Katherine Jenkins
(born 29 June 1980 in Neath, Wales [1]) is an award-winning Welsh mezzo-soprano. Her first album Premiere
made her the fastest-selling mezzo-soprano to date and she later became the first British classical artist to have two number one albums in the same year. [2] She also stands as the first female artist to win two consecutive Classical BRIT Awards.
Jenkins has released five classical number one studio albums to date selling 4,000,000 copies. Her sixth album, Sacred Arias
, was released on 20 October 2008. Her albums feature arias, popular songs, hymns and classical crossover music and she has performed in a large number of concerts around the United Kingdom and other countries, including the United States and Australia.
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KATHERINE JENKINS TICKETS
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Background
Jenkins went to Alderman Davies Church in Wales Primary School in Neath and later
Dwr-y-Felin Comprehensive School (also in her home town of Neath), Katherine Jenkins received A grades in both
GCSEs and
A Levels and participated in productions such as
Calamity Jane
and
Guys and Dolls
.
[3] Jenkins' music talents continued to progress and she achieved Grade 8 distinctions in singing and piano. She attended singing lessons with piano and singing teacher Mark Ritzmann.
Between 1990 and 1996 Jenkins was a member of the Royal School of Church Music Cathedral Singers, where she achieved the St Cecilia Award, which was, and still is, the highest RSCM award for female choristers.
Jenkins was also a member of the National Youth Choir of Wales for three years.
[4] She twice won the
BBC Radio 2 Welsh Choirgirl of the Year contest,
[5] won the BET Welsh Choirgirl of the Year
and was also awarded the Pelenna Valley Male Voice Choir Scholarship for the most promising young singer.
At the age of 17, she won a scholarship to study at the
Royal Academy of Music,
University of London.
At the Academy, she also studied Italian, German, French and Russian and graduated with honours.
She finished the course with a degree, a music teacher's diploma and then made some money as a freelance singing teacher and a model for hair and make-up.
[6] After entering a modeling competition, Jenkins was made the Face of Wales in 2000 and then decided to focus more intently on her musical career.
When
Universal Classics & Jazz heard one of Jenkins' demo tapes, she was called to an interview, and she sang "
Una voce poco fa" by
Rossini.
Universal then offered Jenkins a six-album deal just an hour later.
This meant that at the age of just 23,
[7] Jenkins had signed the then largest record deal in United Kingdom classical recording history, reportedly worth £1 million.
[8] Universal Classics' marketing director has since said, "She is an utter professional, a wonderful singer and has a team utterly committed to her."
Career
2003—2004: Première
and Second Nature
Jenkins first came to public attention when she sang at
Westminster Cathedral honouring
Pope John Paul II's silver jubilee in October 2003 and then supporting singer
Aled Jones on his tour.
At the
Rugby World Cup in 2003, she made her
Sydney Opera House debut.
In August 2004, she made her first US appearance supporting
Hayley Westenra at
Joe's Pub in New York City.
Her 2004 debut album,
Première
, lasted a total of eight weeks at the top of the classical charts,
which made her the fastest-selling soprano of all time.
A
Welsh speaker
[9], this first album contained three Welsh songs. She soon became the first British classical artist to have two number one albums in the same year with
Première
and
Second Nature
,
and she now stands as the only person to have held the number one and two classical album chart positions.
Second Nature
reached number 16 in the UK pop charts
and was later named Album of the Year at the 2005
Classical BRIT Awards.
[10] This award is chosen by listeners of
Classic FM.
Jenkins was also the first person to perform the
Home Nations anthem "
The Power of Four". She then began to appear regularly as the singer for the Welsh national anthem, "
Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau", at
Welsh international rugby union matches and sang with
Bryn Terfel at the 2005
Wales-
England Six Nations match at the
Millennium Stadium.
Jenkins is now the official mascot for the Wales rugby union team.
As well as her appearances before Rugby Union matches, in 2004, Jenkins sang at the
rugby league Challenge Cup final between
St. Helens and
Wigan.
2005—2006: Living A Dream
and Serenade
On 22 January 2005 Jenkins sang at Cardiff at the
Tsunami Relief Concert in order to raise money for the victims of the 2004
Indian Ocean earthquake.
In April and May 2005, Jenkins supported Irish
tenor Ronan Tynan on his first US tour as a solo artist. At the Berlin stage of
Live 8 in 2005, Jenkins sang the
hymn "
Amazing Grace".
[11] Her interpretation was partly a vocal solo; for the rest she was accompanied by a single softly played piano.
In May 2005, Jenkins sang at
Trafalgar Square to 15,000-strong audience to celebrate the 60th Anniversary of
VE Day,
[12] [13] and later helped to launch the Royal British Legion's
poppy appeal at
Covent Garden whilst wearing a dress made of 2,500 poppies.
[14]
Jenkins'
Italian-language version of
Dolly Parton's "
I Will Always Love You" ("L'Amore Sei Tu"), first performed live at
Nostell Priory,
West Yorkshire on 28 August 2005, was the first cut on Jenkins' third album
Living A Dream
. When the album was released, she held the positions of one, two and three in the classical music chart at the same time along with her first two albums,
becoming the only singer to do so.
[15] The album held onto the number one position for nearly a year and reached number four in the pop album charts.
Jenkins repeated the success of
Second Nature
with her
Living A Dream
album when she won the classical BRIT award for Album of the Year for a second time.
[16] She now stands as the first female artist to win two consecutive Classical BRIT Awards.
Jenkins, with the
Blue Man Group, sang "
I Feel Love" in front of
The Queen at the
Royal Variety Performance on 21 November 2005, whilst wearing a flashing, multicoloured dress.
[17] She also performed at the
Nobel Peace Prize concert in
Oslo, Norway on 11 December 2005.
[18]
Her fourth studio album entitled
Serenade
, released on 6 November, 2006, became number five in the mainstream charts and sold more than 50,000 copies in its first week. This ensured it was the biggest seller for a classical CD in Britain.
On
HMV's classical charts, the top four albums were all held by Jenkins.
[19] Also in November, she performed live before The Queen at the
Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance at the
Royal Albert Hall and joined fellow Welsh singer
James Fox in the final verse of "Anthem" from the musical
Chess
.
[20] On 23 December 2006 Jenkins appeared as a guest and performer on
ITV's
Parkinson
show, where she sang the Welsh national anthem informally during her interview and a Christmas song backed by the
Froncysyllte Male Voice Choir and a
brass band.
[21]
2007—present: Rejoice
and Sacred Arias
At the start of 2007, Jenkins made her first appearance on the British young people's
Sunday Times Rich List which ranked her as the sixty-second richest young person in Britain with an estimated wealth of £9 million.
[22] As of the end of 2006, she is estimated to have sold about 2 million records since her debut in 2004.
She made a
cameo appearance in two episodes of
Emmerdale
which saw 11.6 million viewers tune in to find out who killed popular character Tom King who was murdered on Christmas Day. She appeared in the show on 16th and 17th of May 2007, which saw her opening the village
pageant.
[23] In July, Jenkins performed live on
Saving Planet Earth
on BBC One, to raise money for the BBC Wildlife Fund
[24] and later that month a special concert starring Jenkins was held at
Margam Park in south Wales. It was entitled
Katherine In The Park
and saw Jenkins perform alongside
Paul Potts and
Juan Diego Florez.
[25] Jenkins extended a personal invitation to Potts to sing "
Nessun Dorma" at the concert.
[26] On 12 August 2007 Jenkins appeared on ITV's
Britain's Favourite View
where she nominated
Three Cliffs Bay on the
Gower peninsula to be voted as Britain's favourite view.
[27] She took cameras on a tour of the bay and commented on the great sentimental value the bay has to her: "I grew up on the edge of the Gower, but it was still a holiday place for our family. We’d go on weekend breaks to Three Cliffs Bay – six miles down the road! That’s how gorgeous it is."
[28] In September Jenkins
catwalk modeled at
Naomi Campbell's Fashion Relief event for charity in a
Julien MacDonald dress which was then bought by
Sir Philip Green for £10,000.
[29] On 21 October 2007 she sang "
Time to Say Goodbye" with
Andrea Bocelli on the
Strictly Come Dancing
results show.
thumb at
Sofia Gardens before the start of the
2009 Ashes
In November 2007, she again sang at the Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance at the
Royal Albert Hall, and won classical performer of the year at the Variety Club Showbiz Awards.
[30] Her fifth album, entitled
Rejoice
, was released on 19 November 2007. The album contains a mix of classical and pop music in which some songs have been written specially for her.
[31] Two of the songs are written by
Take That's
Gary Barlow.
[32] The album entered the pop album charts at number three,
[33] beating the
Spice Girls and
Girls Aloud.
[34] Jenkins commented "I never imagined when I was a young girl listening to them on the radio that I would outsell the Spice Girls and
Celine Dion. It’s almost too much to take in. I can’t thank my fans enough for all their support."
She has also teamed up with
Darcey Bussell, who organised to stage a song and dance production to pay tribute to the stars which have inspired them
[35] which include
Madonna and
Judy Garland.
With a £1 million budget, the show was launched in
Manchester in November and is entitled
Viva la Diva
.
[36] As part of the preparation for the show, Jenkins has learned to
tap dance, spent eight hours a week in dance studios learning choreography, and running three miles a day to get fit.
Jenkins and Bussell performed a segment of
Viva la Diva
before the Queen at the 79th
Royal Variety Performance which was televised on 9 December 2007.
[37] On 15 December Jenkins performed on
The X Factor
final with contestant
Rhydian Roberts, performing the song "
You Raise Me Up".
[38] She performed the Welsh National Anthem on 17 May 2008 at the
2008 FA Cup Final between
Cardiff City and
Portsmouth, becoming the first person to do this at an FA Cup Final.
[39]
Jenkins' autobiography,
Time to Say Hello
, was released on 28 January 2008, and was also serialised in
The Mail on Sunday
.
[40] Jenkins is also an ambassador for
Montblanc pens and gifts.
[41] Being an ambassador for the company she is able to borrow their jewellery to wear to events, but in order to guard Jenkins and the expensive items, she is chaperoned by Montblanc bodyguards.
[42] She wore £6 million worth of Montblanc diamonds to the
50th Annual Grammy Awards in 2008.
[43]
On 20 October 2008 Jenkins released
Sacred Arias
, which is her last album with Universal Music. On 19 October
The Telegraph
stated that Jenkins had signed the biggest classical recording deal in history, for
$10 million (£5.8 million), with
Warner Music.
[44]
Jenkins also appeared in episode 3 of the fifth series of
The Apprentice
, performing
Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah
as part of a private recital to winning team Ignite. The programme was aired on
BBC One on 08 March 2009.
Personal life
Jenkins has one sister. Her father, Selwyn Jenkins, died of
lung cancer when she was a teenager,
[45] She has remarked on missing him in her album liner notes and has dedicated any award she received to him.
Whilst Jenkins was studying at the
Royal Academy of Music, at 19 years of age, she was attacked and nearly raped by a man who followed her off a bus after she had enjoyed a night out with friends.
[46] When Jenkins was making the 2-minute walk to her London home, he sprang upon her and tried to drag her into an alley, but she managed to escape.
He continued to pursue her and punched her to the ground, prompting Jenkins to curl up into a ball so that he was not able to rape her.
After repeatedly kicking her, he eventually left with her wallet and has never been caught.
"It was just awful. I was so shaken up. It took me a long time to get over it, and my mum was devastated. I genuinely believe I was very lucky," commented Jenkins.
After Jenkins and
Dame Vera Lynn were both seen centre stage together at the 60th Anniversary of VE Day in 2005 during the song "We'll Meet Again", the newspapers dubbed Jenkins "the new Forces' Sweetheart", a
nickname given to Lynn during
World War II.
Lynn had said to Jenkins that she should "go out and entertain the troops" to which Jenkins promised.
In December 2005 and 2006 Jenkins travelled to
Iraq to sing to the soldiers for Christmas.
[47] On her first visit to Iraq in 2005, when travelling to
Shaibah, the largest British base in Southern Iraq, the helicopter she was travelling in was targeted by
missiles. Anti-missile flares were deployed and the group landed safely.
Jenkins was in a relationship for four years with songwriter and former
Worlds Apart boy band singer
Steve Hart. However, they kept details of their relationship private, and were rarely seen in public together. Jenkins confirmed the couple had split in November 2006, so that she could concentrate on her career.
[48] She is currently dating Welsh television presenter
Gethin Jones.
[49] Jenkins confirmed "Yes, it's pretty serious, but honestly I don't want to go into it very much. I like to keep my private life private and I don't want people to think that I'm trying to exploit the relationship. We are together because we like each other and not because we want any publicity from it."
[50]
In November 2008 Jenkins revealed to
The Daily Mail
that when she was a student she had taken class A drugs (cocaine and ecstasy) and cannabis. She noted that she was introduced to them by her friends at London's Royal College of Music, and that she stopped taking them after signing her record deal in 2003.
[51] In the article Jenkins describes taking drugs as "the biggest regret of my life."
On July 8th 2009, Jenkins performed at the opening ceremony of the Ashes cricket competition between England and Australia at Sophia Gardens cricket ground in Cardiff to much acclaim by many of the British tabloid papers and cricket commentators.
Discography
Singles
Song
| Year
|
"Time to Say Goodbye"
| 2005
|
"Green Green Grass of Home"
| 2006
|
Albums
Album
| Year
| UK Albums
| UK Classical
| USA
| AUS
| Notes
|
Premiere
| 2004
| 31 [52]
| 1
| N/K
| DNC
|
|
Second Nature
| 16
| 1
| N/K
| DNC
| UK Classical Album of the Year; released in the U.S. as La Diva
.
|
Living a Dream
| 2005
| 4
| 1 [53]
| N/K
| 13
| UK Classical Album of the Year.
|
Serenade
| 2006
| 5
| 1 [54]
| N/K
| DNC
|
|
From the Heart
| 2007
| Import
| Import
| N/K
| DNC
| Import from China; compilation of tracks from previous albums.
|
Rejoice
| 3
| N/A
| N/K
| 25
| Not designated as "classical".
|
Sacred Arias
| 2008
| 5
| 1
| N/K
| N/K
| Last album with Universal Music.
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Concert videos
DVD
| Year
| Notes
|
Live at Llangollen
| 2006
|
|
Katherine in the Park
| 2007
| Live at Margam Park, Port Talbot.
|
Viva La Diva
| 2008
| With Darcey Bussell, live at the O2 Arena London.
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