Hayley Westenra
The infant school teacher who picked six-year-old Hayley Westenra out of her class to take the lead singing part of Little Star in the school Christmas play certainly knew what she was doing. After the performance the teacher took her bemused parents aside and informed them their daughter had perfect pitch.
Within ten years of that first star-spot the Christchurch-born prodigy would be one of the world's most exciting singing sensations, with a crate full of platinum discs; and singing duets with the greats, heroes like Andrea Bocelli, Jose Carreras and Bryn Terfel and to audiences including everyone from the Queen (three times in one week!), Tony Blair and George Bush to fans at the Sydney Opera House, Wembley Stadium, Carnegie Hall and the Royal Albert Hall. She also recently sang at the unveiling of the monument to the sacrifice made by New Zealand forces in the Second World War in the presence of the Queen, Tony Blair and the New Zealand Prime Minister, Helen Clark.
Born the eldest daughter of a gemologist, an expert in precious stones, with a mother who has turned her hand to everything up to and including photographic duties for her daughter, Hayley followed up her infant school performance with parts in major productions of musicals like Annie, La Boheme and The Sound of Music. But it was as a child busker that things really started to take off for Hayley.
Like most girls her age, Hayley was into her after-school clubs, her ballet, and her sports. She entered the odd talent show (usually winning). Her first busking experience was when she and a group of mates found they didn't have enough lunch money and decided they'd earn it singing for local shoppers (they ate very well that day!). The experience was an eye-opener for Hayley, who, while still only 11, started staking a pitch and regaling anyone who would listen not only with her voice but her violin. "I soon noticed I would get quite a crowd when I was singing but when I started to play the violin, they drifted off," she laughs now.
And the crowds that would surround the busking pre-teen were her first fan base, asking her for CDs she hadn't even got round to recording yet. No problem. With the help of her mum, Hayley had some CDs run off and would deliver them personally to the tourists who had seen her perform at their hotels. But demand outstripped their almost unit-by-unit production and soon an impressed friend of her parents stumped up a massive $5,000 for Hayley and her mum, whose photographs were on those almost home-made CDs, to get a proper batch burned.
With boxes of the CDs to hand, Hayley and her mum decided they might as well send some to record companies and were soon asked by Universal Records in New Zealand to come in for meetings. The CD, with its mix of classical, folk and traditional Maori songs, was so impressive Universal decided there wasn't much they wanted to change apart from the production values. The result was Hayley's first album, which went triple platinum immediately turning her into New Zealand's fasting-selling artist.
After a Christmas album (platinum, of course), it was decided that Hayley needed a world stage and so, having signed with Decca in London, she recorded Pure. The record company were confident they had something pretty special on their hands, but even they cannot have expected the reaction to Pure when it was released when Hayley was still just 15.
Selling faster than any other "classical" debut in history in the UK, Pure was a sensation: twelve times platinum in her native New Zealand, where it is the biggest-selling record of all time having spent 18 weeks at No.1 in the pop album charts. The success was replicated in the UK, where it went triple platinum (900,000), Australia, where it went platinum and in Japan, where it is the best-selling classical record in the country's history.
Hayley remained unfazed, in that way teenagers have, even though the success meant she had to leave school, resettle in London and start touring the world, adding her voice to major movies like Al Pacino's "Merchant of Venice" and Terrence Malick's "The New World" and performing in legendary venues to the most famous people on the planet, followed everywhere by "star is born"-type headlines. And she still had to study for her GCSEs in her downtime!
Now at 19, Hayley's found herself growing as a person and moving on. "I'm enjoying my new independence" she concurs, "fortunately enough I'm quite an independent person and I don't mind my own company. It would be nice to spend more time with family and friends, my time with them is never long enough." There is always time for a bit of retail therapy though. "I do love shopping, but I'm also quite frugal which kind of puts a stop to it most of the time", she laughs, "however, my one weakness is jeans - I love Diesel jeans! I'm a real jeans, t-shirt and boots kinda girl."
Her real passion however, remains the same - music. A fan of artists right across the board from John Legend to Andrea Bocelli and Placido Domingo to Stevie Wonder, Kate Bush and Joni Mitchell.
2007 sees Hayley releasing her third album in which she interprets the traditional songs of her native New Zealand, of Ireland, from where her family moved to New Zealand in 1850, and interpretations of opera arias that have passed into popular ownership. "It's an eclectic mix of songs," says Hayley, "but the thread running through is that most of these songs have stood the test of time; they're very poignant, have a sense of history and they mean a lot to me. The new songs that I've chosen or helped to create are hopefully in the same great tradition of songs that get passed down through the generations."
As well as the new album - and very complimentary to it - Hayley is joining the tour of Celtic Woman, a group made up of four Irish vocalists and an Irish fiddle player. "I filmed an American PBS TV special with them," says Hayley who loves Celtic music and is proud of her Celtic roots (it might be why her voice suits that music so well). "And I'm going on tour with them across America. We all have solos and there are some ensemble numbers, which are going to be really fun as I'm not used to working in a group. It'll be a new audience and it's always exciting when you reach out to more people with your music."
With all of this going on, Hayley still manages to be one of the youngest ever Ambassadors for UNICEF and is planning a second trip to Ghana. "Meeting young people that are the same as me but with such a different world of opportunity has a profound affect on you. I aspire to be a singer, which seems so unessential compared with their simple desire for a regular cup of clean water. You can't go somewhere like that, meet those people and come back unchanged," she says. Since her first trip, Hayley has set up "Hayley's Bikes for Ghana", a project that has already provided 6,000 bikes for children in Ghana so they can attend school and find a better future (for more details: http://www.unicef.org.nz).
She's is also involved in the Women's Environmental Network, a group that raises awareness of environmental issues affecting women. It's become a fixation. And we've seen how fixations tend to take hold of Hayley. Studying the environmental problems of our times is something Hayley spends most of her "free" time doing, and is keen to contribute towards highlighting the dangers of pollution, global warming, and nutrition issues.
You wonder if she ever regrets all this. All the fame, the success, the travelling around the world, the work. Wouldn't she like to stay still for a while, hang out a little? "You don't walk away from opportunities like these," she laughs, looking at you as if you're mad. "This is what people dream of." Having circled the globe many times, Hayley's fallen for the charms of the UK, setting up her temporary base here. "I love being an honorary Brit if I can call myself that," she smiles. "I consider London to be my second home - it's an exciting, fantastic multi-cultural city." The only time this comes into question is when her beloved All Blacks rugby team come to the UK, being their honorary mascot, she steps up to sing the New Zealand anthem with the greatest of pride and her thoughts drift back to her home in the "land of the big white cloud".
Fact File
- Hayley's debut international album PURE went straight in at No.8 in the UK pop album charts and No.1 in the Classical Charts, making her the fastest-selling debut classical artist of all time. The album turned GOLD in the UK in one week and has since hit DOUBLE PLATINUM.
- PURE went on to be the best selling album of all time in New Zealand, becoming 12 times Platinum and spending 18 weeks in the pop charts. It also went Platinum in Australia, Gold in Hong Kong and made the top 10 national pop charts in 11 countries.
- Along with her second album ODYSSEY, Hayley has achieved combined sales of over three million albums around the world.
- Hayley has performed for Her Majesty the Queen, President Bush and Tony Blair, Prince Charles, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice. Most recently, she performed at the unveiling of the New Zealand Memorial in London to celebrate the relationship between New Zealand and the UK and to remember those who have died in battle, in the presence of the Queen, Tony Blair and the New Zealand Prime Minister, Helen Clark.
- Hayley is the youngest ever Ambassador for UNICEF. In February she is scheduled for another trip to Ghana. Her "Bikes for Ghana" campaign was a huge success and provided 6,000 bikes to help young Ghanaian girls attend school and find a better future. She has also been an Ambassador for Save the Children, Hong Kong, is a patron of the Raukatauri Music Therapy Centre in Auckland, and has recently become involved in WEN (Women's Environmental Network).
- Hayley has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Sydney Opera House, Wembley Arena and the Royal Albert Hall.
- Hayley has duetted with Andrea Bocelli, José Carreras, and Bryn Terfel. She has also appeared as a special guest with the World's leading orchestra's including the Moscow Philharmonic, The Boston Pops and the RPO.
- Hayley's Film and TV work has been extensive, including an on-screen role in NBC's "American Dreams", the theme for
- Al Pacino's "Merchant of Venice", two films for Disney, and Terrence Mallick's "New World". She is recording the theme for the BBC's six part drama series, "Jekyll" (starring James Nesbitt) and for "Flood" (ITV film starring Robert Carlyle, Tom Courtney, Joanne Whalley and David Suchet).
- Hayley has performed the relevant national anthems before many major sporting events, including football (the FA Cup Final, the European Champions League), baseball (the NBA in the US), tennis (the Mercedes Cup in Los Angeles) – but her proudest duty is to sing the national anthem for her beloved All Blacks rugby team, who always win when she opens for them. She is now confirmed to sing at 2007's World Cup Finals.