Daily Mail article: 'The world according to HW'

[Sing]

Hi all,
There's a new Hayley article on the Daily Mail's website. I think it'll be in the 'Live' magazine section in tomorrow's paper.
Here's the link :

www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-2037305/Hayley-Westenra-Im-able-sing-reach-human-hearing.html

best wishes
Sing

[Jillian]

Hi Sing! i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif

Here is the whole article:

'I'm able to sing beyond the reach of human hearing': The world according to Hayley Westenra




The soprano on reaching notes only animals can hear, hiring Victoria Beckham's minder to deal with stalkers and why she refused to sex up her image 'Singing in front of the Queen, Prince Charles, Tony Blair and George W Bush didn't daunt me, but Andrew Lloyd Webber did,' said Hayley Westenra
An international star since the age of 16, soprano Hayley Westenra travels the world duetting with legends such as José Carreras and Andrea Bocelli, performing for royalty and heads of state. Of Dutch and Irish heritage, she began performing aged six and made her first professional recording at 12. Discovered at 14 while busking in the streets of her native Christchurch, New Zealand, she was signed to a major label.

Her 2003 album Pure became the fastest-selling international debut classical album, eventually shifting more than two million copies.

This month Hayley, 24, who lives in London, can be heard performing the title music to ITV’s Rugby World Cup coverage.

When you’ve got yourself a stalker, it’s time to get the heavies in.

I found myself in that situation back in 2006. I’d noticed this guy at a lot of my concerts and assumed he was just an ordinary fan. My suspicions were aroused when he started telling the road crew that he was my boyfriend. When he queued for my autograph and they challenged him, he became violent and was taken away by the police. That’s when I decided that I needed a minder. I hired this guy with a black belt in taekwondo who had previously worked for Victoria Beckham. I never had any trouble after that. The experience did shake me up quite badly. I’d always taken my safety for granted. It made me more vigilant. Of course you don’t need to be a famous name to be careful. These days, with Twitter and Facebook, people are putting a lot of personal information out there without thinking about it, making themselves potentially vulnerable. We all need to be a bit more on our guard.

I’m able to sing beyond the reach of human hearing.

I can actually reach a note that no human will detect, but certain animals will prick up their ears when they hear it. Dogs seem particularly responsive. I was recording one album in Salisbury and there was a family of llamas next door. There were certain notes that nobody in the studio could hear but the llamas heard loud and clear. I have a pet cockatiel and he goes crazy when I sing. I’m sure I could break a wine glass too, but I’ve never tried. It’s something I’m saving up for when I really need to liven up a dinner party.

'I can actually reach a note that no human will detect, but certain animals will prick up their ears when they hear it'

If not for singing I’d be flipping burgers now.

I never had a plan B in terms of a career. In a way it helped that I had no alternatives. If I ever had doubts it would work out, there was nothing else for me to turn to. It kept me focused. But there was always the worry that, even though I had talent, I might not get recognised. My dedication to music was what got me through.

Singing in front of the Queen, Prince Charles, Tony Blair and George W Bush didn’t daunt me, but Andrew Lloyd Webber did.

I’ve performed for the Queen four times now and I’m no longer overawed. Very little daunts me in terms of performance. I don’t get nervous singing at FA Cup Finals. The only person who has made me anxious was Andrew Lloyd Webber. I used to sing his songs when I was younger and he’s one of my musical idols. In 2006, I was auditioning for a tribute show for the lyricist Don Black. I was working on one piece, the score for which had been written by Lloyd Webber, only I hadn’t been told that. The first I knew of Lloyd Webber’s involvement was when he crept up behind me as I was performing. I heard the floorboards creak, looked up and standing there was one of my all-time heroes. As nervous as I was, I had to keep on singing with him over my shoulder.

With success you find out who your real friends are.

Fame came to me first in New Zealand and it was on a manageable level. It was mostly a positive experience. I’d get upgraded on planes and find little presents when I walked into hotel rooms. The only hard thing to deal with was going back to school. I guess my singing marked me out as different and some kids got jealous and turned on me. I got used to hearing nasty things being said about me and learned to rise above it with the help of true friends.

I might seem like a pussycat but I’m more than capable of standing up and fighting my corner when the need arises.

Earlier in my career there were people at the record company who wanted me to sex up my image. They were thinking that this was one way to sell more albums. If I’d gone along with it, that wouldn’t have been me being true to myself. The public would have seen straight through it and would no longer have been able to take my music seriously. I refused to go down that road. I’ve got enough belief in my music for it to speak for itself. I don’t need to wear short skirts to sell it. That’s not to say I need to wear a bin bag over my head. I accept that image is a part of the classical world just as it’s a part of the pop music world. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to be pushed into wearing an outfit I’m not entirely comfortable with.

I’m not officially the world’s sexiest vegetarian.

I guess people will organise a vote about anything under the sun. I could never figure out how I got nominated for that award. Shortly afterwards I started eating meat again. I was on tour in the States and the drummer in my band was devouring this delicious-looking hamburger. I couldn’t resist ordering one for myself and crossed back over to the dark side. After that hamburger there was no turning back. Now I’m dating a Frenchman so I don’t have much choice in the matter.

People shouldn’t try to box me in – I’d love to collaborate with Eminem or Lemmy from Motorhead.

Either of those guys would be awesome to work with. I get accused of not being what I never claimed to be in the first place. Criticism comes from all sides. Even one of my heroes, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, had a pop at me for being part of the ‘popera’ genre, though she has since apologised. I come from a classical background but I never claimed to be part of the opera or classical world. Classical and opera just happened to be part of my repertoire. I like singing a wide variety of styles. It seems completely natural for me to go from an operatic aria to a Dolly Parton number. I’m completely open-minded.

My dad was right at the heart of the huge earthquake that devastated my home town of Christchurch.

Thankfully he was one of the lucky ones and survived. It was a huge reality check as I’d returned from New Zealand to London a couple of days earlier. In my jet-lagged state I turned on the TV and got such a fright. One of the big positives about my position is that I can get involved, simply by lending my voice. Singing Amazing Grace at the memorial service to a cathedral full of Kiwis was incredibly moving, something I’ll never forget. Almost the entire city of Christchurch had fled so my audience was pretty much everyone who was left there. After that, everything else seems frivolous by comparison.

No one is too famous do their own hoovering.

I prefer to do my own cleaning. I’d be embarrassed to hire help to keep my place clean and tidy. I see famous people with their own butlers and I find that bizarre. How can they be comfortable with that situation? However rich or famous you are, you should never be that far up in the clouds. It’s your mess, you clean it. If I start hiring a maid, it’ll be the start of a slippery slope. Within three months I’ll have turned into an insufferable diva.

Hayley Westenra’s new album, ‘Paradiso’, is out now, hayleywestenra.com


Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-2037305/Hayley-Westenra-Im-able-sing-reach-human-hearing.html#ixzz1YFYE11nk

fixed a few wayward bold tags- Joe

[afaninchicago]

Wow! That's a great article. It's incredible that she can sing that high! I'd love to hear her sing higher than she usually does in concerts. (Although obviously not so high that I couldn't hear it.)

[comet]

Problem solved then.

Must get the ole lugs checked.

Hate the sound that filament light bulbs make just before they blow.

or the squeal of a charging camera flash,

or the squeal of CRT EHT components. ( Glass Tubed TVs and monitors).

I have to get up at night and unplug things because of the racket they make in the high frequency ranges, (phone chargers and other devices with rechargeable batteries in particular)

are there more of us hear (here ) with the same problem ?

Is it extended hearing range that makes us Hayley fans ?

Or am I just daft,,

Hummmmmmmm

wonder when they are going to let me out of this room


Dum te deum te dum ti dum ti dum........

[Libby]

Some of the facts in this article seemed a little off. For example, when she first sang for ALW, according to the Prologue to her book, The World At Her Feet, this was in late 2003, not 2006! And the copyright of the book is 2004!

Also, the part about Christchurch. She talks about singing to a cathedral full of Kiwis... that was in London. Then, it says most of ChCh had fled, and all the people there were everyone who was left! That wasn't a cathedral, and the remaining citizens of ChCh didn't all go to London!

And I'm pretty sure there was a lot more to the stalker incident than the one mentioned in the article. I distincty remember reading in her book, In Her Own Voice, something about a guy reaching out to grab at her when she was walking off a stage, and him being sent off on a train, but then he managed to come back a 2nd time! So, maybe they didn't have room in the article to fit all that in, but it sounded as if that one incident was the only thing, but it wasn't.

I almost got the feeling the person writing the article wasn't even interviewing her, but using interviews from the past, and compiling them together however they wanted.

I don't know, it was a weird article for me, but good exposure for Hayley, of course. The important thing is to get people to buy her new album.

[Richard]

Hello Libby and everybody!

I remember a strange foreign chap hanging around St. John's Smith Square several years ago. Steve Abbott had him removed by the police.

I'm going to post a link to the article on our Facebook page.

Richard

[Steve H]

Hi Libby and Richard,

As interviews go it's not my favourite but it's good publicity. Some of the questions these journalists come up with amaze me, but in each one we learn something new - for example I did not know when Hayley stopped being a vegetarian!

Steve H

[Jillian]

Hi,

I was thinking this might have been the email interview that Hayley mentioned on Twitter? Perhaps some email questions were sent to Hayley, she dashed off some quick answers and then they were written up into this article?

[Simba]

What an amazing article!!

Just a doubt, isn't it "No one is too famous 'to' do their own hoovering"? It was without the 'to' in the article...

[nicola]

"Hi! We're the Daily Fail! We are prats! We like to make sure that we bring people down to our level, so we make even the most lovely people on earth sound like prats too! It's what we do best!"

[nicola]

I'm flabbergasted some of you liked this article! It makes her sound ridiculous! Misquotes a plenty, or at least quotes taken out of context. It's awful. "I'm able to sing beyond the reach of human hearing."

Really?

I mean, really? Most dubious thing I've ever read related to Hayley. I can't believe she said that, or said it with any seriousness.

[Jillian]

Hi Nicola,

I agree - when I read that article, it seemed a little off, in a way. It's more because the facts are out of order and don't match up -- and doesn't really seem like kind of things Hayley would directly say. But then again, it's the Daily Mail.

[postscript]

Sept 18, 2011 10:16:35 GMT nicola said:

I'm flabbergasted some of you liked this article! It makes her sound ridiculous! Misquotes a plenty, or at least quotes taken out of context. It's awful. "I'm able to sing beyond the reach of human hearing."

Really?

I mean, really? Most dubious thing I've ever read related to Hayley. I can't believe she said that, or said it with any seriousness.

An interestingly diverse response all round I think. My initial response was very positive, not because I accept what is printed is the truth but because I chose not to nitpick the specific facts and double-check them, although those errors pointed out could have been from posters who have such factual information more to the fore in their minds than have I. Your comment Nicola of "quotes taken out of context" I think applies to some of these comments. We are talking of an informal "casual" interview in a "grab the moment" opportunity which would have been foolhardy of Hayley to have declined. In such circumstances you cannot expect the researched accuracy one associates with (but still do not always get even there) The Sunday Times .

That being said, the ability to sing a high note usually heard by animals (hence the dog whistle--I wonder how the seller proves they work?) was reported a couple of years ago when Hayley was with her first manager and hwi expressed mixed views on the way this was reported. We later gained the impression that Hayley rather regretted the sensationalism with which this information was released. (Daily Mail again?) which is perhaps why it got mentioned this time, they had it on file!

To me, the most significant comment is that Kiri apologised to Hayley. We went to town on her and I had it reported that my email to the NZ radio interviewing Kiri had actually been read out. It is not fair to repeat it here but if that were true I would like to think that our outrage helped to ensure Kiri's apology. Regardless, having experienced Kiri's haughty attitude towards her fans, for her to have apologised to Hayley (presumably by personal letter or email, I doubt she telephoned) must have been a major, rather humiliating, experience for Kiri. For that, I'm prepared to say, "Good for you, Kiri. Well done." I am glad to have learned of this development.

Overall, bearing in mind the nature of the interview, the public that will read it and the audience width to which Hayley's existence has been flagged, I reckon its pretty okay.

Peter S.

[Simba]

Actually other than the misquotes, I still think it's an amazing article,
"I’ve got enough belief in my music for it to speak for itself. I don’t need to wear short skirts to sell it."

It shows how straight-forward and honest hayley is, and to a person who doesn't know who hayley is, this article would speak very well of Hayley.

And the thing about singing beyond human hearing, how is that even a bad thing? When I read it, I thought how she was more than any other singer, even in that way....I found it quite amusing.

And the portion about her saying she's an open-minded singer is amazing too.

Actually, not minding the misquotes which I don't mind the whole essence of the article is great, I enjoyed reading it. Hayley appeared to be very honest, and a little humorous (which was necessary) making the article even more enjoyable to read

I showed the article to a couple of my friends who didn't know hayley, and they were really impressed by the values and virtues for which she stands.

[fusilier23]

I have to admit, I lean more towards where Nicola stands here. I think Hayley knows how to give an interview, but I also think the Daiy Mail knows how to do a chop job on one.

We all know there's more to the stalker incident than gets talked about here, in fact Hayley wouldn't tour in Germany for a while because of the wacky behavior there. The hamburger story is directly at odds with previous interviews in which she talked about eating meat because she had trouble meeting her nutritional requirements without it. That hamburger story sounds completely at odds with the Hayley we've all known for years.

I do like the past that talks about her not being too good to do her own vacuuming, although I can certainly see her hiring someone to keep her place in order while she's away.

It's just not a good writing job on the part of the paper, nothing more.