Sep 25, 2011

Haley Westenra Sings on André Rieu's New CD!

Haley Westenra Sings 'Dreaming of New Zealand' 
On André Rieu's New CD "And The Waltz Goes On"

Translation from Elke Bliefering's 'Rieu~Treff' ... If you look at Andre Rieu's web site, at the track listing of his new CD, and you were able to listen to the excerpts of the songs, you may have noticed two things: One song track is on the CD twice, once as an instrumental version and the other at the end of the track listing with a vocalist. The track in question, "Dreaming of New Zealand". The music was composed by André himself, and as a vocalist he selected the young Hayley Westenra, a singer with an amazing voice! Renate, had googled her and found videos of Hayley and forwarded me the following link: Click HERE To The Link . I was thrilled, and spent some time on youtube, watching more videos of this young singer. And of course I wanted to know who this singer with the great voice actually was.
Hayley Dee Westenra (born April 10, 1987) is a singer from Christchurch, New Zealand, with Irish and Dutch roots. Currently she lives mostly in London. Her parents Jill and Gerald Westenra have two younger children, Sophie and Isaac.There is quite a musical background in their family. Her grandmother Shirley Ireland was a singer and her grandfather a pianist. At an early age of six, Hayley appeared on stage the first time. She sang the lead role in a musical nativity play. A teacher advised her mother Jill, that Hayley should learn to play an instrument in order to advance her talent. Soon afterwards she learned to read music, play the violin, piano, guitar and recorder. At age 11 she had already participated in over 40 stage productions, sung on TV shows and had appeared in major concerts.
In 2000, at the age of 12, Westenra recorded her first CD. Followed by additional recording contracts, which made Hayley first in New Zealand known and famous and then later on internationally. In 2003 her first international album "Pure" was released. "Pure" was the best-selling debut album in the history of the "UK Classical Charts." In New Zealand "Pure" became 12-times platinum. With that, Hayley Westenra holds the sales record in the history of the country, regardless of genre.
Hayley has received several international awards and on 5 September 2006 was the first New Zealander to be awarded as one of the ten outstanding young people in the world, the Junior Chamber International award.
In August 2006, Hayley Westenra was a member of Celtic Woman. You can see them singing HERE . In June 2007 she and the group toured the U.S. where they were scheduled to perform in 88 venues across the country. When the tour ended, they went their separate ways.
Her latest album is called "Paradiso" and was released in England in August and will be released in the US in October ... Below are some links on Haley.
Haley Westenra Website 
Haley Westenra on Wikipedia
Haley Singing Pokarekare Ana on Youtube
Our Thanks to Elke for letting John translate this from her German Fansite

5 comments:

  1. I thought Haley Westenra looked familiar from Celtic Woman! I listened to the preview tracks of the CD on Andre's official website- it sounds absolutely beautiful. I pre-ordered a couple for Christmas gifts!
    Best to all,
    Jennifer Dawson

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  2. Andre has hit the jackpot, again. This lovely girl has a beautiful, clear bell like voice. I think she is amazing.

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  3. Yes, by all means she is known from Celtic Woman another wonderful group of musicians with absolutely very good feminine
    appeal and they are excellent musicians though a different style. I have all their DVDs, Hayley is a fantastic artist and musician and have sung with some of the greats. Wonderful that Andre has included her in his new cd.

    Martha

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  4. Gary M. Bouret28 September, 2011

    I am a big Mirusia and Sarah Brightman fan and stumbled across
    Hayley singing World in Union in
    English & Maori. Her vocal purity
    is electric. Hayley and Ennio Morricone have put a CD together
    (Paradiso I think). Mirusia told me
    in Iowa that she and Hayley are the
    same age. Two wonderful singers!

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  5. I listened to all the track samples, very nice! I wonder if Haley will tour with Andre?

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