Voice of an angel
Katherine Jenkins has sold millions of albums and is a hugely popular classical singer. But there are some who still question her operatic credentials. Like she’s going to let that get in her way, she tells Alistair Duncan
Above: Katherine Jenkin's latest Album: Rejoice
With her bouncy bob of sandy blond hair, long, lustrous eyelashes, slim, sinuous figure and teeth that are pitch-perfect in their gleaming whiteness, classical singer Katherine Jenkins does not look much like a prima donna.
‘When I got my record deal, people would tell me: you don’t look like a classical artist,’ she says. ‘Don’t you have to be huge and wear horns? You know, the stereotype of a huge, Wagnerian soprano.’
27-year-old Jenkins is not your average operatic singer. But then your average operatic singer does not sell albums in the manner, or rather whopping great quantity, in which Jenkins does. The Welsh princess of classical crossover recently released her fifth studio album, Rejoice, only to watch it instantly spring to the top of the pop charts (achieving the number three spot in the month of its release). This followed on from the phenomenal sales of Living the Dream, her fourth effort, which stayed at No 1 in the classical charts for almost a year, after its 2005 release. Her first record, Premiere, was the fastest-selling by a mezzo soprano. At one stage, she became the only classical artist to hold the No 1, 2 and 3 positions in the classical charts at the same time.
So Katherine Jenkins has success she positively luxuriates in, but she is known in the music industry for being refreshingly un-big-headed. It’s a reputation that I cannot fault. Charming, relaxed and effervescent (just don’t ask her about Gethin Jones, the Blue Peter presenter whom she’s been dating), she’s about as undiva-ish a diva as one might hope for.
Buried beneath the glimmering smile, though, I wonder how much Katherine Jenkins burns for success. Has she always been ambitious or have things just panned out the way, I ask.
‘I think in some ways it’s just happened, but then in others ways, I do feel as if I am being guided along a path,’ she replies. As she says this, her tone becomes more solemn. ‘I don’t know whether it’s God or my dad. But I do feel that I’m being guided along something that’s meant for me.’
Selwyn Jenkins, her factory worker father died from cancer when she was 16. During his last days, he spent a lot of time off work with his chorister daughter at home, while Katherine’s mother, Susan, a radiographer, went off to work to put bread on the table.
‘He made me believe that it was all down to hard work and if I was determined, then it would happen,’ she says. ‘He kept on saying, “Come on Kath, I know you can do it.”’
Jenkins, a conscientious schoolgirl who got straight As in her GCSEs and A levels, won a scholarship to the prestigious Royal Academy of Music at the age of 17. She had already shone as a choirgirl in her hometown of Neath in West Glamorgan (she won BBC Radio 2’s Welsh Choirgirl of the Year twice) before heading to London.
‘I made a demo tape at my last year at the Royal Academy,’ she explains, ‘then that demo got passed to somebody who knew someone at a record company. All of a sudden, I’m being called in to see Universal Classics and I get signed this big deal.’
The deal is rumoured to be the largest ever for a British classical artist – around £1m. You could never accuse Jenkins of not earning her corn, though. Her work ethic is famous; last year, for instance, she took only one week off. And she’s determined to be the master of her own destiny.
‘I’ve got a great team that I work with, my manager and record company, they understand that I want the last decision to be with me,’ she says, offering a flash of steel. ‘I don’t want to be one of these pampered artists. I want to know what’s going on. If it all goes wrong, I want it to be because I was the one who makes the decision, not because someone else made the decision and it wasn’t in my hands.’
The photogenic songbird boasts staggering albums sales, but in spite of this, or, more likely, because of this, Katherine Jenkins is often the target of criticism. Opera purists are typically sniffy about her work, claiming that she is not a proper opera singer, as she has never sung a complete opera (‘I’ve always called myself a classical singer, so it makes me laugh when they say that,’ she retorts), while she’s hardly appealing to the myspace generation of music lovers who connect with, say, Lily Allen or Kate Nash’s catchy pop melodies and cheeky lyrics. Who buys Katherine Jenkins albums exactly?
‘The bigger part is going to be over 40s,’ she says, ‘and it’s 60/40, men to women.’ Evidently, someone at her record label has been busy doing research. ‘But at the concerts, I hear so many young kids saying, ‘I want to be an classical singer when I grow up’. That’s brilliant for me to hear.’
Choral singing and Wales have long been intertwined. I ask her how she’d explain to someone not from Wales why her home country is so steeped in a choral tradition. Why are the Welsh so compelled to sing?
‘In Wales, people are just not embarrassed to get up and give it a go,’ she explains. ‘They sing at every possible opportunity, whether it’s in the pub or at the rugby. And every little town will have its male voice choir.’
She also has a theory that there’s a technical reason why the Welsh are more inclined to sing.‘You know with my accent, it’s quite melodic, quite sing-song,’ she says, deepening her lilt. ‘It’s the same with the Italians. I think if you do it naturally with your speaking, it helps you when you start singing.’
Talking of opera, Wales and so on, the name of another young celebrity choirgirl inevitably bubbles to the surface: Charlotte Church. Are they friends or, as certain newspapers would have us believe, sworn enemies?
‘I am friends with her but I’ve not seen her for a while, especially now that she’s had a baby’, says Jenkins. ‘We sang together at the Six Nations Championship in 2005. We spent the day together getting ready. We planned our outfits together. We hit it off. She’s a lovely girl. What you see is what you get.’
Apparently, the two poster-girls for classical crossover now have a pact: ‘should we ever read anything negative in a newspaper that the other one has said, then we know it’s not true’.
As for the future, Katherine Jenkins’ hectic schedule isn’t abating any time soon. This summer, she embarks on a series of live performances that kick off with a performance at the Hampton Court Palace festival. ‘It’s a beautiful setting, Hampton Court Palace,’ she says. ‘I find summer concerts a bit more relaxed than performing in a concert hall. Normally, the weather is good, people have a picnic, drink some Champagne. It’s a lovely way to start my run of summer shows.’
Drinking champagne is something that Jenkins herself only very rarely indulges in; because alcohol dehydrates your vocal chords, she generally shuns a drink, only ‘really letting her hair down’ a couple of times a year, she says. Although she and Charlotte Church have Wales, prettiness and classical singing all in common, that’s possibly where the similarities end, I’d say.
Katherine Jenkins will be performing at Hampton Court Palace Festival on 17 June 2008 (See Tickets, 0871 386 116; Ticketmaster, 0844 847 1938; www.hamptoncourtfestival.com) Her album Rejoice is out now.