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Katherine Jenkins

• Tidy BBC1 chat show for Nessa

  The Sun - Found Nov. 23, 2009 Gavin and Stacey co-stars Joanna Page and James Corden will pop in, along with Welsh opera star Katherine Jenkins and Dr Who creator Russell T... Gavin & Stacey - the final series starts on Thursday - BBC Tidy chat for Nessa - The Sun Explore All

  BBC

• Michael Lohan and Jon Gosselin Actually Formed a Coalition of the ...

  Gawker - Found Nov. 21, 2009 This is absurd . Nobody knows who this Katherine Jenkins person is, or what she sings or why we should be so crazy excited about her if she...

• Robin van Persies treatment the embryo of a brilliant idea

  Times Online - Found Nov. 20, 2009 So whats the problem? And when did everyone around rugby get so prissy? I blame that Katherine Jenkins.

• Strictly Come Dancing ? It Takes Two: Midweek Update

  Unreality TV - Found Nov. 19, 2009 Anton ? Penelope Cruz; Ricky G ? Tess Daly; Ian ? Katherine Jenkins. Lainton on the sofa, ankle on a cushion.

• Win tickets to see Katherine Jenkins at London?s Apple store

  Mirror.co.uk - Found Nov. 16, 2009 By Mirror.co.uk 16/11/2009 To promote her new album Believe Katherine Jenkins will be playing a special one-off show at London?s Regent Street Apple

• Myleene Klass and Katherine Jenkins working on an opera reality TV ...

  Unreality TV - Found Nov. 15, 2009 Myleene Klass and Katherine Jenkins are reportedly planning a new opera reality TV show.

• Katherine Jenkins live at the Apple Store

  Music-News - Found Nov. 15, 2009 Multi award-winning vocalist Katherine Jenkins will perform and record an exclusive iTunes LIVE from London show at the Apple Store, Regent Street.

• Opera's push into the mainstream

  BBC - Found Nov. 14, 2009 Katherine Jenkins is dominating the classical album chart but she also has two albums in the main top 40. Take That's Gary Barlow is music's...

• Robbie joins Take That on stage, but reunion stops short of a song

  BBC - Found Nov. 12, 2009 Other acts on the bill included Leona Lewis, Lily Allen, Mika, Muse, Dizzee Rascal and Katherine Jenkins. Take That perform for Children in Need - BBC Robbie 'milks' Take That appearance - BBC Robbie in Take That reunion claim - Metro.co.uk Robbie Williams and Take That record 'amazing' songs - Telegraph Explore All

  Eircom.net

• Robbie joins Take That on stage

  BBC - Found Nov. 12, 2009 'Prettiest girl' Other acts on the bill include Leona Lewis, Lily Allen, Mika, Muse, Dizzee Rascal and Katherine Jenkins. Stars set for charitable concert - BBC Stars set for charitable concert - BBC Chasing stars - BBC Robbie on babies and Jedward! - ITV.com Explore All

  Daily Express

Katherine Jenkins extracted from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License

Katherine Jenkins
Background information
Born	29 June 1980 (1980-06-29) (age 29)
Origin	Neath, Wales
Genres	Crossover, classical
Occupations	Mezzo-soprano
Years active	1998 – present
Labels	Universal Warner Music
Website	kj.tv

Katherine Jenkins (born 29 June 1980) is a Welsh light classical-popular crossover singer.¹² She is chiefly notable for her recorded output, her albums featuring a mixture of arias, popular songs, hymns and light classical music. Her seventh album, Believe, was released on 26 October 2009. She has also given many concerts.

Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Record success 3 Concerts 4 Television 5 Personal life 6 Discography 6.1 Singles 6.2 Albums 6.3 Concert videos 7 Further reading 8 References 9 External links

Early life and education

Jenkins was born in Neath, Wales,³ where her sister Laura and she were raised by their parents Selwyn John (1924⁴-1995)⁵ and Susan. She has two half-sisters from her father's first marriage, neither of whom she has met.

She attended Alderman Davies Church in Wales Primary School in Neath and later Dwr-y-Felin Comprehensive School (also in her home town of Neath), received A grades in GCSEs and A Levels and participated in productions such as Calamity Jane and Guys and Dolls.³ She attended singing and lessons with singing and piano teacher Mark Ritzmann⁶ and passed her Grade 8 examinations with distinction in both singing and piano.

Between 1990 and 1996 Jenkins was a member of the Royal School of Church Music Cathedral Singers and won the St Cecilia Award, the highest RSCM award for female choristers.³ She was also a member of the National Youth Choir of Wales for three years⁶ won the BBC Radio 2 Welsh Choirgirl of the Year contest (twice)³⁷ and the BET Welsh Choirgirl of the Year competition.³ She was also awarded the Pelenna Valley Male Voice Choir Scholarship for the most promising young singer.³ At the age of 17 she won a scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Music,³where she also studied Italian, German, French and Russian, graduating with honours⁶ and receiving a music teacher's diploma.

After working as a freelance singing teacher and as a model⁸ she entered a modelling competition and became the Face of Wales 2000. She then decided to follow a musical career.³ Universal Classics & Jazz heard her demo and she was invited to an interview at which she sang Rossini's "Una voce poco fa".⁸ Universal offered Jenkins a six-album deal,⁸ the most lucrative in the United Kingdom's classical recording history, reportedly worth £1 million.⁹³⁷¹⁰

Record success

Six out of seven Jenkins' studio albums reached number one in the classical charts between 2004 and 2008, selling a total of more than 4,000,000 copies. After her first album, Premiere, made her the fastest-selling mezzo-soprano to date³ she became the first British classical crossover artist to have two number one albums in the same year.¹¹ She is also the first female artist to win two consecutive Classical BRIT Awards: her second album, Second Nature, reached number 16 in the UK pop charts⁹ and was Album of the Year in the 2005 BRIT Awards.

Jenkins' Italian-language version of Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You" ("L'Amore Sei Tu"), first performed live at Nostell Priory, West Yorkshire on 28 August 2005, was the first cut on Jenkins' third album Living A Dream. After her third album was released, uniquely, she held the top three positions in the classical crossover music chart,³ .¹² The album held the number one position for nearly a year and reached number four in the pop album charts.¹² Jenkins repeated the success of Second Nature with her Living A Dream album when she won the classical BRIT award for Album of the Year for a second time.¹³¹⁴

Her fourth album, Serenade was released on 6 November, 2006 and reached number five in the mainstream charts selling more than 50,000 copies in its first week, a record in the genre.³ The top four albums on HMV's classical charts were hers.¹⁵

Her fifth album, Rejoice, was released on 19 November 2007 and included songs written specially for her,¹⁶ two by Take That's Gary Barlow.¹⁷ The album entered the pop album charts at number three,¹⁸ beating the Spice Girls and Girls Aloud.¹⁹ Jenkins commented "I never imagined when I was a young girl listening to them on the radio that I would outsell the Spice Girls and Celine Dion. It’s almost too much to take in. I can’t thank my fans enough for all their support."¹⁹

On 20 October 2008 Jenkins released Sacred Arias, which is her last album with Universal Music. On 19 October The Telegraph stated that Jenkins had signed the biggest classical recording deal in history, for $10 million (£5.8 million), with Warner Music.²⁰

Jenkins released her latest album, Believe, on 26 October 2009, the first with Warner Music. This album featured Andrea Bocelli and other musicians like Andre Rieu and Chris Botti. She made various TV appearances such as GMTV, Something for the Weekend and Piers Morgan's Life Stories on 24 October 2009 and on The Graham Norton Show on 2 November 2009. Play.com listed in their "Upcoming 2009 Releases" a Compilation Album by Jenkins, which would be released in November, nothing was confirmed by Katherine or anybody else, but the album has been confirmed with a release date 2 November 2009.²¹

At the start of 2007 Jenkins made her first appearance in the British young people's Sunday Times Rich List which ranked her as the sixty-second richest young person in Britain with an estimated wealth of £9 million.²² As of the end of 2006, she is estimated to have sold about 2 million records since her debut in 2004.²²

Concerts

Jenkins first came to public attention when she sang at Westminster Cathedral honouring Pope John Paul II's silver jubilee in October 2003 and then supporting Aled Jones on tour.⁶⁹ At the Rugby World Cup in 2003 she made her Sydney Opera House debut⁸ and in August 2004 her first USA appearance, supporting Hayley Westenra at Joe's Pub in New York City.⁶

Jenkins was the first person to perform the Home Nations anthem "The Power of Four" and began to appear regularly to sing the Welsh national anthem "Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau" at Welsh international rugby union matches, singing with Bryn Terfel at the 2005 Wales-England Six Nations match at the Millennium Stadium.⁸ She is now the official mascot for the Wales rugby union team.¹⁰ She also sang at the rugby league Challenge Cup final between St. Helens and Wigan.

On 22 January 2005 Jenkins sang in Cardiff at the Tsunami Relief Concert¹⁰ and in April and May of that year supported Irish tenor Ronan Tynan on his first US tour as a solo artist. That May she sang at Trafalgar Square to a 15,000-strong audience celebrating the 60th Anniversary of VE Day,²³²⁴ At the Berlin stage of Live 8 in 2005, Jenkins sang the hymn "Amazing Grace".²⁵ and she later helped to launch the Royal British Legion's poppy appeal at Covent Garden whilst wearing a dress made of 2,500 poppies.²⁶

Jenkins, with the Blue Man Group, sang "I Feel Love" in front of the Queen at the Royal Variety Performance on 21 November 2005.²⁷ She also performed at the Nobel Peace Prize concert in Oslo, Norway on 11 December 2005.²⁸

In November 2006 she performed before the Queen at the Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall and joined fellow Welsh singer James Fox in the final verse of "Anthem" from the musical Chess.²⁹

In July 2007 Jenkins gave a concert Margam Park in south Wales, performing alongside Paul Potts and Juan Diego Florez.³⁰ Jenkins extended a personal invitation to Potts to sing "Nessun Dorma" at the concert.³¹

In September 2007 Jenkins catwalk modeled at Naomi Campbell's Fashion Relief event for charity in a Julien MacDonald dress which was then bought by Sir Philip Green for £10,000.³²

In November 2007 she sang again at the Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall, also being named classical performer of the year at the Variety Club Showbiz Awards.³³

With Darcey Bussell she has appeared in a stage song-and-dance production, entitled Viva la Diva, paying tribute to stars³⁴ including Madonna and Judy Garland.¹⁶ The show opened in Manchester in November 2007.³⁴³⁵ Jenkins learned to tap dance, spending eight hours a week learning the choreography and running three miles a day to get fit.¹⁶ She performed the Welsh National Anthem on 17 May 2008 at the 2008 FA Cup Final between Cardiff City and Portsmouth, becoming the first person to do this at an FA Cup Final.³⁶

On July 8 2009 Jenkins performed at the opening ceremony of the Ashes cricket competition between England and Australia at Sophia Gardens cricket ground in Cardiff. On Saturday 12 September 2009 she performed in Hyde Park for the Last Night of the Proms. On Monday 21st September she performed at the memorial service for Sir Bobby Robson, singing "Pie Jesu" at the request of Lady Robson.

Television

On 23 December 2006 Jenkins appeared on ITV's Parkinson show, backed by the Froncysyllte Male Voice Choir and a brass band.³⁷

She made a cameo appearance in two episodes of Emmerdale which saw 11.6 million viewers tune in to find out who killed popular character Tom King who was murdered on Christmas Day. She appeared in the show on 16th and 17th of May 2007, which saw her opening the village pageant.³⁸

In July 2007, she performed live on Saving Planet Earth on BBC 1 to raise money for the BBC Wildlife Fund³⁹

On 12 August 2007 she appeared on ITV's Britain's Favourite View, nominating Three Cliffs Bay on the Gower peninsula as Britain's favourite view.⁴⁰ She commented; "I grew up on the edge of the Gower, but it was still a holiday place for our family. We’d go on weekend breaks to Three Cliffs Bay – six miles down the road! That’s how gorgeous it is."⁴¹

On 21 October 2007 she sang "Time to Say Goodbye" with Andrea Bocelli on the Strictly Come Dancing results show. Jenkins and Darcy Bussell performed a segment of their show Viva la Diva before the Queen at the 79th Royal Variety Performance, televised on 9 December 2007.⁴² On 15 December Jenkins performed on The X Factor final with contestant Rhydian Roberts, performing the song "You Raise Me Up".⁴³

Jenkins also appeared in episode 3 of the fifth series of The Apprentice, performing Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah as part of a private recital to winning team Ignite. The programme was aired on BBC One on 8 March 2009.

Personal life

Her father, Selwyn, died of lung cancer aged 70 when she was 15,³⁴⁴ She has remarked on missing him in her album liner notes and has dedicated any award she received to him.

Selwyn was a big Swansea City fan, he would take her to the Vetch Field at a very young age. After he died Katherine still supported Swansea City for her father. At the 2008 FA Cup final between Cardiff City And Portsmouth FC Katherine crossed her fingers while singing to jinx Cardiff City who are Swansea City's closest rivals.

Whilst Jenkins was studying at the Royal Academy of Music, at 19 years of age, she was attacked and nearly raped by a man who followed her off a bus after she had enjoyed a night out with friends.⁴⁵ When Jenkins was making the 2-minute walk to her London home, he sprang upon her and tried to drag her into an alley, but she managed to escape.⁴⁵ He continued to pursue her and punched her to the ground, prompting Jenkins to curl up into a ball so that he was not able to rape her.⁴⁶ After repeatedly kicking her, he eventually left with her wallet and has never been caught.⁴⁶ "It was just awful. I was so shaken up. It took me a long time to get over it, and my mum was devastated. I genuinely believe I was very lucky," commented Jenkins.⁴⁵

After Jenkins and Dame Vera Lynn were both seen centre stage together at the 60th Anniversary of VE Day in 2005 during the song "We'll Meet Again", the newspapers dubbed Jenkins "the new Forces' Sweetheart", a nickname given to Lynn during World War II.²⁴ Lynn had said to Jenkins that she should "go out and entertain the troops" to which Jenkins promised.²⁴ In December 2005 and 2006 Jenkins travelled to Iraq to sing to the soldiers for Christmas.¹¹⁴⁷ On her first visit to Iraq in 2005, when travelling to Shaibah, the largest British base in Southern Iraq, the helicopter she was travelling in was targeted by missiles. Anti-missile flares were deployed and the group landed safely.²⁴

In November 2008 Jenkins revealed to The Daily Mail that when she was a student she had taken class A drugs (cocaine and ecstasy) and cannabis. She noted that she was introduced to them by her friends at London's Royal College of Music, and that she stopped taking them after signing her record deal in 2003.⁴⁸ In the article Jenkins describes taking drugs as "the biggest regret of my life".

Jenkins' autobiography, Time to Say Hello, was released on 28 January 2008, and was also serialised in The Mail on Sunday.⁴⁶

Discography

Singles

Song	Year
"Time to Say Goodbye"	2005
"Green Green Grass of Home"	2006
"Bring Me To Life"	2009

Albums

Album	Year	UK Albums	UK Classical	USA	AUS	Notes
Premiere	2004	31 49	1	N/K	DNC
Second Nature		16 49	1	N/K	DNC	UK Classical Album of the Year; released in the U.S. as La Diva.
Living a Dream	2005	4 49	1 50	N/K	13	UK Classical Album of the Year.
Serenade	2006	5 49	1 51	N/K	DNC
From the Heart	2007	Import	Import	N/K	DNC	Import from China; compilation of tracks from previous albums.
Rejoice		318	N/A	N/K	25	Not designated as "classical".
Sacred Arias	2008	518	1	N/K	N/K	Last album with Universal Music.
Believe	2009	6	1			First album on Warner Music label.
The Ultimate Collection		9

Concert videos

DVD	Year	Notes
Live at Llangollen	2006
Katherine in the Park	2007	Live at Margam Park, Port Talbot.
Viva La Diva	2008	With Darcey Bussell, live at the O2 Arena London.

Further reading

• Time to Say Hello: The Autobiography, Orion (28 January 2008) (ISBN 0-7528-8838-2)

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Katherine Jenkins

• Katherine Jenkins Official Site
• Katherine Jenkins at the Internet Movie Database
• Katherine Jenkins biography from BBC Wales
• Katherine Jenkins on Classicalx
• Official Record Label Website

v • d • e Katherine Jenkins Studio Albums Premiere · Second Nature · Living a Dream · Serenade · Rejoice · Sacred Arias · Believe Other albums La Diva · From the Heart Singles "Time to Say Goodbye" · "Green Green Grass of Home" Video albums Live at Llangollen · Katherine in the Park · Viva la Diva Related content Time to Say Hello: The Autobiography · Universal Music Group · Warner Music Group

Persondata
NAME	Jenkins, Katherine
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Welsh classical crossover singer
DATE OF BIRTH	1980-6-29
PLACE OF BIRTH	Neath, Wales
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH