Who is Hayley to you?

[joanne]

After reading so many pages of HWI discussions, I've gathered that HWIs are generally enthusiastic fans who show a lot of respect and concern for Hayley. So I'm really curious to know who Hayley is to you all, and what she means/stands for.

Is she:
- A wonderful singer whose music you enjoy?
- A star shining in a universe far away (pardon me, I couldn't resist i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif )?
- Someone you admire/wish you could be like?
etc.?

I didn't become a serious fan till recently. She just used to be Hayley Westenra to me, "oh I've heard of her/ I've got a cd, she's got a lovely voice,". But now that I've heard so much more about her, she's become someone I really look up to, someone I have a tremendous amount of respect for, someone I dream of meeting one day (seeing her perform live is a no-brainer haha, but that's yet to come ) And that's not just for her talent and beautiful voice. Of course, that's a big part of it, but I also think she's a wonderful example of a young lady who knows how to carry herself well and stand up for herself, not to mention her dedicated humanitarian work with UNICEF.

A year or so ago, I read an article where Hayley said (as far as I can recall) "I refuse to dress like a tart. I am not a tarty person and I don't wear those clothes when I am out, so I don't wear them to perform or for interviews either." [because her record company was pressuring her or something]. That was something that's stuck in my head and and I think many girls my age would probably benefit from having Hayley as a role model. I mean, I really don't think she's a prude and she does have her fair share of fun partying (I believe she mentioned it in an interview) but she doesn't overdo it, and that's something I admire too.

So, who is Hayley to you?

cheers,
joanne

(Edited cos I found the interview I quoted and part of my quote was inaccurate)

[grant]

Hi Joanne

Apr 28, 2010 6:36:08 GMT joanne said:

But now that I've heard so much more about her, she's become someone I really look up to, someone I have a tremendous amount of respect for, someone I dream of meeting one day (seeing her perform live is a no-brainer haha, but that's yet to come ) And that's not just for her talent and beautiful voice. Of course, that's a big part of it, but I also think she's a wonderful example of a young lady who knows how to carry herself well and stand up for herself, not to mention her dedicated humanitarian work with UNICEF.

In many respects, I think you've already answered your own question

To begin with, for me it was her beautiful voice and I think that will be the same for most people who will have heard her sing on the radio or TV before they see a live performance.

For my money, it has to do with "presence" - on stage she is awesome. In her first book, Paul Little wrote that "Hayley can walk out onto a stage and immediately own it" - and she does, in a way that no other performer can. But it's off stage that Hayley's presence is most noticable because she is totally different - unassuming, charming and completely down to earth and it leaves you thinking "Is this the same girl?"

The first time I met her was in September 2005 when she was just 17. She had changed into jeans, sweater and boots but still looked amazing and just came right into the centre of our little group; spending a few moments with each one of us. What was most noticable was the fact that whilst she was talking to someone - didn't matter who it was; man, woman, child - that person was the only one that mattered to her and they had her full attention. It was very humbling and I think it was largely because of that, that I came away from that first meeting thinking "I have to get to know this girl!"

Although her schedule naowadays can be more demanding, she still makes time for her fans and will never willing leave a venue without spending time with everyone who wants to see her. She also has a way of creating 'moments' for us - little things she does - a dedication - a hug - a kind word. and they are all meant sincerely. She also has a knack of remembering little snippets that you wouldn't expect, although she does ocassionally forget a name! i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif

Off stage, I believe she tries to lead as normal a life as is possible; yes, she likes to party and let her hair down but whatever she does she does it to be, in her words "true to herself". She is an excellent role model and not to just young people - even I've learned from her. She is an inspiration and I certainly feel that I'm a better person for knowing her and I thank God I have her in my life

Best wishes
Grant

[spiderman]

hi joanne... you ask one of the more interesting questions one could ask in this place... one of my workmates refers to hayley as being the air that i breathe. she isnt wrong {i could also add that her music is the wind beneath my wings, but that would be one cliche to many, right?}.

at a more earthbound level... i think she is someone who spends a lot of time making other people happy.. be it her fans, soldiers in some wartorn nation, or the benefactors of one of her many charities. i hope someone brings her that much happiness, since at least some should be reflected back on her.

her singing makes me happy; most people who know me consider that a miracle; she can put me to sleep even after the hardest, most stressful day i can have...

another interesting aspect of her is that she seems unaffected by her popularity, always making time for people who admire her and yet never behaving like she is important. its that humility and charm that makes her the wonderful person we think she is.

the spiderman

[Elliot Kane]

Hmmm... Good question.

I'd say I'm more at the "A wonderful singer whose music you enjoy" end of things, honestly. She has the best female singing voice I've ever heard in my life and it's a constant source of frustration to me that her music can be so hard to find (Not least because it's not always released in Britain).

She seems like a really nice person, but I can't say I have any huge burning desire to meet her. As long as I get to keep listening to her music, I'm happy.

That said, Hayley is one of a fairly select group of singers whose new albums are an event to me, rather than just one more of many albums to get by artists I like (And I do listen to literally hundreds of artists). At any time, she'll be in my top ten listened to artists and my top ten favourite artists, and there are few indeed who could claim that, especially over a period of several years.

Of course that also means I expect vastly more of Hayley than most other artists, but as she usually delivers, that's not a problem

[Libby]

I agree with the first and third one; she is a shining star, but she isn't in a universe far away. True, she's very far away from me, and I may never get to see her in person, but I wouldn't be able to buy her albums if she didn't live in this universe! :wink:

What you wrote basically sums up the way I feel about Hayley, too. Even the part where you said you used to just think of her as a nice singer and you had a CD of hers; that described me when I first heard of her. I liked her voice, but I wasn't really into classical crossover that much yet. Eventually I liked it more and more, and when I checked out her 2nd album, I was hooked. Forever.

[Joe]

Hi Joanne

That is a great question. I've always thought of Hayley as being "the girl from the family down the road" or "she went to my school"...sort of close, yet distant.

Even when she was a small girl, Hayley's determination to sing was an inspiration to me. She doesn't just sing words to a song, she creates them...her voice is wrapped with feeling...something quite clear in "Pure".

So, to me, Hayley is emotion. When I listen to Hayley's songs during one of my walks at work, my mind is full of images and memories. I create my own music video as I am walking, miming the words as I look at the sky or at the towns in the distance.

I have to say, when I listen to the songs that helped me through some bad days, I realize that Hayley was there with me...close but distant.

Best wishes Joanne!

Joe

[sharon]

I agree with most, Good question!

I've only got to know Hayleys music in august last year. So I'm a newby...

When I watched her interviews on Youtube and listened to her songs I admired her for her down to earth personality. Some singers start to become really arrogant and I truely dislike that.

Hayleys music attracks me because of the sensitivity she puts in it. It sounds honest and pure (like her album i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif)

Her songs comfort me when I feel sad. Makes everything all right!

I look up to her with lots of respect.
I liked classical music, but never like this..I can honestly say that Hayley has learned me to listen to it and made me appreciate it more!

Sharon

[nicola]

I'm not the type of person to look up to other people - I've always gone by my own heart in everything. With that in mind, Hayley is an artist to me, and that's it. But it's not a small thing to my mind. If I refer to someone as an artist and not a 'singer', it generally means I have a lot of respect for them, and I do as far as Hayley is concerned. She's not actually my favourite artist (I don't who is, actually) but I have all of her CDs and make the effort to see her live (more so than any other artist) so I think she must mean more to me than many of the other aritsts in my CD collection. But I utterly agree that Hayley is a fine role model.

I can only ever really recall "looking up" to J.K. Rowling. I mention this because it's very similar to your original point Joanne, but this is something she wrote up on her official website, because she felt like it one day:

For Girls Only, Probably...
Being thin. Probably not a subject that you ever expected to read about on this website, but my recent trip to London got me thinking...

It started in the car on the way to Leavesden film studios. I whiled away part of the journey reading a magazine that featured several glossy photographs of a very young woman who is either seriously ill or suffering from an eating disorder (which is, of course, the same thing); anyway, there is no other explanation for the shape of her body. She can talk about eating absolutely loads, being terribly busy and having the world's fastest metabolism until her tongue drops off (hooray! Another couple of ounces gone!), but her concave stomach, protruding ribs and stick-like arms tell a different story. This girl needs help, but, the world being what it is, they're sticking her on magazine covers instead. All this passed through my mind as I read the interview, then I threw the horrible thing aside.

But blow me down if the subject of girls and thinness didn't crop up shortly after I got out of the car. I was talking to one of the actors and, somehow or other, we got onto the subject of a girl he knows (not any of the Potter actresses – somebody from his life beyond the films) who had been dubbed 'fat' by certain charming classmates. (Could they possibly be jealous that she knows the boy in question? Surely not!)

'But,' said the actor, in honest perplexity, 'she is really not fat.'

'"Fat" is usually the first insult a girl throws at another girl when she wants to hurt her,' I said; I could remember it happening when I was at school, and witnessing it among the teenagers I used to teach. Nevertheless, I could see that to him, a well-adjusted male, it was utterly bizarre behaviour, like yelling 'thicko!' at Stephen Hawking.

His bemusement at this everyday feature of female existence reminded me how strange and sick the 'fat' insult is. I mean, is 'fat' really the worst thing a human being can be? Is 'fat' worse than 'vindictive', 'jealous', 'shallow', 'vain', 'boring' or 'cruel'? Not to me; but then, you might retort, what do I know about the pressure to be skinny? I'm not in the business of being judged on my looks, what with being a writer and earning my living by using my brain...

I went to the British Book Awards that evening. After the award ceremony I bumped into a woman I hadn't seen for nearly three years. The first thing she said to me? 'You've lost a lot of weight since the last time I saw you!'

'Well,' I said, slightly nonplussed, 'the last time you saw me I'd just had a baby.'

What I felt like saying was, 'I've produced my third child and my sixth novel since I last saw you. Aren't either of those things more important, more interesting, than my size?' But no – my waist looked smaller! Forget the kid and the book: finally, something to celebrate!

So the issue of size and women was (ha, ha) weighing on my mind as I flew home to Edinburgh the next day. Once up in the air, I opened a newspaper and my eyes fell, immediately, on an article about the pop star Pink.

Her latest single, 'Stupid Girls', is the antidote-anthem for everything I had been thinking about women and thinness. 'Stupid Girls' satirises the talking toothpicks held up to girls as role models: those celebrities whose greatest achievement is un-chipped nail polish, whose only aspiration seems to be getting photographed in a different outfit nine times a day, whose only function in the world appears to be supporting the trade in overpriced handbags and rat-sized dogs.

Maybe all this seems funny, or trivial, but it's really not. It's about what girls want to be, what they're told they should be, and how they feel about who they are. I've got two daughters who will have to make their way in this skinny-obsessed world, and it worries me, because I don't want them to be empty-headed, self-obsessed, emaciated clones; I'd rather they were independent, interesting, idealistic, kind, opinionated, original, funny – a thousand things, before 'thin'. And frankly, I'd rather they didn't give a gust of stinking chihuahua flatulence whether the woman standing next to them has fleshier knees than they do. Let my girls be Hermiones, rather than Pansy Parkinsons. Let them never be Stupid Girls. Rant over.

[martindn]

Hi All,

I've read this with interest. Who is Hayley to me? It's a question I have been trying to answer myself for as long as I've known her. And I still don't think I know the answer.

In the mundane world, I rate her the finest female singer I have ever heard. A genius level vocalist, and a very decent songwriter. I love her music.

I admire her as a person who ploughs her own furrow, which happens to be very like the furrow I would like to have ploughed if I had known what I know now at her age. But I didn't, so I didn't, I made mistakes that Hayley seems wise enough to have avoided.

I admire her caring nature. Almost uniquely I suspect, about a third of her concerts are for charitable causes. How many others do that?

I love the way she lives life on her own terms. That is the way to do it. I wish I had known that when I was her age.

I have met her a few times. She belongs in my fourth circle of friends, those that come under the heading of casual acquaintances.

But somehow she means much more than that to me, no other person in that circle affects me so deeply, and I confess I don't really know why. I think Joe was right, she is close and distant at the same time.

I ask myself

Why, when I hear her sing, does my heart leap for joy and my spirit climb into the sky? No other singer does that the way Hayley does.

Why do I feel so inspired in her company? Why when I meet her does it feel like meeting a very dear long lost friend? I hardly know her after all!

Why do I care about her wellbeing and happiness, almost as if she was one of my family?

Why do I get angry when anyone disses her?

Why do I spend so much time on her forums, and feel so motivated to try to help her in any way I can?

Why do I think about her so much, and pray for her so regularly? I'm sure there are many others far more in need of my prayers than Hayley.

All those things are true, but I don't know why she affects me the way she does. I can only speculate that she is a very special person and a very great artist. And then I look around, and find many more people who seem to feel the same way about her that I do.

Perhaps it is because her music touches my soul in a very special, personal and unique way. But then I tell myself I am being silly. Did I really experience what I thought I did in that concert? Did she really give me a glimpse of heaven? Were the vibes really that beautiful? Then the same thing happens the next time I see her.

Whatever it was it was wonderful. And because Hayley is the only singer who can do it, she is precious to me!

I know there are others here who feel as I do. But I'm not convinced that any of them understand it any better. If anyone does, I'd like to hear about it.

Martin D

[Libby]

Nicola, from what you say, it sounds to me like Hayley is your favorite artist, if you have all of her CDs, and she means more to you. She must be your favorite something.

J.K. Rowling had some great points in that piece, and while I agree with what she said, I don't feel that it makes her anymore amazing than anyone else I know. Not that I really have to worry about that issue for myself that much.

[martindn]

Hi Joanne,

"All of her CDs", how many is that then? I know Grant has well over a hundred, and I'm not sure even he has all of them. I doubt Nicola has as many as that.

Some artists make it easy to collect everything, Katherine Jenkins for example. Hayley's albums come in so many different versions in different parts of the world that it is very difficult to keep track of them all and make sure you have a copy of every different version of every album that exists.

Martin D

[mihizawi]

Libby... I am pretty sure about who is Nicola's number 1 and it's not Hayley. Take a look at the "Editor's top 10" in her website: www.classical-crossover.co.uk/top-10.html

And, yes, I remember when I used to follow JKR's site I read that! And, I quite agree both on the problem and on that Hayley's a good example of an antidote. She is truly gorgeous, but has a beauty that isn't the one established by nowaday canons, but rather the ideal of ancient-style beauty..

Michal

[joanne]

Apr 30, 2010 22:00:27 GMT martindn said:

"All of her CDs", how many is that then? I know Grant has well over a hundred, and I'm not sure even he has all of them.

Martin D

Wowww. Wow. Well over a hundred! That's amazing! I wonder if that includes compilations and other artists' cds which feature Hayley.

It's really beautiful, reading what Hayley means to each of you. And it's so nice to see I'm not the only one who thinks the way I do. Hey I just had a thought, wouldn't it be cool, if Hayley someday comes across this thread and sees the impact she has made on us?

cheers,
joanne

[grant]

Hi Joanne

May 1, 2010 8:29:23 GMT joanne said:

Wowww. Wow. Well over a hundred! That's amazing! I wonder if that includes compilations and other artists' cds which feature Hayley.

Actually nearer 130 now! Yes, it does include some of the above, but I like to have every version of each release (there were at least 12 of "Pure") and almost half are promo's.

To get back on topic - this is just another aspect of "The Hayley effect" - I guess I just like to be surrounded by her. I have posters of her in every room except the bathroom and several still to be framed.

Talk to many of my friends and they would say "Don't mention Hayley or you'll never shut him up!"

Best wishes
Grant

[joanne]

May 1, 2010 6:40:44 GMT mihizawi said:

She is truly gorgeous, but has a beauty that isn't the one established by nowaday canons, but rather the ideal of ancient-style beauty..

Michal

Classic beauty, right?

May 1, 2010 9:06:42 GMT grant said:

To get back on topic - this is just another aspect of "The Hayley effect" - I guess I just like to be surrounded by her. I have posters of her in every room except the bathroom and several still to be framed.

Talk to many of my friends and they would say "https://i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gifon't mention Hayley or you'll never shut him up!"

Haha! Your home must be a really soothing place to be in

May 1, 2010 9:06:42 GMT grant said:

Actually nearer 130 now!

P.S. Good luck on bidding for the next but oldest piece for your collection! Hope you win it

Cheers,
Joanne