Britain’s best-selling classical artist of the last 25 years, Katherine Jenkins OBE, has just released her new album Guiding Light via Decca Records. The release is also accompanied by the announcement of Jenkins’ 2019 tour, An Evening With Katherine Jenkins.
Guiding Light includes 15 brand-new tracks featuring Katherine Jenkins’ personal favourites – new and old. From the time-honoured ‘Make Me a Channel of Your Peace’ and ‘Morning Has Broken’ to covers of Stormzy’s ‘Blinded By Your Grace’, and ‘Never Enough’ from The Greatest Showman, alongside original material including ‘Xander’s Song’, written for the newest addition to her family, her son, who was born earlier this year.
‘My voice has changed. This album is the most intimate album I have ever made. It’s a mindful collection of songs. I’m not trying to prove anything, I’m not trying to show how many notes I can hit, I just want to take people to a place of emotion and reflection – to touch hearts and souls.’
As one of the UK’s greatest musical exports, multi-award-winning Jenkins has performed all over the world, for the pope, for presidents and is a favourite of the Royal Family, having been invited to sing ‘God Save The Queen’ at Her Majesty’s Diamond Jubilee, to perform at Her Majesty’s Coronation Concerts at Buckingham Palace and more recently, by special request at Her Majesty’s 90th birthday celebrations at Windsor Castle. She was appointed an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) at the 2014 New Year’s Honours List for her services to music and charity.
Jenkins has performed twice in South Africa to her huge fan base thanks to Rand Merchant Bank and their Starlight Classics concerts. She has embarked upon numerous sold-out tours and duetted with greats like Plácido Domingo, Andrea Bocelli, José Carreras, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Bryn Terfel, Rolando Villazón, and Il Divo, among others.
For Katherine Jenkins, Guiding Light represents a deeply emotional journey that began when her beloved father, Selwyn, died, culminating in her new-found path as a mother.
Guiding Light is an album that speaks of life, hope, acceptance and a universal spirituality. For the 38-year-old, there is also a sense of a greater purpose to her performance. ‘I have undergone a huge change in my life,’ says Neath-born Jenkins. ‘As a child, I first started to sing in St David’s choir, so hymns were the songs I grew up with. I loved the music, but the words and the emotion only truly hit me after my father died when I was 15.
‘His death was incredibly difficult for me and my mum and sister but a lot of what I did after that was driven by that sense of loss and the deepest emotion in my music came from that place.’
To read more about the inspiration behind her new album, which includes one of English rapper Stormzy’s tracks, purchase a copy of our December 2018 / January 2019 issue, starting from only R18! Or continue supporting the arts and culture sector by subscribing to our monthly Creative Feel magazine, starting from R180 per year.
