| Hayley’s success is down to
her Irish grandparents  By
ElaineSheridan
SHE has performed for the Queen, President Bush and Tony Blair but says
her inspiration is all down to her Irish grandparents.
Many people on these shores may not be familiar with the name Hayley Westenra
but rest assured this teenage singing sensation is a legend in her own right.
The 19 year old New Zealander’s debut album Pure became the fastest-selling
debut in the history of the classical charts although she was only just
15 years old at the time of its release.
Along with her second album Odyssey, Hayley has achieved combined sales
of over 3million albums around the world.
According to Hayley her albums were largely inspired by her Irish grandparents
and several of the songs they used to sing are on the album. Hayley comes
from a musical family and one with a real sense of history.
She said: “My forefathers were on the maiden voyage from Ireland to
Christchurch, New Zealand in 1850. My grandmother used to sit me on her
knee and sing songs like Danny Boy from as early as I can remember and each
one had a fascinating story of its own.”
Hayley reckons that growing up with Irish musical influences has steered
her in the right direction and helped pave the successful career she has
now.
She said: “My gran was herself a singer in her earlier years and has
always been a never-ending source of songs as she travelled round the country
picking up new songs to perform. It’s this legacy of music that she’s
been passing down to me since my childhood and it’s many of these
beautiful old songs that I’ve explored here on my new album.”
Classically trained as both a singer and a dancer, Hayley is a former member
of the New Zealand Royal Ballet.
After the runaway success of Pure, Westenra and her family moved to London
and she began nearly non-stop world touring in support of her album.
This year sees Hayley releasing her third album entitled Treasure as well
as joining the American tour of Celtic Women, a group made up of four Irish
vocalists and an Irish fiddle player.
With all of this going on Hayley still manages to be one of the youngest-ever
Ambassadors for UNICEF and is planning a second trip to Ghana where she
set up Hayley’s Bikes For Ghana a project that has already provided
6,000 bikes for children in Ghana so they can attend school and find a
better future.
She said: “meeting young people that are the same as me but with such
a different world of opportunity has a profound affect on you. I aspire
to be a singer, which seems so unessential compared with their simple desire
for a regular cup of clean water. You can’t go somewhere like that
and meet those people and come back unchanged.”
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