Young
New Zealand singer achieves success
New
Zealand’s teenage singing sensation Hayley Westenra is setting
international records with her new album, ‘Pure’.
The
album has gone double platinum in the United Kingdom, with Westenra
becoming the fastest selling debut classical artist in United Kingdom
history.
‘Pure’
has gone gold in Australia and Hong Kong. In Japan the single
‘Amazing Grace’ is currently number one on Japan’s
international charts.
Westenra’s
music is strongly influenced by her homeland of New Zealand where
at age 17 she has now become the best selling solo recording artist
in the country’s history.
‘People
say that my voice and my music are pure, and the treatment of the
songs on the album has been pure. But it’s also the fact that
I come from New Zealand – a country that is 100 percent pure.
I think that reflects a lot in the songs I’m singing,’ she
says.
When
performing in front of dignitaries such as Her Majesty the Queen,
President George Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair, Hayley is
often thinking of New Zealand.
‘There
are quite a few songs where, as I sing, I picture myself walking
along a beach. It’s usually the beach at Sumner, in Christchurch,
where I live,’ she says.
International
success looks set to continue for Westenra in 2004 with the release
of ‘Pure’ in the United States in April, followed by
the recent announcement that she will be singing the end credit
song on the Disney feature movie ‘Mulan 2’ to be released
in Autumn, 2004.
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