Jai McDowall

[Richard]

EDIT by Dave 11 December 2011
Hayley did not in the end participate in this album[/color][/b]

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Hello folks!

From today's Daily Record:

Britain's Got Talent winner Jai McDowall to record duet with soprano Hayley Westenra



BRITAIN’S Got Talent winner Jai McDowall is to record a duet with soprano Hayley Westenra.

He teamed up with the Kiwi singer for a version of The Prayer, which was made famous by Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli in 1999.

He broke off from recording his debut album to tell the Record: “When the label said I should record The Prayer with Hayley, I jumped at the chance.

“She has the most incredible delicate vocal and she was a dream to work with.”

Jai, from Tarbolton, Ayrshire, has landed a record deal with Sony Music and will appear at this year’s Royal Variety Performance.

Hayley, No1 in the classical album charts with Paradiso, said: “I had so much fun recording this duet with Jai.

“He’s a brilliant artist and person. Our voices worked well together and I can’t wait for everyone to hear the track.”

Richard

[jimg]

Hi Richard,

Cathy's tweet reads as though she has already heard it. It can't be far off beong available.

Jim

[Richard]

Hello Jim!

I suspect this duet is for Jai McDowall's new album. When we know more, I'll probably move this thread to the Albums board and change the title to suit.

Richard

[I-H-F]

Jai who? I've never heard of him.

I thought the original version of The Prayer was by Josh Groban and Charlotte Church. Hmm, you learn something new everyday.

[Libby]

I had never heard of him, either, since I can't watch BGT. I wasn't too sure about the idea at first, but I just listened to him singing To Where You Are (originally sung by Josh Groban), and it's very good! He rushed into the lyrics at the beginning, so it was weird at first, but his voice is very powerful. Josh Groban was more tender and emotional in that song, which was great, but Jai belted it out more. Josh is still my favorite, but I was very impressed, and I am looking forward to hearing the duet! Finally, a recording of Hayley singing The Prayer!

Aren't the albums by these stars usually sold for the holiday season? If he's popular enough, shouldn't the album do fairly well in the regular album charts?

Either way, I think this is a great thing for Hayley's career.

[Jillian]

Hi everyone,

I have found this article about the duet:

Britain's Got Talent Winner Jai McDowall Teams Up With Soprano Hayley Westenra to Record the Prayer



2011 has been quite the year for Britain’s Got Talent winner Jai McDowall. After winning the nation’s hearts (and votes) earlier this year, Scottish Jai has landed a record deal with Sony Music whilst he looks forward to performing at this year’s Royal Variety performance in front of Her Majesty, The Queen.

Currently in the studio recording his debut album, Jai has teamed up with New Zealand soprano Hayley Westenra (currently Number 1 in the Classical Charts, and has sold over 2 millions albums), to record a special version of The Prayer, originally performed by Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli.

Produced by Graham Stack (Take That, Rod Stewart), the song was recorded at Metrophonic Studios in Surrey. Hayley has previously performed The Prayer live with Andrea Bocelli and Russell Watson, but this is the first time she has recorded the song.

Says Jai – “The past few months have been incredible. We’ve been working on the album and when the label said I should record The Prayer with Hayley I jumped at the chance. She has the most incredible delicate vocal and she was a dream to work with”

Hayley commented – “I had so much fun recording this duet with Jai! He’s a brilliant artist and person. Our voices worked well together and I can’t wait for everyone to hear the track.”

Jai’s debut album will be released Winter 2011 on Sony Music .

outside-org.co.uk/2011/09/britain%e2%80%99s-got-talent-winner-jai-mcdowall-teams-up-with-soprano-hayley-westenra-to-record-the-prayer/

[jimg]

Here is another photo taken at the studio with Jai.

[Libby]

Aha, just as I said, Winter 2011, the holiday season. But I've learned from you British album chart experts. :wink: I hope the album does extremely well! I'll probably have to buy it, too, because he's unheard of over here, and I won't be able to wait to see if he ever is. They should have him sing on America's GT next year, that might help.

It's too bad he only got to sing 3 times, including his audition. On AGT, the people who make it to the final are able to perform 6 times including their audition. I guess it must be due to how many people they're able to audition, since the UK is smaller than the US. But I wanted to hear more than just 3 songs!

[Sing]

Hi everyone!
According to Amazon, this album, which still doesn't have a name will be released on 12th December:
www.amazon.co.uk/Album-2011-Jai-McDowall/dp/B005OEC3C0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1319312905&sr=8-1
best wishes
Sing

[Libby]

I hope it does well in the pop charts! That would be very nice for Hayley! And I can't wait to hear the duet!

[Richard]

Hello folks!

Here's some more information from Digital Spy:

Britain's Got Talent's Jai McDowall announces debut album 'Believe'

Published Wednesday, Oct 26 2011, 12:43 BST | By Lewis Corner



Britain's Got Talent winner Jai McDowall has announced details of his debut album.

The singer will release his first studio effort Believe in the UK on December 12, coinciding with his performance at this year's Royal Variety Performance.

McDowall will release his cover of U2's 'With Or Without You' as the lead single for the campaign, which heads up the LP's tracklist.

Speaking about his song choices for the album, the talent show champ explained: "I was brought up with a lot of country music like Kenny Rogers, but I've got quite eclectic tastes and have everything from Iron Maiden to Britney Spears on my iPod.

"I like a lot of R&B but I also love choral music. It kind of depends on my mood but I'm very open-minded about music."

The debut disc includes covers of tracks by Coldplay, Evanescence, Green Day and Josh Groban.

McDowall has also teamed up with Hayley Westenra for a rendition of 'The Prayer', which was famously recorded by Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli.

"Instead of recording it in Italian we've done it in English," McDowall noted. "Hayley was a dream to work with and she's got such a beautiful voice."

The tracklist for Jai McDowall's Believe is as follows:

1. 'With Or Without You'
2. 'To Where You Are'
3. 'Fix You'
4. 'The Prayer'
5. 'How You Remind Me'
6. 'There You'll Be'
7. 'Feels Like Home'
8. 'Bring Me To Life'
9. 'Boulevard Of Broken Dreams'
10. 'One Day Like This'

I've changed the title of this thread and moved it from the Media board.

Richard

[Richard]

Here's the album cover:



Richard

[Dave]

December 12th is an unusual release date for an album in the UK, the final batch of Christmas releases usually occurs the week before and then, the chart gets pretty tightly locked in to whatever's already there, until after Christmas, with few week-by-week changes. It only allows for two weeks of peak sales before the post-Christmas slump.

So, the record company must be very confident of massive launch publicity on TV, radio, everywhere, and of huge sales for that two weeks - otherwise it would just get lost in the lower reaches of the charts and be a waste of time and money. I hope The Prayer with Hayley is one of the promoted tracks!

Time will tell.

Dave

[Libby]

I think it is, Dave. In fact, that's the only track that Amazon UK mentions at the moment. I like their description of it, too:

The debut album from the winner of 2011’s Britain’s Got Talent, Jai takes on a selection of contemporary classics and makes them all his own with the powerful voice that propelled him to victory.It includes a beautiful duet with multi-million selling classical star Hayley Westenra on "The Prayer", made famous by Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli.

I'm really liking the looks of the tracklist, if the songs are what I think they are. I think this is one I'm actually going to buy. I hope they put samples up at some point, but I'm sure I won't regret getting it.

This is really ironic, too, because just last night I had a dream about this! A premonition, maybe? I didn't recognize many of the songs, and then it turned out there were like 3 different versions of it. One more classical, and one more mainstream, except the song titles didn't make any sense.

[Libby]

Hey, the first article says "..when the label said I should record the Prayer with Hayley..."

Well, the label is Sony, but the winners of these talent shows are managed by Simon Cowell, right? So, do you think Simon would have had any say in this? At least he didn't say no! Remember, he's also in charge of Il Divo, and Hayley toured with them once. Well, at the very least we know he doesn't dislike her. :wink: