Hayley, no model (August 2005 - The Press)

[Stephany]

Hi everyone,
I think we all agree on the fact that Hayley has affected a lot of people through her "generous personality and heart-felt singing" (see Eric's original post here) .
I think Hayley rightly deserves to be look up to.
Yet, I found an article from August 2005 in "The Press NZ" that says exactly the contrary.

HAYLEY NO MODEL
9 August 2005
The Press (Christchurch)
© 2005 Fairfax New Zealand Limited. All Rights Reserved.


I thought Hayley Westenra had enough natural singing talent not to need Keri Welham's article (Aug 4) extolling her other "virtues" -- her faultless skin, dress size, vitamin pill taking and her fortune, to name a few.

In these times of great stress for young people, I do not think it is appropriate to hold Hayley up as someone they should all aspire to be like. I thought we were trying to get away from body image and wealth as indicators of success.

Let's make our young people proud of who they are and what they can achieve in whatever path they choose to take. To have Hayley's peers described as "debt-laden", "pimpled", "booze-fuelled" and "packing on" weight is insulting and simply does not describe the many fantastic teenagers I know.

I'm really glad that Hayley's friends can enjoy their university lives, spots and all.

LEONIE JACKSON

[Stephany]

Leonie Jackson refers to an article by Keri Welham dated August 4, 2005. Here is the original article to fully comprehend Mrs Jackson's reaction.

HAYLEY STILL HUNTS FOR BARGAINS
Keri WELHAM
4 August 2005
The Press (Christchurch)
© 2005 Fairfax New Zealand Limited. All Rights Reserved.


After limited success talking to Welsh opera- turned-rock brat Charlotte Church, KERI WELHAM finds Christchurch's beloved classical songstress, Hayley Westenra, happy to talk.
At first it sounds like a normal teenage road trip. Catch the bus from Christchurch to Dunedin, spend most of Friday night at McDonald's, stay in the university halls of residence, go out boozing at The Cook on Saturday night.

But nothing is normal when you're talking about the adventures of Christchurch teenage classical sensation Hayley Westenra.
The 18-year-old megastar with faultless porcelain skin took her multi- vitamins all weekend. And, even though she frequented one of the most notorious student watering holes in the country, she didn't drink.

"It's just a lot more fun watching people being drunk," she says. "It affects your thinking and affects how you act. I'm not a big fan of drinking, actually."

London-based Westenra is back in New Zealand for three weeks promoting her new album, Odyssey. She has never heard of Homer's Odyssey, one of the ancient Greek poet's most notable contributions to the literary epics. Sensibly, she was more into music during her years at Burnside High School.

Her last album, Pure, sold well over one million copies worldwide.

Back then, Westenra was 16. Now she is old enough to vote, loves clothes, cooks healthy meals for herself, tries to avoid colds and wears size six to 10, depending on the brand.
Today she has skin-tight jeans, cowgirl boots, a tight green top and a thick scarf. She wears $8 earrings and still shops in second-hand stores.

She likes the Black Eyed Peas and Faith Evans. She calls Lord of the Rings star Orlando Bloom "eye candy".

But that's about where the "average teenage girl" in this story ends. At an age when many of her peers are anonymous, debt-laden, pimpled and packing on the booze- fuelled "first-year 5kg", Westenra owns an apartment in London, sports a gorgeous healthy glow and recently sang for the Queen, George W. Bush and Tony Blair.

"It was nice to get a taste of their life," Westenra says of the Dunedin road trip.

During university orientation week, she received emails from her friends relaying their party antics, and she thought: "Man, wouldn't it be so cool to be part of that."

But this is her dream and she will not sacrifice it to party. "I don't envy what they do. I just much prefer to be doing what I'm doing."

She says singing is "like a hobby". The major difference between a hobby and a career, of course, is that the latter has probably made Westenra a teenage millionairess, although she says she does not know how much money she has.
"I don't even know if I'm a millionaire. It's all in the system, money going back and forwards," she says.

Whatever the sum, she's one wealthy teenager. Nevertheless, she remains a bargain-hunter, more through thrill than necessity.

But when she's with her friends, she pays for taxis and other small expenses; walking a fine line between a fear of being patronising and a desire to share some of her wealth.

Westenra is often likened to her Welsh contemporary, Charlotte Church. But this polite, captivating, smiling young Kiwi woman -- sitting on a park bench outside the Canterbury Museum on one of those sparkling winter days she misses so much -- is a far cry from the inelegant, cussing Welsh songstress who greeted The Press with a mouthful of filth during a recent visit to Christchurch.

"She (Church) doesn't seem to have any airs," Westenra says, giggling.

As the interview draws to a close -- a delightful half-hour with one of the city's most-loved daughters -- there's one subject I feel compelled to broach on behalf of a colleague and his Holden Kingswood.

On September 17, when the country goes to the polls, Westenra will be on a radio tour around Britain. Although she is not yet on the electoral roll, she will file an absentee vote.
Westenra, who keeps up to date with New Zealand news through the internet, won't reveal her political leanings, but says she is not a single- issue voter. "Not one party has it all right."

[grant]

So I guess we wouldn't have much trouble working out which student group Leoni Jackson belonged too!!

stephany said:

She says singing is "like a hobby". The major difference between a hobby and a career, of course, is that the latter has probably made Westenra a teenage millionairess, although she says she does not know how much money she has.
"I don't even know if I'm a millionaire. It's all in the system, money going back and forwards," she says.

I like this article. I don't think I've ever heard Hayley's wealth referred to before and I just love the way she reacted - matter of fact, don't really care.

Way to go Hayley!!

Best wishes
Grant

[postscript]

It is disappointing to find that there are elements in NZ that are following the dummying down tradition that is wrecking this country (UK) and sneering at ability, aspiration and achievement.

The original theory behind this attitude was founded in an understandable social conscience--that the success stories of life over-ride the reality of the majority and all too easily contribute to depression and a lack of self-worth.

The article (Hayley no model) is very badly written. Ignore the bad writing and it raises valid points.

• Arguably the Keri Welham article was disparaging about 'student life'. However, isn't that the way students have always been regarded, intellectually able or not?
  
• Leonie Jackson is effectively saying, 'why must we always concentrate on major success rather than the success stories of the lesser able who achieve 'normality' against many personal disadvantages.
  Fair comment, but she's a journalist, so why isn't her article a positive article saying so: Hayley has used all her talents through hard work and...[example, example, example] have likewise used what talents they have to achieve against the odds, etc.
  
• More positively, 'Look at Hayley's success and 'wow!' she's still slumming it with her peers; taking it in her stride; is still a down-to-earth kid.'
  'To walk with kings nor lose the common touch/If all men treat with you but none too much.' Kipling 'If'.
  
• Why doesn't Leoni champion the lesser known successes of whom she supposedly knows many?
  
• Why doesn't her paper publish such stories--because they don't sell, or they aren't considered stories? That's not Hayley's fault.
  
• Leoni writes in a 'chip on my shoulder' manner which undermines her own argument. To paraphrase W S Gilbert again, 'When anything will do, nothing is of value'
  
• Yes, Leoni is right that there is a wealth of superb success stories amongst our ordinary lives and most of those young people are happy to have those achievements recognised within the frame-work they operate.
  In my experience they usually are. But to encourage an attitude 'We mustn't compete with one another because someone will lose' (poor little diddems) and that those who win should not be applauded is not the way to go about enthusing the less renowned members of society. After all, if they are worthy of more attention, they themselves will not want to be promoted beyond their own self-esteem.
  

Peter S.

[Eric]

Hi Stephany and everyone,

First of all, I think that's the first time I've ever had a link to one of my posts. i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif That's pretty cool, Stephany.

Ok...anyway...the point of this post: It sounds as if the first article above "Hayley No Model" is not a direct attack to Hayley but rather the author of the second article. I agree with Grant, in that it is refreshing to know that at that point in her life she didn't really know how much money she had and wanted to pitch in when she could...it just further reinforces a few things for me, especially the fact that she is still a role model for many young (and teenage) girls, despite the first author's remarks. But then again, we're all entitled to our own opinion. (I always thought "rational" people would swarm to Hayley, though).

Best,
Eric

[Stephany]

I have Hayley's age and although I don't "know" her for that long (for the record, I discovered her music last February), she has been a very strong source of inspiration since then.

As listed in the article, I may not have her "faultless skin, dress size, vitamin pill taking and her fortune" (I don't even dare mention her singing talent ) but I definitely consider her as a role model, someone to look up to, be it simply for her simplicity and generosity.

We can't blame her for being so sweet and adorable!

[Martin]

Hi All
Regarding Hayley's alleged "fortune", no one actually knows what she is worth nor should they as in my opinion this is a very personal subject.

I remember Roger once saying that Hayley is still indebted to Decca so suffice to assume that Hayley is certainly not one of the "super" rich (except in quality of course! ).

Martin

[Dave]

We should also remember when discussing old articles like this one that they are old and may not reflect the current situation.

For example, I have noticed much less antagonism towards Hayley in 2007 in some of the NZ media than I did at the time Odyssey was released in 2005. Perhaps, finally, they have realised that Hayley is here to stay?

Cheers, Dave

[stevemacdonald]

postscript said:

...The article (Hayley no model) is very badly written....

Just to be fair to The Press and its capable writers, that wasn't an "article". It was simply a letter to the editor in response to an article (Hayley still hunts...).

[milewalker]

dave said:

For example, I have noticed much less antagonism towards Hayley in 2007 in some of the NZ media than I did at the time Odyssey was released in 2005.

Cheers, Dave

Absence makes the heart grow fonder Dave. I suspect that if she had a larger presence in NZ that the critics would crawl back out from under the woodwork.

As an aside, the writer of that letter completely ignores one aspect of reality. Hayley is an international star (and she already was when this was written). The qualifications for that are very different than the challanges faced by ordinary teenagers. There may be some exceptions to the rule, but in general we do tend to choose our stars (and by extension, our cultural role models as well) from among the people who have many of the qualities lauded by the author of the original article. It would be nice if merely having "natural singing talent" was in and of itself a sufficient condition for Hayley to have achieved the level of success she has. Unfortunately, the real world doesnt see it that way.

Jon

[postscript]

stevemacdonald said:

postscript said:

...The article (Hayley no model) is very badly written....

Just to be fair to The Press and its capable writers, that wasn't an "article". It was simply a letter to the editor in response to an article (Hayley still hunts...).

Thanks for the correction Steve.
Peter S.

[Belinda]

dave said:

For example, I have noticed much less antagonism towards Hayley in 2007 in some of the NZ media than I did at the time Odyssey was released in 2005. Perhaps, finally, they have realised that Hayley is here to stay?
Cheers, Dave

Re Hayley here to stay
I wrote a letter to the Press letters to the editor they cut it down
to a small quote ,I'll post it here as it does not need it's own thread.
I had mentioned Hayley was to be coming home soon and HWi and the great review from the Press reviewer,
It was in on April 18th,

Of my letter all they put in was
Press reviewer Patrick Shepherd hit the nail on the head when reviewing Hayley's new album (April 7),
He said the doubters need doubt no more Hayley Westenra
has hit the world stage and looks every bit as if she's here to stay.

belinda