Katherine JenkinsOBE (born 29 June 1980) is a Welsh singer. She is a mezzo-soprano and performs operatic arias, popular songs, musical theatre, and hymns.[1][2][3]
After winning singing competitions in her youth, Jenkins studied at the Royal Academy of Music, modelled, and taught voice lessons. She came to wide public attention in 2003 when she sang at Westminster Cathedral in honour of Pope John Paul II's silver jubilee. Since 2004, she has released numerous albums that have performed well on British and foreign charts. In both 2005 and 2006, her albums received Classic Brit Awards as Album of the Year. She has been seen widely in concert and has performed for British Armed Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. She has sung at sporting events, on television shows, and in support of many charities.
Early life
Katherine Jenkins was born in Neath on 29 June 1980, the daughter of factory worker Selwyn John Jenkins and Susan, an NHS radiographer.[4][5] She has a sister named Laura. She attended the Church in Wales' Alderman Davies primary school in Neath, Dwr-y-Felin Comprehensive School, and Gorseinon College.[6] She received A grades in her GCSEs and A Levels and participated in productions such as Calamity Jane and Guys and Dolls.[7] She studied vocal performance with John Hugh Thomas and passed her Grade 8 examinations with distinction in both singing and piano. Her father, Selwyn, who was twenty-three years older than his wife and took early retirement to look after his children when their mother returned to work,[8] died of lung cancer at age 70 when Jenkins was 15.[7][9] She has dedicated each award she has received to him.
Career
Early career
Between 1991 and 1996, Jenkins was a member of the Royal School of Church Music Cathedral Singers and passed the St Cecilia Award, the highest RSCM award for female choristers.[7] She was also a member of the National Youth Choir of Wales for three years,[10] won the BBC Radio 2 Welsh Choirgirl of the Year contest (twice), and the BET Welsh Choirgirl of the Year competition. She was also awarded the Pelenna Valley Male Voice Choir Scholarship for the most promising young singer. At the age of 17 she won a scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Music,[7] graduating with honours[10] and receiving a music teacher's diploma.
After working as a freelance voice coach, a tour guide on the London Eye and as a model,[11] she entered a modelling competition and became the Face of Wales 2000. She then decided to follow a musical career.[7]Universal Classics and Jazz heard her demo and she was invited to an interview where she sang Rossini's "Una voce poco fa".[11] Universal offered Jenkins a six-album deal,[11] the most lucrative in the United Kingdom's classical recording history, reportedly worth £1million.[7][12][13]
Record success
Jenkins performing in 2011
Six out of seven of Jenkins's studio albums reached number one in the UK classical charts between 2004 and 2008, selling a total of more than 4million copies. After her first album, Premiere, made her the fastest-selling mezzo-soprano to date[7] she became the first British classical crossover artist to have two number one albums in the same year.[14] She is the first female artist to win two consecutive Classical BRIT Awards: her second album, Second Nature, reached number 16 in the UK Albums Chart,[12] and was Album of the Year in the 2005 BRIT Awards.
Jenkins's 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 her third album Living a Dream. After that album was released, uniquely, she held the top three positions in the classical crossover music chart.[7][15] The album held the number one position for nearly a year and reached number four in the pop album charts.[15] 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.[16][17]
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.[7] The top four albums on HMV's classical charts were hers.[18]
Her fifth album, Rejoice, was released on 19 November 2007 and included songs written specially for her,[19] two by Take That's Gary Barlow.[20] The album entered the pop album charts at number three,[21] beating the Spice Girls and Girls Aloud.[22] 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."[22]
On 20 October 2008 Jenkins released Sacred Arias, which is her last album with Universal Music. On 19 October The Daily Telegraph stated that Jenkins had signed the biggest classical recording deal in history, for US$10million (£5.8million), with Warner Music.[23]
After a move to Decca Records, Jenkins released Home Sweet Home in 2014 and in 2016 released the album ‘Celebration’
In August 2017 it was announced by Classic FM that Jenkins was the best selling classical artist of the last 25 years in the UK beating the likes of Luciano Pavarotti and Andre Rieu.
In November 2018 her 13th studio album ‘Guiding Light’ was released, charting at Number 2. In May 2019 it reached Number 1 making Jenkins the first classical artist to have had 13 Number 1 albums.
Following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, Jenkins was asked by the BBC to be the first to record "God Save the King" for the new King Charles III. The new national anthem aired for the first time the day following the death of the late queen, 10 September 2022.[25]
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.[32]
In November 2007 she sang again at the Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall and was named classical performer of the year at the Variety Club of Great Britain Awards.[35]
With Darcey Bussell she has appeared in a stage song-and-dance production, entitled Viva la Diva, paying tribute to stars[36] including Madonna and the late Judy Garland (who died in 1969).[19] The show opened in Manchester in November 2007.[36][37] Jenkins learned to tap dance, spending eight hours a week learning the choreography and running three miles a day to get fit.[19] 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.[38]
At the beginning of 2009, Jenkins performed in South Korea with Plácido Domingo. This was Jenkins's third concert with Domingo having performed with him in Hong Kong in 2008 and Athens in 2007. They then performed together in May 2009 at The Classical Brit Awards.
On 8 July 2009, Jenkins performed at the opening ceremony of the Ashes Test Series at Sophia Gardens cricket ground in Cardiff. On 12 September 2009, she performed in Hyde Park for Proms in the Park.
During March and April 2013, Jenkins went on tour with Il Divo for their first and only European and UK tour. She also participated in the 2013 U.S. Memorial Day Concert in Washington, D.C., singing a selection from Andrew Lloyd Webber's Requiem and You'll Never Walk Alone from Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel.
On 1 December 2020, the Katherine Jenkins Christmas Spectacular at the Royal Albert Hall was released as both a film in cinemas and on DVD.[44]
Cygnet gin
In June 2023, Jenkins launched the Cygnet 22 range of gins. Jenkins claimed that she became a gin drinker because, unlike other types of alcohol, gin was typically "cleaner" to drink for singers, without affecting their voice.[45][46]
The name "cygnet" came from the term of a baby swan, an animal symbolic of her native Swansea. The number "22" refers to the age Jenkins was when she was offered the largest recording deal in classical music history.[45] She describes the brand as an "eco-friendly" as the bottles are 100% plastic-free, with a 100 percent biodegradable seal made from wood pulp in Wales. The Cygnet 22 bottle also weighs up to 50 percent less than the average spirits bottle meaning it requires less raw materials to produce and less energy to transport.[46]
She made a cameo appearance in two episodes of Emmerdale which saw 11.6million viewers tune in to find out who killed popular character Tom King, who was murdered on Christmas Day. She also appeared in the show on 16 and 17 May 2007, which saw her opening the village pageant.[51] In July 2007, she performed live on Saving Planet Earth on BBC 1 to raise money for the BBC Wildlife Fund.[52]
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.[53] 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."[54]
On 21 October 2007 she sang "Time to Say Goodbye" on the Strictly Come Dancing results show. Jenkins and Darcey Bussell performed a segment of their show Viva la Diva before the Queen at the 79th Royal Variety Performance, televised on 9 December 2007.[55] On 15 December, Jenkins performed on The X Factor final with contestant Rhydian Roberts, performing the song "You Raise Me Up".[56] Jenkins made an appearance on Saturday Kitchen LIVE in December 2008. She has presented and sung on the BBC television programme Songs of Praise.
Jenkins started 2010 by appearing as one of two mentors on ITV1s prime time Friday night show, Popstar to Operastar. Later in the year, she appeared on the ITV1 game show Magic Numbers, acting as magician and show host Stephen Mulhern's assistant in the UK TV premiere of an illusion in which she was sawed in half inside a clear box. She also appeared in the 2010 Christmas Special of Doctor Who, "A Christmas Carol", in which she played Abigail Pettigrew—her first major acting role. Jenkins appeared as the featured singer on 11 April 2011 episode of ABC's show Dancing with the Stars (DWTS) singing "Con te partirò" (Time to Say Goodbye) and "O mio babbino caro". She later sang "The Flower Duet" with DWTS regular Beverley Staunton.[citation needed]
In 2012, she competed in the American Dancing with the Stars. She was partnered with two-time champion Mark Ballas. Jenkins and Ballas came runners-up in the competition.[58] On 20 and 21 July 2012, Jenkins sang in concert with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in Salt Lake City, Utah at the annual Pioneer Day Concert 2012 broadcast on BYU-TV and various PBS television stations worldwide.[59]
In April 2017, Jenkins appeared on Operation: Magic, a one-off magic show on ITV1, acting as the assistant to magician and Britain's Got Talent winner Richard Jones.[60] During the show, she took part in a mind-reading trick involving a military band, and also assisted in a number of illusions including being levitated, vanished, guillotined and sawed in half.[61] In July 2017, it was announced that Jenkins would be a main presenter on BBC One's religious and spiritual show Songs of Praise.[62]
In June 2018, Jenkins performed ‘Never Enough’ from the film ‘The Greatest Showman’ at the Classical Brit Awards at the Royal Albert Hall in London.[63]
Jenkins made her film debut in the feature film Minamata.[65]
Dancing with the Stars
During the 14th season of the show, Jenkins topped the weekly judges' leaderboard six times out of ten. In the semifinals, during her salsa, her partner Mark Ballas accidentally kicked her in the back, leading to a spasm that compromised her final moves,[66] but she advanced to the finals nonetheless, along with Donald Driver and William Levy. In the final, she scored 30 out of 30 for all three of her dances, and finished as a runner-up to Driver. Her average score was 27.9, the third-highest ever in the show's history at the time.[67]
Jenkins is a Christian and says that she believes in Heaven: "I believe my dad is somewhere doing something nice."[68] In memory of her father, she raised £25,000 for Macmillan Cancer Support by running the 2013 London Marathon. She finished the course in 5 hours and 26 minutes.
While Jenkins was studying at the Royal Academy of Music at the age of 19, she was attacked, beaten, and robbed by an unknown assailant who attempted to rape her but she fought him off.[69] She also began using drugs during this period of time, which she later said was "the biggest regret of [her] life".[69]
In 2007, Jenkins made her first appearance in the British young people's Sunday Times Rich List which ranked her as the 62nd richest young person in Britain with an estimated wealth of £9million.[70] In 2010, the Sunday Times Rich List placed her at joint 11th in the Top 20 Young Millionaires list alongside Leona Lewis and Charlotte Church with an estimated wealth of £11million.
Jenkins met Welsh television presenter Gethin Jones in 2007, and they became engaged in February 2011. They announced that they were no longer together on 30 December 2011.[71]
In October 2013, Jenkins began dating American painter Andrew Levitas.[72] They announced their engagement in April 2014.[73] They married at Hampton Court Palace on 27 September 2014,[74] with the vicar from her hometown conducting a religious blessing.[75] Jenkins gave birth to their first child, a daughter, in September 2015. Their son was born in April 2018.[76]
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