Compiling a list of the contemporary music world’s most illustrious divas is an interesting mental game to play. Instantly and obviously the figure of Barbra Streisand springs to mind. Streisand is in a rare band of perhaps three international women that can commandeer a devotional gasp from an audience of thousands with one single note. Floating behind her, wind machine positioned just out of frame, ball-gown wafting gently in the breeze, one might alight upon Céline Dion. A diva is a singer with a talent that is rare and magnificent enough to border almost on the eccentric; a voice that monopolises the air when it is at full strength and can break a heart at whispering volume. The diva sits outside the realms of casual whim and the daily turn of trend. She is powerful enough to stand and sing alone.

Now where might a lovely young woman from the tiny village of Neath in the Welsh Valleys fit into all of this?

Throughout her career Katherine Jenkins has broken records, selling millions of albums worldwide, picking up numerous awards and has performed at every single high profile tournament on the British sporting calendar, cementing her status in the classical /crossover field. Outside of Katherine’s recording duties, she has broadened out into the TV world. The last year has seen Katherine present a special BBC series, ‘The Week We Went To War’, as well as being a mentor on the hit ITV1 show, ‘Popstars To Operastars’.

Having worked on a new sound for her seventh album in the sun-kissed Hollywood Hills, under the expert tutelage of world class star-maker and producer David Foster, Katherine feels like she is about to go supernova. At 29 years of age she feels embedded in her home culture enough to take a risk on cutting loose for the international stage. Suddenly Britain might just have readied a diva fit for the world stage, in every respect.

Katherine inhales a sharp breath. ‘When I think of a diva I think of a voice. I think of a woman who’s independent and in charge of her own career. I think of a woman who knows what she wants to do artistically. And I think of a woman that does that thing, effortlessly. I’m ready to go down that route.’

Facebook
Myspace
Twitter