KATHERINE THE GREAT
KATHERINE THE GREAT
Katherine Jenkins, Venue Cymru, Llandudno 17 October 2026
The 25-Year Anniversary Tour
A sold-out Venue Cymru, Llandudno, November 17, provided an intimate, but grand, setting for Katherine Jenkins as she performed concert number 11 the of her 18-date anniversary tour. It was a grand occasion, and Katherine rose to it with aplomb. Selecting key songs from her entire career, Katherine delivered a classical crossover masterclass. I attended the concert, but thought to turn the review into an overview of Katherine’s career at tour’s end.
The 18-concert tour was a celebration of Katherine’s quarter of a century in the music business and had the quality of a victory tour.
Frequently heralded as the No.1 selling Classical Music Artist, Katherine’s commercial success and artistic achievement has established her at the forefront of classical crossover. It’s a term that tends to underestimate Katherine’s considerable vocal abilities and achievements. There’s much more to Katherine than a label. The tour showcased Katherine’s genuine multiplicity in music. When it came to song selection, sequencing, and performance, Katherine didn’t put a put wrong in Llandudno, blending the songs into an overarching narrative that told the story of her life in music. That point applies to the other concerts on the tour.
Twenty-five years is a long time. In a March 5 2010 article in The Guardian Alfred Hickling acknowledged that ‘her chest-register could actually cut the operatic muster’ but expressed scepticism of her pop ambitions. ‘Jenkins has the talent, and increasingly the charisma, to head in any direction she fancies’ .. it ‘is entirely up to her.’ Katherine made her choices, and it brought her enormous success and achievement, a stellar 25-year career, performing before sold-out theatres wherever she goes.
Llandudno’s Venue Cymru was another sold out venue. Katherine delivered a show of eclectic material that proved, yet again, that Katherine is a genuinely world-class singer and performer regardless of musical labels. She is exceptionally good at what she does, and if you are one of those who likes what she does then you can see and hear no better.
Tour’s end offers an opportunity to identify the qualities that has enabled Katherine to sustain her appeal over a quarter of a century. Katherine’s stellar vocal abilities constitute a large part of the explanation, of course. But I want also to accent the deeper emotional and communal dimensions of her approach, the way the songs and their performance resonate in personal ways with members of the audience, drawing people in and holding them, uniquely but ultimately in the same way – we are all one.
I will comment on presentation and performance, staging and spectacle, repertoire and rapport, accompaniment and atmosphere, and all the other standard features of a review. But will go further. Through a combination of personal observation and description of sound and vision my intention is to bring the concert alive for readers, conveying some sense of what it is that makes Katherine Jenkins such an enduring, and endearing, artist.
Introductory theme – the 25th anniversary
Katherine has packed a lot into her 25-year career: great events, chart-topping albums, awards, singing with the great and the good every step of the way. The evening in Llandudno was a celebration of a life in music, told through songs, stories, and memories.
The musicians took their place on stage and started to play Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah. A man behind me got overexcited and shouted out ‘Hallelujah!’ As if we didn’t know! I dreaded what he would shout should Katherine sing one of her Welsh or Italian songs. But we all shared his enthusiasm, even if some of us contained it better than others. I was getting ready for a long set by the string quartet and pianist when Katherine walked on from stage right. She was wearing a floor-length red evening gown, its vivid colour and shimmering fabric immediately catching the eye. Covering one shoulder while leaving the other bare, the dress run diagonally across the bodice, conveying an elegant yet dramatic silhouette, enhanced by elaborate, cascading ruffles at the hip and down the side. It gave us a vision to go with the sound. My expert view what that this was a very nice dress, lovely colour and shape. More than anything, I was struck at how graceful and elegant Katherine was moving around in it.
Katherine began with ‘Questo E Per Te’, the very first song from her very first album, 2004’s Premiere. The theme of the show had been established – the story and celebration of twenty-five years in music.
Katherine proceeded to put on a stunning show, punctuated by showstoppers so good that they could have been show-enders. Which is to say, she brought the house down over and again. One favourite song followed another in quick succession. And for every song a story and a memory.
Katherine was in good voice, the repertoire showing off her impressive vocal range. She commanded the stage from first to last. She was accompanied by a string quartet drawn from the National Symphony Orchestra and a piano, the musicians providing a tasteful instrumental counterpoint to the sweep and richness of her voice.
Katherine spoke about how happy she was to return to Llandudno, recalling her very first performance at the Venue Cymru as support act to Hayley Westenra in 2003.
The reminiscence took me back to the time when there was a succession of young singers said to possess the voices of angels: Charlotte Church in 1998, Faryl Smith in 2008, with Hayley Westenra in the middle with 2003’s Pure. Hayley was first out of the blocks for me. I was one of the many who bought her album Pure (and her later albums). But Katherine is going strong for the marathon. 25 years and counting.
Personal anecdotes
Katherine told the story of how her mum had advised her to keep up her teaching in case the singing career should fail. It was an amusing anecdote but revealed just how precarious a singing career can be. It brought the story down to earth and back to a time when success was far from certain and had yet to be earned. Katherine emphasised how her family had supported her ambitions and backed her abilities every step of the way. Her humility made it clear the artist remained recognisably the person who had begun the journey all those years ago. And far from failing, Katherine has gone from strength to strength.
The purity and the passion
Before the concert I had expressed a few wishes on social media. I wished for some Welsh songs, some Italian (some opera, but especially Ennio Morricone), and ‘the Dolly Parton song’.
My first wish came true with the second song of the evening, ‘Calon Lân’, the Welsh hymn that appeared on Katherine’s second album Second Nature. Introducing the song, Katherine spoke of what had drawn her to music in the first place - singing made her feel so happy. She spoke of singing with ‘a pure heart,’ the English translation of the Welsh title. And pure it was, too. It was like being at church; or the rugby or the football (it’s a kind of religion, a place where singing serves as a collective expression of belonging).
After the purity came the passion as Katherine introduced ‘a little fire and danger’ into proceedings. She proceeded to perform an eye- and ear-catching ‘Habanera,’ hands on hips, arms flying at appropriate moments. She moved from the devotional to the sensual and the contrast was effective. Variety was all part of the story. The man behind me stopped shouting at this point. I think he may have passed out.
Jodok Cello
We all needed a little time to recover our breath. Katherine introduced special guest star, Swiss Cellist Jodok Cello (real name Jodok Vuille). His combination of classical music with contemporary and popular repertoire made him a natural partner for Katherine. The cello would become an important part of the evening's musical texture. Jodok performed ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’, allowing Katherine to tell the story of the time she worked with Johnny Depp, and how the actor frightened the life out of her daughter by appearing before her in pirate costume: ‘she doesn’t want to talk to you,’ Katherine told the bemused Depp. Apart from being a reminder that Katherine has worked with some serious talent, this little anecdote, told casually, goes some way towards explaining the nature of Katherine’s appeal: she introduces her family through little details that people can relate to. There’s an intimacy to the approach, a conversational quality that draws people in and holds their attention. Warm and engaging, Katherine’s rapport with the audience brought the music close to home. With every song came a story, a memory, and a meaning. The personal anecdotes brought an intimacy to the grand proceedings, establishing a tangible sense of connection; Katherine’s reminiscing sparking your own. Through the personal, Katherine is able to strike a universal chord. Everyone is drawn in.
Song selection, stage presence, performance
Continuing to unfold the story of her career, Katherine said it was her second album, 2004’s Second Nature, that opened the door for her. She introduced the album’s first song ‘Time to Say Goodbye’. The performance was so good, and so well received, it could have closed the show there and then and the audience would have gone home happy.
Blessed with a superb voice and the stage presence to match, Katherine knows what she is doing. She knows how to put a show together in terms of song selection, mood shifts, and pacing. And she works the stage well, making sure she is seen and heard in every part of the auditorium. I watched as she moved gracefully from one side of the stage to the next, engaging every member of the audience. She has a knack of making it look as though she is looking just at you and singing just for you. The effect is electrifying.
Katherine continued to unfold the story of her life in music, telling how she went on to study at the Royal Academy of Music (graduating with honours, I hasten to add).
Showstoppers good enough to be show-enders
We came to the third album, the appropriately titled Living a Dream from 2005. Here Katherine spoke of meeting Dolly Parton, and of gaining Dolly’s permission to have her song ‘I Will Always Love’ translated into Italian and given an orchestral and operatic arrangement as ‘L'Amore Sei Tu’, the first translation of the song into another language. The song is perfect on record and even better performed live and had the audience in raptures. The performance was powerful but retained the delicacy and fragility of the lyric and its sentiment: it took the breath away. In a show that was a continuous flow of highlights, this one stood out. The word ‘always,’ rendered so beautifully in Italian by Katherine, brought out the eternal quality of the song’s sentiment, love as a timeless melody indeed. Katherine brings an extra dimension to the song, and does it so well that it sounds as though it had been written this way. The result is a triumph in every respect, a definite concert and career highlight. The performance won massive applause and cheers, a definite contender for the biggest hand on a night of big hands.
We were being treated to one show-stopper after another, and the next song kept it going, Katherine delivering a powerful and intense ‘Caruso.’ The passion was such I thought she would surely dissolve into a puddle of tears at any moment. But the mark of a singer of quality is the ability to convey emotions without succumbing to them: Katherine maintained complete control through an emotionally charged performance. It takes considerable vocal ability to express such emotional intensity whilst keeping musical control. The members of the audience were ‘swept away’ precisely because the singer was not.
The ‘this is your life’ theme continued with stories of entertaining the troops in 2007, including the occasion she sang ‘Everything I do’ in person to a young soldier in Afghanistan, who promptly took the microphone out of her hands to finish the line with ‘I’ll do it for you Katherine.’ Music lover as he undoubtedly was. The Bryan Adams song was another English-language song that was transformed by being translated into Italian, as ‘(Quello Che Faró) Sara Per Te’.
It was an amusing story, but Katherine’s recollections of visiting war zones carried a deeper significance. She spoke movingly about performing in Iraq and Afghanistan, of lifting the spirits of those most in need of a lift, singing for veterans and working with the British Legion, including appearances at the Festival of Remembrance.
She then performed a suitably solemn “Requiem for a Soldier.”
This brings us close to the emotional heart of Katherine’s music, emphasising connection, dealing with the pain of separation, and expressing the hope of reconnection, reminiscence and remembrance as paying tribute and giving thanks. It offers a means of acknowledging those experiences together, sustaining hope, honouring sacrifice, and reminding people that they have not been forgotten.
Katherine brought the first half of the show to a close by paying tribute to her inspirations and mentors, including Vera Lynn, the war-time sweetheart whose songs had accompanied generations through war and its aftermath. She spoke of songs of hope that connect people separated by distance, circumstance, or time.
She proceeded to deliver a hip-swaying, up-tempo, performance of “We’ll Meet Again,” so infectious as to beg for audience participation.
I couldn’t help thinking of my grandad, Joe Critchley (and my grandma with her Vera Lynn records). There’s film of him singing around a piano with fellow members of the 10th Lancashire Fusiliers in India, on their way to the Arakan Front in Burma in 1943. The footage appears in Calling Blighty, issue 58. He’s word perfect, but doesn’t quite have Katherine’s appeal.
It may be sentimental, but it’s no less true for that: Katherine leading one and all singing this song from yesteryear restored a connection severed by time. When Katherine led the audience in the communal singing, we were not merely listening to a familiar wartime standard: we were participating in the continuation of memory.
Katherine’s voice covers the range of emotions, from sorrow, sadness, and loss to joy and happiness. From separation to reunion, she covers all human bases.
Half-time
The first half had felt like a complete show in itself, with a rousing beginning and a very satisfying ending, with many highlights and showstoppers along the way. The show had been packed with so many standout performances that I could have gone home happy. And there was more to come! I was drained, but more than willing for a second half to finish off whatever was left of me.
Second half
Katherine returned to the stage at 9pm in a new dress, one that sparkled in the light.
She proceeded to deliver a sparkling performance.
Katherine opened the second half with Evanescence's ‘Goth-metal’ power-ballad Bring Me to Life, a song that all the world sounds like it belongs in a Bond movie. (It was in Daredevil, a 2003 superhero film). Katherine recorded the song for her 2009 album Believe. ‘Wake me up inside,’ the song demands, ‘before I come undone.’ It was too late: I was already wide awake and long since undone. I needed calming down.
Another wish came true with the next song, Parla Più Piano, the theme from The Godfather. The performance was effectively a duet between Katherine’s voice and Jodok, the mournful sound of the cello lending the song a special poignancy. The combination of soprano and the sorrowful tones of the cello was heart-rending. What came across here, and in the rest of the show, was the clarity, power, and precision of Katherine’s voice but also the emotional pull that moves rather than merely impresses. More than technical ability, Katherine has emotional depth, range, and reach. And stage presence – she commands the attention and has the qualities to hold it.
Katherine then left the stage to allow Jodok a solo spot. He joked about how difficult it is to concentrate when Katherine is singing alongside him, her voice being so beautiful that ‘I have goosebumps all the time’ and ‘can’t concentrate.’ I sympathised as I did my best to make notes in between being swept away. Jodok proceeded to perform an excellent version of Einaudi’s ‘Experience.’
Paradiso
The Italian theme – and the sweeping away and wish-fulfilment - continued when Katherine returned to the stage to sing the sublime ‘Se’, the theme tune to Cinema Paradiso. It was a beautiful rendition of a favourite song.
We can try to identify that indefinable something that sets a singer apart in a world that isn’t short of good voices. Beyond the technical accomplishment there is the emotional appeal, a pull, something that moves the audience by having them feel the meaning of a song. People talk about pitch, range, and such, but there is a quality that transcends technical ability and accomplishment. There is a loss and a yearning in the voice, something that goes beyond the actual notes. You can hear singers who are technically flawless, but they lack that soulful or haunting quality. You can be impressed by them, but they don't move you. Singing is a sensuous rather than cerebral activity and, ultimately, it comes down to the emotions. That’s what Katherine delivers on; she has the technical ability, but she also strikes a profoundly human chord.
Mums and Dads
The film tunes evoked an emotional memory of my own: I chose an Ennio Morricone tune for my mother’s funeral service in 2006. I was thinking of my mother, Katherine was thinking of her dad, Selwyn, who died ten years earlier in 1996 when she was aged 14.
Introducing Jealous of the Angels, Katherine paid a moving tribute to her father, Selwyn, who had been so supportive of her singing ambitions and yet never lived to see her perform. She said that she would give everything for him to walk through the door and see her on stage.
I thought of my mum, who saw the struggle and hard work that went into my writing, and yet would never see a single, solitary book I published, something to proud of, something tangible to show the neighbours and family members. Katherine said she would give everything for her father to ‘walk through the door’ and see her performing right now. And I expect most every member of the audience would be able to say something similar with respect to loved ones now departed in their own lives. Time moves so quickly that goodbyes come too soon to be said. The moment revealed the personal quality of Katherine's appeal especially clear, the way she makes the songs existentially meaningful for one and all.
Katherine proceeded to sing a tear-jerking ‘Jealous of the Angels’. It’s an emotionally wrought lyric that pulls at the heart strings, and members of the audience around me were visibly and audibly moved. The song reaches beyond the singer's own loss to touch an experience shared by all. Katherine struck a deeply personal chord on this one. It was a remembrance of those times when everyone we loved, and who loved us in turn, were alive and all was well in the world.
Again, though, Katherine kept the emotions under control, delivering a performance that was moving without ever being in danger of tipping over into the maudlin. Combining emotional commitment and technical control, Katherine gave feeling a form.
Katherine did the same with the next song, ‘A Mother’s Heart,’ with photographs of families appearing on the screen behind her. The soft and delicate restraint of the song showcased Katherine’s vocal skill and emotional range to good effect. The imagery was consistent with the themes Katherine had been developing throughout the evening. From fathers to mothers, to friends and relations, the concert moved through the connections that make up a life. Rather than issue abstract statements about love, Katherine’s approach is relatable on account of being familial, accenting the particulars that make a lifeline and a lifetime.
The choice of material made for a familial experience bathed in personal anecdotes, memories, and recollections. Reminiscence has a way of setting everyone reminiscing about friends and relations.
You’ll Never Walk Alone
There were more stories, anecdotes, and recollections before we returned to Second Nature for the next track, ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone.’ Katherine can’t half pick ‘em. As a Liverpool supporter who held a season ticket for many years on the world-famous Kop, I found this song most relatable indeed. Katherine delivered a superb performance. Katherine’s voice is a powerful instrument, one she knows how to use, singing in accord with the meanings and emotions of a song, going strong and loud or soft and gentle as required. That great interpretative skill indicates why she can take familiar material and make it sound like we are hearing it for the first time.
Fantasia
I had been feeling the uplift throughout the show and didn’t think the evening could go any higher. Then it did. In wishing for some Italian songs before the show, I did have one particular song in mind. It had yet to be sung and, being fair, we had been so royally entertained it would have been impossible to have gone home disappointed. Even so, this old heart skipped a beat when the name of Ennio Morricone was mentioned. With ‘Nella Fantasia’ my last wish came true. I did well not to shout ‘yes!’ Old football habits die hard. Eyes and ears were focused to take in the entirety of sound and vision. As with ‘Se,’ the sweeping cinematic-operatic power of Katherine’s performance of ‘Nella Fantasia’ impressed, and was met with a rapturous applause. Katherine took a bow.
World in Union
As I recovered (if I did), Katherine introduced the final song of the evening, ‘World in Union.’ Katherine sang beautifully and received a well-deserved standing ovation.
‘Nella Fantasia’ and ‘World in Union’ brought the evening to a stirring close, their shared vision of peace and harmony lending the grand finale a resonance that would last long after the show was over. It was a fitting finale for a 25-year celebration.
The show had been studded with highlights and showstoppers of every kind. The balance of song and pacing of performance had been so carefully judged that we were repeatedly swept away without ever being so completely overwhelmed as to lose consciousness (although the man behind me who had started out so loud and enthusiastic was by now conspicuous by his silence. I have visions of him passed out in his seat). We were always ready for some more. The show had told the story of a musical journey from the first album to the present day, from the beginnings of a career to a retrospective of the great events and performances that went into its making.
The audience rose immediately to their feet demanding an encore. The acclaim was well-deserved. My first thought was that the climax of the show had been so perfectly judged, delivering so complete a set, an encore might detract.
Katherine returned to the stage to sing ‘Tell Me I’m Not Dreaming’. We were all saying the same thing by this stage. As she sang, the screen behind was filled with images of all the great singers with whom Katherine has performed over the years, all the great events she has taken part in. It was a fitting retrospective for a 25-year anniversary, a reminder of how much had been achieved and how many different audiences and occasions had become part of her story.
My eyes were on Katherine, but glancing at the screen I did notice images of Jose Carreras and Andrea Bocelli among others. Katherine has expressed her admiration for Carreras, and the opportunity to perform alongside him, as a representative of the grand operatic tradition, illustrate her connections with the established classical world, even though her own career has followed a different path. Katherine’s collaborations with Andrea Bocelli and Bryn Terfel demonstrate two different aspects of her relationship with the classical tradition: international classical crossover on the one hand, and the Welsh operatic tradition on the other. Bocelli himself is something of a significant figure in this context: a tenor with a substantial operatic career, he is also a popular-classical artist whose global success rests on making lyrical, emotionally direct singing accessible to a broad audience. That, I would suggest, describes Katherine, too, if we have need to label and categorise (we don’t). These collaborations offer evidence that Katherine’s career has not developed in isolation from the classical establishment and that her talent is such she has been able to keep the highest company.
‘Tell Me I’m Not Dreaming’ added another perfect ending to the one we had just witnessed, a more personal one and all the more fitting for being so. This was a celebration of a life in music after all. The audience was again on its feet.
It had been a great show, combining the grand and the intimate.
The repertoire served as a reminder of just how much Katherine has packed into her 25-year career. The programme showed evidence of great thought and care, with songs selected with a view to telling a life story. There’s always a danger that so many show-stoppers might actually succeed in stopping the show, draining the emotions long before the end. But the programme was so well-balanced and superbly paced that the concert flew by in a continuous flow that stopped just short of being a flood. The staging, production design, and lighting enhanced the visual impact of Katherine’s performance and stage presence.
Performing in front of the backdrop of a screen courts the danger of taking attention away from the performer. Here, the screen imagery supported rather than supplanted the performance. One video was show as a stand-alone, that of her aged four performed the ‘worm song’. Other images were played as she performed the songs, showing her entertaining the troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, at the late Queens 90th birthday celebrations at Windsor Castle, with many of the great stars with whom she has performed, from Carreras to Bocelli, Vera Lynne, friends and families of all descriptions. The images offered an insight into Katherine’s endearing and enduring qualities.
Review
The show consisted of two acts, the first from 7.30pm to 8.30pm, the second from 9pm to 9.55pm, time that passed in the blink of an eye. You know you have attended a great show when it covers so much ground and yet flies in a flash. It was (another) magical evening, full of enchantment and emotional warmth.
As I sat with my notepad, wondering what to write about when I got home, the woman behind me supplied a succinct review of her own: ‘she’s got a lovely voice’, she said, before adding ‘she’s dead pretty too.’ Her husband, wisely, agreed with the first observation and made no comment on the latter. I well remember my dad’s attempts to avoid answering my mum’s loaded questions by referring to a ‘handsome woman,’ rather than pretty, beautiful, sexy, attractive etc. It’s best to say nothing and feign ignorance and stupidity.
It would have been easy to leave it there, but it takes more to sustain a glittering career of twenty-five years. This had been a very special evening in celebration of a very special talent. Beyond the concert itself, it is worth pondering the nature of that talent.
Togetherness – the familial and the communal
Bringing the show to a close, Katherine said if there was one word she hoped we would take away from her 25th Anniversary tour then it was ‘togetherness’. That word summed up the songs she had performed in the show and the stories that had accompanied them. It also summed up the grand finale. I’d like to take some time examining this theme.
Having spent much of the show revelling in and reminiscing about proximal relations – of a love, loyalty, and solidarity centred on family and friends, patriotism and the debt we owe to those who serve – the show ended by expanding the scope outwards to affirm humanity's capacity to imagine a greater unity firmly grounded in intimate connection. Introducing ‘Nella Fantasia’, Katherine issue a plea, a prayer really, for a better, kinder world, one in which truth and justice prevail and people live well together in peace. The same sentiment was to the fore with the closing song, ‘World in Union.’ ‘World in Union’ is based on the great, stately melody taken from the central section of the ‘Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity’ movement in The Planets by Gustav Holst. (The melody subsequently became known as ‘Thaxted,’ after the Essex village where Holst lived). Lyrics were added to the melody in 1991 by Charlie Skarbek, celebrating unity and fellowship in hope of overcoming divisions in the world. It’s a noble aim, and one that offers a way of compassing the patriotic devotion of ‘I Vow to Thee, My Country’ another Planets based-song for which Katherine is known, within international fellowship, seeing these things as lying on a continuum rather than being antithetical. It’s politics by way of the musical model, getting in tune by establishing unity in and through diversity. Drawing on Holst's majestic melody, the finale gave musical expression to an ideal of global harmony and human fellowship.
The world ‘togetherness’ appeals to the familiar and the familial, but in an expansive rather than in an insular or parochial way. The hope for a better world begins with the relationships through which we learn to care for other people - parents, children, grandparents, friends and mentors - and expands outwards to embrace others, themselves embedded in proximal relations. It’s an old dream that, like your three best wishes, may one day come true.
If it takes more than a shared song to overcome division, there is value in expressing that yearning when it reminds us of our capacity to share feelings and find happiness in a common experience. Many of the songs Katherine performed in her show offered precisely that reminder.
Popularity and longevity
That quality suggests one reason why a career lasting twenty-five years deserves to be considered in terms wider than commercial success. Success sustained over a long period indicates a combination of ability, ambition, hard work, and also the ability and the willingness to maintain a relationship with an audience. It requires a performer to understand what people value whilst bring skill, commitment, and personality to the table. Katherine's anniversary concert was a persuasive demonstration of how that can be done.
There is something endearing about Katherine’s ‘common’ touch, her down-to-earth humour, and the way she nurtures a sense of belonging. As Katherine’s 25th Anniversary Tour closes, we should take the opportunity to remind ourselves that in drawing people ‘together’ and satisfying their yearnings as a community, hers is a noble mission. That nobility rests on the assumption that our lives are bound up with one another and that shared experiences can create a sense of belonging among those who have never met before.
In a critical review written for The Guardian in 2010, Alfred Hickling pondered Katherine at the crossroads of her career. He recognises Katherine’s ability, but questions how she may come to use it in the future: ‘Jenkins has the talent, and increasingly the charisma, to head in any direction she fancies,’ he writes. ‘Whether that's a little fountain in Seville, or the water feature down the precinct with the other goths, is entirely up to her.’ Katherine went the way she went; she could have been this, but chose to be that; some people like this, some people like that. Is she good at what she does? Absolutely she is! Is what she does good? Absolutely it is! Could she have taken another direction? Yes. Did she take the right direction? The people who pack out the sold-out theatres wherever she goes say a resounding ‘yes!’ More traditional music fans may not appreciate the swerve from opera to standards and pop, but there’s no doubting her panache, style, and elegance. Having chosen her direction she gave it everything she had, which is a lot and is to be valued.
I write as one who likes a little fountain in Seville, or anywhere. I hear Katherine sing ‘Vide Cor Meum’ and I want to hear her sing more in this style. But much the same can be said about the other kinds of songs she sings. For the record, I like fountains great and small, and goths of similar dimensions. I like nu-metal, standards, show tunes, sacred arias, Welsh songs, traditional songs, and ballads, too. I like that Katherine has sung Queen songs (Queen have been my favourite band since ever – I rather liked the big opera hooks they would use). Whatever the musical snobs say, people are, in the main, good judges. The popular singers of enduring appeal tend to be a lot better than the obscure failures critics like to turn into cults. Katherine Jenkins knows the source of her appeal and knows how to satisfy the high expectations people have of her. It’s good business to know your market and how to satisfy its demands. Is it music? It sounds like music to me. Good music, too. The high expectations her fans have of her are based on the high standards Katherine has maintained over the years.
Katherine doesn’t shy away from popular appeal. Her achievement is grounded in her ability to touch the musical roots of people’s lives and maintain the highest artistic standards. Her voice is in excellent shape, indicating the extent to which takes care of it. And ‘the people’ deserve good songs sung by a good voice as much as anyone. Katherine is a crowd-pleaser. The show she put on in Llandudno showed evidence of thought, care, and attention to detail, matching the story of a life in music to what would likely move the audience in both sound and vision and send them home with warm memories of an enchanting evening. Critics may want something else entirely, something they consider better, and a better use of Katherine’s vocal ability. But singing for the enjoyment of ‘the people’ is a worthy end in itself, and Katherine does it very well indeed. The best use of our talent is to enhance other people’s lives, and that’s precisely what Katherine does.
Katherine’s shows are not just about her but about a communal experience, drawing people together as the one community. She works on the assumption – less common than it was in these divided times - that for all our differences we are all kin under the skin, united by bonds of friendship: we are all community. Katherine’s reference to ‘togetherness’ as the one word we should all take home from this tour is something she gives substance and content to in her music and its performance. Even without it being named, people who have attended one of her shows will go home with the feeling of togetherness in the core of their being. People may not necessarily enter the theatre with a sense of belonging – although I suspect by now most do - but will certainly feel that way after having joined together in a shared appreciation of songs and recall of memories. Artists who are able to generate that feeling of togetherness in these fractious times are worth their weight in gold.
The professional skill involved shouldn’t be underestimated. An artist must judge how to create a mood and how long to sustain it, when to change direction and how, engaging the audience for an entire performance. Katherine does this with considerable assurance. She knows how to command a stage, how to pace a performance, how to touch an audience, how to move from one kind of song to another, how to work the stage. Her great talent lies in making the concert about others, with stories of family, friendship, service, and musical collaboration, whilst still holding the attention. That outward movement is what makes her appeal more than a matter of vocal ability or personal charm – she has the common touch.
Living a Dream
Katherine’s autobiography of 2008, Time to Say Hello, contains a chapter entitled ‘Living a Dream’. The chapter ends with Katherine reflecting on what she most loved about life, answering: ‘life itself!’ ‘You just never know what is around the corner,’ she said, nor ‘what is going to happen next’. She spoke of ‘Being alive and staying alive, so I can continue living a dream.’ The words seem particularly appropriate to an anniversary concert. Twenty-five years is a long time when it comes to sustaining a career, but it is also a reminder of how quickly time passes, how so many people near and dear accompany us for only part of the journey, and how important it is to appreciate them while they are still with us and to remember them when they are gone. Not everyone has made it this far. The people we love are gone too soon. Music cannot repair that loss, but it can soften the pain. It can carry memory forward, making the absent present for a moment and allowing private grief to become part of a shared human experience.
Katherine Jenkins has built a career around songs that do just this. Her achievement is to have brought together musical excellence, familiar repertoire, personal storytelling, and a sense of occasion, making the concert a space in which people can remember and celebrate, and keep looking to the future. Her 25th Anniversary Tour was a celebration of a life in music, but also of the lives that music touches. Its final message of ‘togetherness’ was not an afterthought, it expresses the core of her musical identity. Katherine’s achievement is to have brought people together and held them together. It is an idea that she had been quietly developing from the opening song in the concert: that the songs we share help us recognise the things we share in common, and that even in a divided world, there remains something deeply human in being in tune, together. It is an old dream, and one that may never be fully realised. But the yearning is eternal and, for one evening in Llandudno, Katherine Jenkins gave it voice.
