Post by Stephany on May 3, 2007 17:12:08 GMT
Hi everyone,
I found an old article about Hayley's little wish for Christmas 2005. It was fun to read and I didn't find it on HWI with the search engine so I thought I should share.
Hopefully it hasn't been posted yet !
Best wishes,
Stephany
Did she get her dictaphone ?
I found an old article about Hayley's little wish for Christmas 2005. It was fun to read and I didn't find it on HWI with the search engine so I thought I should share.
Hopefully it hasn't been posted yet !
Best wishes,
Stephany
HAYLEY'S LITTLE WISH
By Rosa Shiels
17 December 2005
The Press (Christchurch)
© 2005 Fairfax New Zealand Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Hayley Westenra is not looking for anything fancy for Christmas, writes ROSA SHIELS.
She may be a rising star on the world stage, but Hayley Westenra's needs are simple when it comes to Christmas presents: she wants a Dictaphone.
Nothing big and fancy, and not for interviewing all the famous people she meets -- though Hayley's take on Her Maj and various presidents would probably be quite refreshing -- just to record song ideas while she's flying between shows, instead of having to sing into the microphone on her computer.
"That's exactly what I want for Christmas. Just a little tiny one. Because I've got my laptop and I'm holding it up to sing into it, and it's ridiculous -- all this crackly shshsh and roar of the engine," she says.
Hayley is working to an increasingly demanding schedule on the back of the international popularity of Pure, her first album, recorded when she was a sylph- like 15-year-old.
At last count Pure had sold more than two million copies. She topped the UK classical charts with Pure, won a couple of Japanese Grammy equivalents, and has sung far and wide in legendary venues (Carnegie Hall, Royal Albert Hall, Sydney Opera House) with legendary voices -- Andrea Bocelli, Jose Carreras, Bryn Terfel.
At 18, she is still slight, but the angles are softening as she heads into womanhood, and the time she spends on planes, between concerts to promote her new album, Odyssey, is for reflection and musically refuelling as much as relaxing. Last time we talked, she was immersed in the music of singer-songwriter John Legend.
"I did overdose a bit on John Legend," she laughs.
Lately she's been listening to the Jackson Five, Stevie Wonder, and Bocelli.
"I've been going back listening to his (Bocelli's) Romanza album. It's so beautiful. It's definitely my favourite album of his."
Her other favourite is a five-CD collection of the classics, including Stravinsky, Mozart and the Chopin Nocturnes.
"That's very therapeutic. It depends on my state of mind, but one minute I'll listen to the Jackson Five and the next minute I'll switch over to some classical. I like it that way."
This year she's been back and forth across the Atlantic and Asia, and as we spoke she was in the middle of her UK concert tour in abbeys and cathedrals.
"It's so inspiring to perform in venues like that. The acoustics are beautiful and I get to meet the audiences after the show, so I always leave the show feeling really content."
Hayley's New Zealand tour starts in Dunedin and takes up all of January, then it's a dash across to the United States to rehearse for the first date of the Il Divo tour beginning in February. She'd rather do that, though, than cut short her time in New Zealand.
"It's my own country and I want to spend as much time as possible in New Zealand, you know, just soaking up the sunshine."
The tour for the neo-opera Simon Cowell-created boy band will follow the meteoric rise of their album Ancora to the top of the UK and US album charts, and will take in some 50 dates throughout the US, Canada, Australia, Europe and the UK before ending in New Zealand in May.
Hayley is the opener for the show and it should be the perfect forum for her to increase her small but growing fan base in North America, which she will build on when she follows up with her own tour later in the year.
There's been no more time to pursue her other role as a Unicef ambassador, though she is interested in going back to Ghana, where she undertook her first ambassadorial field trip in April.
"Having been to a third-world country and met the children facing these horrible problems, it hits home harder. I feel like it gives me more authority really to speak out on the issues facing these children, and I guess it's also given me more motivation to do something about it," she says.
"I'd actually like to go back to Ghana, having raised some money, and see a little bit of success, but there are hundreds of other countries out there in these dire situations so it's a tricky one. But you've got to start somewhere, so I'd really like to go back."
Westenra has found her popularity as a classical crossover artist, and Odyssey includes all those elements, from light classics and folk to contemporary ballads, a duet with Andrea Bocelli, and one of her own songs. So what direction does she see for the future -- more of the same, or movies, perhaps?
"There has been talk ... there were a couple that came up, but at the moment, there's always the time issue. I wouldn't want to commit to a film that would take two precious months out of my year, that wasn't really completely fantastic and completely appropriate, really, and well suited to me. Because singing is my main love and there aren't enough hours in the day for what I want to achieve with my singing."
Which is?
"I want to improve my voice, to strengthen it," she says. "And there's so much great music out there to be sung, so I'm at that stage of finding my niche and exposing myself to the whole mood of different sounds.
"I am still very much torn as to which style I want to sing. I love classical and I love folk, and I do like having a balance."
So how is her songwriting going?
"I've got my guitar, but just recently I've been so busy I haven't been writing as much as I was before. On the plane I come up with a few ideas, but that's the worst bit about flying -- when you get on a plane, you can't really sing. It really frustrates me. I'm always stuck on a plane going, `I want to sing but I can't!'"
Santa -- get that girl a Dictaphone.
By Rosa Shiels
17 December 2005
The Press (Christchurch)
© 2005 Fairfax New Zealand Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Hayley Westenra is not looking for anything fancy for Christmas, writes ROSA SHIELS.
She may be a rising star on the world stage, but Hayley Westenra's needs are simple when it comes to Christmas presents: she wants a Dictaphone.
Nothing big and fancy, and not for interviewing all the famous people she meets -- though Hayley's take on Her Maj and various presidents would probably be quite refreshing -- just to record song ideas while she's flying between shows, instead of having to sing into the microphone on her computer.
"That's exactly what I want for Christmas. Just a little tiny one. Because I've got my laptop and I'm holding it up to sing into it, and it's ridiculous -- all this crackly shshsh and roar of the engine," she says.
Hayley is working to an increasingly demanding schedule on the back of the international popularity of Pure, her first album, recorded when she was a sylph- like 15-year-old.
At last count Pure had sold more than two million copies. She topped the UK classical charts with Pure, won a couple of Japanese Grammy equivalents, and has sung far and wide in legendary venues (Carnegie Hall, Royal Albert Hall, Sydney Opera House) with legendary voices -- Andrea Bocelli, Jose Carreras, Bryn Terfel.
At 18, she is still slight, but the angles are softening as she heads into womanhood, and the time she spends on planes, between concerts to promote her new album, Odyssey, is for reflection and musically refuelling as much as relaxing. Last time we talked, she was immersed in the music of singer-songwriter John Legend.
"I did overdose a bit on John Legend," she laughs.
Lately she's been listening to the Jackson Five, Stevie Wonder, and Bocelli.
"I've been going back listening to his (Bocelli's) Romanza album. It's so beautiful. It's definitely my favourite album of his."
Her other favourite is a five-CD collection of the classics, including Stravinsky, Mozart and the Chopin Nocturnes.
"That's very therapeutic. It depends on my state of mind, but one minute I'll listen to the Jackson Five and the next minute I'll switch over to some classical. I like it that way."
This year she's been back and forth across the Atlantic and Asia, and as we spoke she was in the middle of her UK concert tour in abbeys and cathedrals.
"It's so inspiring to perform in venues like that. The acoustics are beautiful and I get to meet the audiences after the show, so I always leave the show feeling really content."
Hayley's New Zealand tour starts in Dunedin and takes up all of January, then it's a dash across to the United States to rehearse for the first date of the Il Divo tour beginning in February. She'd rather do that, though, than cut short her time in New Zealand.
"It's my own country and I want to spend as much time as possible in New Zealand, you know, just soaking up the sunshine."
The tour for the neo-opera Simon Cowell-created boy band will follow the meteoric rise of their album Ancora to the top of the UK and US album charts, and will take in some 50 dates throughout the US, Canada, Australia, Europe and the UK before ending in New Zealand in May.
Hayley is the opener for the show and it should be the perfect forum for her to increase her small but growing fan base in North America, which she will build on when she follows up with her own tour later in the year.
There's been no more time to pursue her other role as a Unicef ambassador, though she is interested in going back to Ghana, where she undertook her first ambassadorial field trip in April.
"Having been to a third-world country and met the children facing these horrible problems, it hits home harder. I feel like it gives me more authority really to speak out on the issues facing these children, and I guess it's also given me more motivation to do something about it," she says.
"I'd actually like to go back to Ghana, having raised some money, and see a little bit of success, but there are hundreds of other countries out there in these dire situations so it's a tricky one. But you've got to start somewhere, so I'd really like to go back."
Westenra has found her popularity as a classical crossover artist, and Odyssey includes all those elements, from light classics and folk to contemporary ballads, a duet with Andrea Bocelli, and one of her own songs. So what direction does she see for the future -- more of the same, or movies, perhaps?
"There has been talk ... there were a couple that came up, but at the moment, there's always the time issue. I wouldn't want to commit to a film that would take two precious months out of my year, that wasn't really completely fantastic and completely appropriate, really, and well suited to me. Because singing is my main love and there aren't enough hours in the day for what I want to achieve with my singing."
Which is?
"I want to improve my voice, to strengthen it," she says. "And there's so much great music out there to be sung, so I'm at that stage of finding my niche and exposing myself to the whole mood of different sounds.
"I am still very much torn as to which style I want to sing. I love classical and I love folk, and I do like having a balance."
So how is her songwriting going?
"I've got my guitar, but just recently I've been so busy I haven't been writing as much as I was before. On the plane I come up with a few ideas, but that's the worst bit about flying -- when you get on a plane, you can't really sing. It really frustrates me. I'm always stuck on a plane going, `I want to sing but I can't!'"
Santa -- get that girl a Dictaphone.
Did she get her dictaphone ?
