new album entitled Rejoice.

Hi Katherine, how are you today?
Hi Leigh, how are you? I’m good, thank you.

How are you enjoying Australia so far?
Oh, it’s wonderful! I’ve never been here this time of the year. It’s usually much, much colder, and I even went to Bondi yesterday. It’s a bit cloudy today, but it was so hot yesterday, so yeah, I’m having a great time.

There would have been a few nice bodies on the beach yesterday too then?
Haha, yeah, we had a great time, haha!

Your new album, Rejoice, has songs on it, such as “Somewhere” from West Side Story, Shirley Bassey’s “I (Who Have Nothing)”, and “Kiss From A Rose” by Seal, though your versions give a new take on these classic tracks. How do you select a song that you want to cover?
Well, I always have to bear in mind whether the song is going to translate well into a classical arrangement, and usually I choose them firstly because I like them, they’re songs that I’ve loved and wanted to sing myself, but you have to think “how is this going to sound if I’m going to translate it, if I have the big orchestral parts written. With “Kiss From A Rose”, to me, the chords already sounded quite medieval, so I wanted to really use that, and see how we could translate it into more of a classical piece. I really enjoyed that, it’s a really great song to begin with, so that one was lots of fun.

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