Katherine Jenkins interview

Welsh superstar Katherine Jenkins speaks to YM ahead of her date at the Philharmonic Hall next month to discuss Liverpool, lockdown, her passion for musical movies and acting alongside Johnny Depp

Words by Lawrence Saunders

What are your memories of playing Liverpool?

I feel like I’ve been coming to Liverpool to perform since about 2003. It’s always such a wonderful crowd. I love the Philharmonic Hall – it’s an amazing room which has always been so warm and welcoming. I know it that well that it actually feels quite homely coming back to Liverpool. I’m really looking forward to seeing everybody again.

During the pandemic, you performed weekly on social media – both to support the NHS and for your own wellbeing, as you say nothing feels better than performing live. I imagine you must be delighted at the prospect of getting this tour started?

When we were all stuck at home, I tried to come up with ways to keep doing what I love and also try and help other people. There were people like my mum who were on their own. I knew I couldn’t do what the NHS was doing, and all that amazing work, but I could sing a few songs and keep people company. It started off as a one-week promise, thinking I’d do a concert from home every Saturday night for about four weeks, but it actually turned into a year of performances!

My kids were running around in the background whilst my husband managed the backing tracks and did a few duets with me. It was really lovely to see that people were being comforted by it. But nothing beats singing to people when you can see them. When we get out into a real theatre with proper musicians, and not backing tracks, [I like] seeing how music affects people, whether they’re clapping their hands or even tearing up.

I’ve started to see that already with some of the concerts I’ve done [post-lockdown], and I think it’s been a really emotional experience for lots of us – not just the people on the stage. I’ve missed going out to concerts too and seeing shows, as well as being in them. To say I’m excited to be out on tour is an understatement!

Aside from the live performances, how did you find lockdown? Especially with two young children?

Like everyone with a young family, it was like learning to juggle but also see the positives too. My husband and I travel a lot, one will be away and the other will be with the kids, so it was the first time in ages that we’d been all together.

Yes, the homeschooling whilst trying to do work was a test, but I’m still really happy that we had the focus of the online concerts to work together as a family and try to do something good.

Of course, we missed family and my husband’s family are in New York so he didn’t see them for almost two years in total. We were conscious of that kind of thing and were desperate to see our families.

Your most recent album, Cinema Paradiso, is a collection of songs featured in classic movies. Was it acting in your first film, Minamata, which inspired this record?

They sort of both happened at the same time, but I grew up watching musical films. If it was a rainy day, or I was off poorly from school, my mum would usually put a classic film on like The Sound of Music or Calamity Jane – that sort of thing. They were really what excited me to sing in the first place.

There is so much amazing, nostalgic music in films that it was actually really hard to pin it down to just enough songs for the album. I could have probably done 10 albums! Each song has got a special memory attached for me – ‘Moon River’ from Breakfast at Tiffany’s, I sang that as my best friend walked down the aisle at her wedding.

My dad would always sing ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ at family parties when he’d had a few drinks as well. The concert will be with a string quartet and piano, so the songs will be performed in an intimate way.

Aside from tracks off Cinema Paradiso, what else can fans expect to hear when you play Liverpool next month?

According to the streaming services, people started listening to Christmas music on their phones at the beginning of November last year, so I may do a little Christmas section at the end – alongside selected tracks from my back catalogue.

I think people will be so excited for Christmas that it’ll be a good chance to throw a little bit of that in there. And even if it’s not on the rest of the tour, I will make sure I sing ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’, especially for Liverpool.

How did you find working with the legendary film composer Ryuichi Sakamoto on the score for Minamata? His famous piece ‘Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence’ is featured on your latest album.

It was absolutely amazing. He’s the master. At the time I was making Cinema Paradiso, I was also doing the soundtrack for Minamata and I wanted to pay homage to Ryuichi with one of his pieces. I love ‘Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence’ and I will definitely be playing that on the tour.

I went to Ryuichi’s studio in New York and he had this idea about using my voice as the voice of mother nature in this film about industrial pollution. He had the film playing in the background for me and said: ‘When you see the mountain, start singing this’.

I’ve never really recorded like that before, but it was an incredible learning experience and such an honour to get to do that with him. I hope I get to do more of it in the future.

What was it like acting in a major film for the first time alongside the likes of Johnny Depp and Bill Nighy?

It was quite nerve-racking actually! Whenever I’d done acting [before Minamata], it had either been playing myself or just a cameo role but this was a straight character without any music. I thought it was a really important story to tell, a true story, and something the world should know about.

We did the boardroom scene first with Johnny [Depp] and Bill Nighy, and I was like ‘Gosh, this isn’t intimidating in the slightest!’ But you know what, they were really kind and encouraging. I’m very happy with how the film turned out.

Do you think acting is something you will do again? You’ve set the bar pretty high judging by the film’s glowing reviews!

Yes, I do! I also did another film, a Welsh film which came out recently called ‘Dream Horse’, which tells the true story of Dream Alliance, an unlikely racehorse bred by Welsh bartender Jan Vokes. It’s a really lovely, feel-good film where I play myself.

I did both Dream Horse and Minamata around the same time and I enjoyed both experiences a lot, so I’d definitely be open to more!

Katherine Jenkins will play Liverpool Philharmonic Hall on 22 November 2021

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