Hayley Westenra

FashionDream · August 17, 2011

Hayley Westenra

Hayley Dee Westenra (born 10 April 1987)[1][2] is a New Zealand soprano, classical crossover artist,[3] songwriter and UNICEF Ambassador. Her first internationally released album, Pure, reached #1 on the UK classical charts in 2003 and has sold more than two million copies worldwide. Pure is the fastest-selling international début classical album to date, having made Westenra an international star at age 16. In August 2006, she joined the Irish group Celtic Woman, was featured on their Celtic Woman: A New Journey CD and DVD, toured with them on their 2007 Spring Tour, and also was featured on their DVD, The Greatest Journey: Essential Collection, released in 2008.

Across classical music to easy listening, folk and pop style songs, Christchurch soprano Hayley Westenra has performed songs in English, Celtic, Welsh, Italian, German, French, Portuguese, Latin, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Taiwanese and Māori from west to east, from north to south all around the world.[3][4][5][6][7][8]

Westenra has performed for dignitaries around the world. She is the second youngest UNICEF Ambassador to date and has contributed to charities around the world.

Westenra's albums were successful in New Zealand, but she was not well known worldwide until she signed a contract with Decca Records and recorded Pure, a CD of classical, light pop, and traditional Māori songs. Decca's British president was also impressed with her voice when they signed her to the label, saying that she was "captivated by the beauty and expressiveness of her voice."[17] Pure enjoyed record success: it became the fastest-selling international debut album in the history of the UK classical chart, with 19,068 copies purchased in its first week alone, quickly reached #1 on the British charts, and entered the UK Pop Chart at #8.[14][18] Over two million copies of Pure have been sold to date. In New Zealand, Pure has been certified 12x platinum, making her the best-selling artist, regardless of genre, in the country's history.[19]

Pure's success ensured that Decca would take Westenra seriously. Some of her fame today can be directly attributed to the way in which Decca promoted her. Although the traditional audience of classical crossover music is adult women, they also promoted her music to children and teenagers.[20] Westenra recorded the end-title song for Disney's movie Mulan II.[21] They also featured her in the national Radio Disney music education tour for middle-school students. David Horn, the producer of her live TV special, which aired on PBS' Great Performances, said, "Her singing is so gorgeous, it's reminiscent of the great boy-soprano sound of Anglican church choirs."[20] This special was entitled, Hayley Westenra: Live from New Zealand.[11][22]

On 24 Aug 2003, Westenra performed on the stage with opera tenor José Carreras and Bryn Terfel in front of the capacity crowd of 10,000 people from Faenol Festival in Wales.[23]

Decca has also promoted Westenra on television. She took her first acting role on the US programme American Dreams ("Charade"), where she played guitar and sang "Who Painted the Moon Black?".[24] While she was being promoted in Los Angeles, Marc Johnston, senior VP/GM for the Universal Classics Group, said, "When she was out there, people were giving her scripts to read, and she had a few rather impromptu auditions. So some film and TV roles are currently in the works."[20] In 2005, she was featured in the song "Bridal Ballad" recorded for the movie The Merchant of Venice.[25] In 2006, she was featured on the motion picture soundtrack for The New World with the song "Listen to the Wind".

Westenra was the 2004 Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards winner of "Highest Selling New Zealand Album" and "International Achievement Award".[26] On 20 February 2004, Prime Minister Helen Clark awarded her for being the first New Zealand artist to receive the tenfold platinum status in the New Zealand market, where she held the number one artist position for 18 weeks.[14] She has won two Japanese Grammies for her work (Song of the Year, "Amazing Grace" and Album of the Year, Pure). Her version of Amazing Grace was used as the theme song for the popular Japanese drama, Shiroi Kyoto (The White Tower). Hayley met the cast of the series during a promotional tour of Japan in October 2003. Also in 2004, she began her world tour of New Zealand, Australia, Japan, USA and Britain, performing in a concert in November for Her Majesty The Queen, the Prime Minister Tony Blair, Prince Charles, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice and the President at the time George W. Bush.[27] In her autobiography, she remembered feeling more nervous in an audition where she sight read to Andrew Lloyd Webber an unreleased piece that he had written.[1][28] On 28 July 2004, Westenra and American tenor James Doing staged Wisconsin concert with Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and broadcast by Wisconsin Public Television.[29] She concluded 2004 with a Christmas tour of the east coast of the United States as guest soloist with the Boston Pops Orchestra.[30]

Westenra in 2010 Christmas Wishes concert tour(UK)In 2005, she released a new album, Odyssey. A mix of classical, pop, Celtic, and New Age music, she co-wrote and arranged some of the tracks on the album, which was released in the United States on 18 October 2005. A more recent version of Odyssey containing several recordings not on the original album was released in the United Kingdom on 10 April 2006, her 19th birthday. On 18 December 2005, she made an appearance on Kurt Browning's programme Gotta Skate, in which she performed with Andrea Bocelli.[31]

Westenra spent the first half of 2006 performing as a supporting act for the pop-opera quartet Il Divo on a worldwide tour, though in March she performed solo concerts in the U.S. as well. That tour officially ended in June, but was then extended by six performances. She then held several concerts in the UK and Germany through the end of the northern summer.[32] On 5 September 2006, Westenra was named as one of the ten outstanding young people in the world by the Junior Chamber International, becoming the first New Zealander so honoured.[33] On 13 November 2006 she participated in the dedication of the New Zealand War Memorial in London.[34] Three of Westenra's great-uncles served in World War II; one was killed.[12]

After releasing Pure, Westenra and her family moved to London. She continues to live in a central London flat, even though her family subsequently returned home to Christchurch. Although she spent most of 2006 touring, she did visit them when her schedule allowed.[35]

In August 2006, Westenra joined Celtic Woman[36] and is featured on their second major DVD/CD album, Celtic Woman: A New Journey, which was released 30 January 2007 and immediately hit the Billboard Top 200 music chart at #4.[37] She toured with the group in the United States in 2007, with scheduled appearances in 88 venues across the country; the tour ended in June.[38][39]

Among 2006 Canterbury Festival (27 Oct), Westenra successfully staged Cathedral concert with tenor Alfie Boe in the Canterbury Cathedral.[40]

Westenra's third international album, Treasure, was released on 26 February 2007 in the UK. All the songs on this CD were chosen by Westenra, who gave her record company "no say in the matter. I basically didn't let them in on what I was recording until the last minute so they had no choice. I didn't give them much room to disagree."[41] Tracks on this album include "E Pari Ra", "One Fine Day", "Let Me Lie", "Danny Boy", and "Abide with Me". Westenra co-wrote four of the fifteen tracks, and the album also features singer Humphrey Berney. The US/Australia/NZ edition followed in March under the name Celtic Treasure. Westenra dedicated the album to her grandmother, Shirley Ireland. Inside the sleeve of the British edition, she wrote "I come from a musical family, and one with a real sense of history. My forefathers were on the maiden voyage from Ireland to Christchurch, New Zealand in 1850 – there's even a commemoration plaque in Cathedral Square, Christchurch, which bears the name Westenra. My grandmother used to sit me on her knee and sing songs like Danny Boy from as early as I can remember. A singer herself in her earlier years, she has always been a never-ending source of songs. It's this legacy of music that she's been passing down to me since my childhood, and it's many of these beautiful old songs that I've explored here on my album."

On the day before St. Patrick's Day 2007, she performed as part of Celtic Woman for President George W. Bush at the White House.[42] She had plans to present the president with a petition to place a mandatory carbon cap on the United States.[43] The goal of the petition was compliance with the commitment made by President Bill Clinton in previous years to follow the Kyoto Protocol.[44] However, she was not able to present the petition because the president was rushed away after the concert, due to security concerns.[45]

On 6 May 2007, Westenra was invited to the Crystal Cathedral as a guest performing "Abide with Me" on the Hour of Power American Christian television program, She performed there twice before, the first time singing "Amazing Grace", and the second time, "I Say Grace".[46]

Westenra starred as Maria in the 2007 recording of West Side Story, which was released on 30 July.[43] On 28 July, she starred in Woburn LIVE 2007, where she performed a selection of the music of West Side Story with the other recording artists, including Vittorio Grigolo, from the 2007 release.[47]

Hayley Westenra 2009In 2007, Hayley's vocals were featured in the soundtracks of the movie Flood and the television series, Jekyll, composed by Debbie Wiseman, in the UK.

In Nov 2007, Hayley Westenra successfully staged Japan "treasure" concert tour in Fukuoka, Sapporo, Tokyo, Sendai, Nagoya, Osaka, Yokohama, Hiroshima.[48][49]

In June 2008, Hayley released an album for Japan, called Hayley Sings Japanese Songs. The songs include popular Japanese songs sung in English, and some in Japanese. Amazing Grace is performed as a duet with the late Minako Honda, in English and Japanese. A second Japanese album, Hayley Sings Japanese Songs 2, was released in March 2009, with a "mother" theme. All of the songs are about her gratefulness to her mother. She wrote, This album is dedicated to my loving mother...thank you.[50]

On 17 August 2008 Westenra participated in the tribute concert Lyrics by Don Black, which was held at the London Palladium and featured performances of Black's songs by a selection of guest artists. She sang the duet Amigos Para Siempre, the score of which was written by Andrew Lloyd Webber, with Jonathan Ansell. The evening, hosted by Michael Parkinson was recorded by BBC Radio 2 Friday Night is Music Night and broadcast on 22 August 2008.[51]

The song "Prayer", composed by Secret Garden and performed by Westenra, is featured in the trailers for the Nintendo Wii video game, Endless Ocean, as well as in the game itself. Westenra also contributed several other songs, including her rendition of the Māori folk song "Pokarekare Ana".[52]

On 8 November 2008, Westenra performed at the Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall, singing Today Won't Come Again, written by Geoff Stevens and Don Black, with English tenor Jonathan Ansell, and accompanied Ansell on Here's to the Heroes, by Black and John Barry, when returning soldiers proceeded into the auditorium. On 30 November, Westenra was presented by Elaine Paige with the Variety Club Showbiz Awards 2008 Classical Performer of the Year for raising money to help sick, disabled and disadvantaged children and young people.[3]

On July 16, 2009, she performed at the Opening Ceremony of the World Games 2009 in Kaohsiung, Taiwan before 45,000 stadium audiences and numerous worldwide TV audiences. She sang several songs including Amazing Grace, The Prayer in English & Italian with Russell Watson, Pokarekare Ana in Māori with Russell Watson, We Are The Champions with other stars, Japanese translated song Nada Sousou (Tears For You) and 'The Moon Represents My Heart (月亮代表我的心) in Mandarin Chinese with SuJianXin.[53] On 29 August, Westenra led the traditional singing of Abide with Me at the Rugby League Challenge Cup final at Wembley Stadium.

On 7 November 2009, Hayley performed at the Festival of Remembrance, singing We'll Meet Again, made famous by Dame Vera Lynn during WWII, at the Royal Albert Hall. During the performance, an old recording of Lynn performing the song was played behind on the big screen. Lynn was present, as well as Her Majesty the Queen.

On 05 Feb 2010, Nativity Wins 2 'Film of the Year' Awards, Hayley Westenra was performed Silent Night on the soundtrack of Nativity![48] On Oct 30, Westenra successfully staged a recital at the Shanghai Grand Theatre with international backing musicians in an east Asian concert tour.[54] On 13 November, Westenra performed at the Festival of Remembrance, singing "For the Fallen", a poem by Laurence Binyon set to music by Karl Jenkins. It is featured on the special 10th anniversary edition of Karl Jenkins' The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace.

In the spring and summer of 2010, Hayley began working with film composer, Ennio Morricone, for a collaboration on her international album Paradiso. The album featured new songs written by Morricone, as well as some of his best known film compositions of the last 50 years. Hayley recorded the album with Morricone's orchestra in Rome during the summer 2010.[55]

On April 2011, Westenra was invited as a guest performer to Mario Frangoulis TV concert in Greek.[56] On May, Westenra was a guest performer on Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli's The Magic of Love Asian concert tour, Westenra and Bocelli collaborated on one of Westenra's albums Odyssey and live performances before.[57][58][59]

On Memorial Day, 29 May 2011, Hayley was invited to perform for the annual PBS special, the National Memorial Day Concert live in Washington, DC. She performed the song Pie Jesu following the emotional story of a woman who had never met her father, who died in the Vietnam War, but got to know him many years later through a soldier who had fought alongside him.[60][61] On 9 July, Westenra was invited as a guest performer to Joseph Calleja's annual concert in Malta.[62] On 22 July, Westenra was among artists performing with the BBC Concert Orchestra in an American West-themed show from a BBC radio concert programme Friday Night is Music Night.[63][64] On 24 July, Westenra staged the 61st King's Lynn Festival concert with Daniel Boys and performed classical repertoire including new songs from Paradiso.[65]

On 27 July, Kiwi songbird Hayley Westenra has been announced as the voice of UK broadcaster ITV's coverage of this year's Rugby World Cup, with her special version of World In Union.[

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