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Katie Melua

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"Melua" redirects here. For the Super Robot Wars character, see Melua Melna Meia.
Katie Melua

Ketevan "Katie" Melua (Georgian: ქეთევან "ქეთი" მელუა, surname pronounced IPA: /ˈmeluˌɑː/; born 16 September 1984) is a British-Georgian singer and musician. She was born in Georgia, but moved to Northern Ireland at the age of eight and then relocated to England at the age of 14.[2] Melua is signed to the small Dramatico record label, under the management of songwriter Mike Batt,[3] and made her musical debut in 2003. She is, as of 2006, the United Kingdom's biggest-selling female artist[4] and Europe's highest selling European female artist.[5]

In November 2003, at the age of 19, Melua released her first album, Call off the Search, which reached the top of the United Kingdom album charts and sold 1.8 million copies in its first five months of release.[6] Her second album, Piece by Piece, was released in September 2005 and to date has gone platinum four times.[7]

Biography

Early life

Ketevan Melua was born in Kutaisi, Georgia, which then was part of the Soviet Union, in 1984. She spent her first years with her grandparents in the capital Tbilisi before moving, with her parents and brother, to the town of Batumi, Ajaria where her father worked as a heart specialist.[8] During this time Melua lived in mild poverty, and she often had to carry buckets of water up five flights of stairs to her family's flat.[9][10] Melua later cited this experience as the reason why she shuns certain materialistic aspects of fame and fortune.[11]

In 1993, in the aftermath of the Georgian Civil War, the family moved to Belfast, Northern Ireland, where her father took up a position at the prestigious Royal Victoria Hospital. Whilst living in Belfast, Melua attended Roman Catholic schools, St. Catherine's Primary School and Dominican College, Fortwilliam, while her younger brother attended Protestant schools.[2] The family moved again to Redhill, Surrey, in 1998, although Melua recently moved out of the family home in favour of an apartment in the Paddington area of London, where she has transformed the spare bedroom into a recording studio. As a result of her diverse upbringing at an early age, Melua can speak three languages: Georgian, Russian and English.[12]

First television appearance

Because of her upbringing in politically unstable Georgia and troubled Belfast,[13] Melua initially planned to become either a historian or a politician.[14] This changed in 2000, at the age of 15, when Melua took part in a talent competition on British television channel ITV called "Stars Up Their Nose" (a spoof of Stars in Their Eyes), and was part of the children's program Mad for It!.[15] Melua won the contest by singing Badfinger's "Without You". The prize was £350 worth of MFI vouchers, with which she bought a chair for her father.[16] Had she lost the contest, she would have been gunged.[17]

Schooling

After completing her GCSEs at Nonsuch High School in Surrey, Melua attended the BRIT School for the Performing Arts in the London Borough of Croydon, undertaking a BTEC with an A-level in music. She began to write songs when at the school.[18] Melua first met her future manager, producer Mike Batt, when studying at the school.

Melua didn't attend University, though she has often stated her desire to do so, saying that English literature, history and physics would be her courses of choice should she get the chance to go to University.[19][20]

Personal life

Melua met Luke Pritchard, lead singer of The Kooks, when they were both studying at the BRIT School where they began to court. Melua and Pritchard rarely speak of the relationship, but what is known is that the couple dated for three years and discussed marriage. However, as Melua became more successful, the relationship came into difficulties and they split up in March 2005.[21][9]

Melua is known to have smoked cannabis for recreation and for musical inspiration. However, in 2004, Melua announced that she had stopped taking the illegal substance for the latter reason because it "dented her creativity".[22]

Adrenaline junkie

Melua is sometimes referred to as an 'adrenaline junkie' because she enjoys rollercoasters and fun fairs and often paraglides and hang glides.[23] She has skydived twice and taken several flying lessons, and in 2004 she was lowered from a 200 metre building in New Zealand at 60mph. When asked about Melua being an 'adrenaline junkie', Mike Batt said, "she enjoys extremes, but in life her emotions are always in check."[3]

British nationality

On 10 August 2005, Melua became a British citizen with her parents and brother. The citizenship ceremony took place in Weybridge, Surrey.[24] The ceremony was important to Melua because if her father had lost his job before becoming a citizen, the family would have been forced to return to Georgia. On gaining British nationality, Melua was eligible for a British passport, which makes it easier for her to travel around the world.[25] Becoming a British citizen meant that Melua had held three citizenships before she was 21; first Soviet, then Georgian and finally British. After the ceremony, Melua stated her pride at her newest nationality. "As a family, we have been very fortunate to find a happy lifestyle in this country and we feel we belong. We still consider ourselves to be Georgian, because that is where our roots are, and I return to Georgia every year to see my uncles and grandparents, but I am proud to now be a British citizen."[24]

Recording career

Mike Batt

It was when performing at a Brit School showcase that Melua caught the eye of Mike Batt, an English songwriter and producer who was looking for an artist capable of singing "jazz and blues in an interesting way".[26] After hearing Melua sing "Faraway voice" (a song she wrote about the death of her idol Eva Cassidy) Batt signed the 19 year-old Melua to his small Dramatico recording and management company and sent her into the studio.[27]

Main article: Call off the Search

Call off the Search featured two songs written by Melua: "Belfast (Penguins and Cats)", a song about Melua's experience of her time in the troubled city, and "Faraway Voice", a song about the death of Eva Cassidy. Melua also covered songs by Delores J. Silver ("Learnin' the Blues"), John Mayall ("Crawling up a Hill"), Randy Newman ("I Think it's Going to Rain Today") and James Shelton ("Lilac Wine"). A final six songs on the album were by Mike Batt.[28]

It was initially difficult for Melua and Batt to get airplay for the album's lead single, "The Closest Thing to Crazy". This changed when BBC Radio 2 producer Paul Walters heard the single and played it on the popular Terry Wogan breakfast show.[29] Wogan played "The Closest Thing to Crazy" frequently in November and December 2003 in an attempt to make it that year's Christmas number-one. The single only reached number 10, but Wogan's support raised Melua's profile and when Call off the Search was released it became an immediate hit, reaching number one on the UK albums chart in January 2004. Call off the Search reached the top five in Ireland, top twenty in Norway, top thirty in a composite European chart and top fifty in Australia. In the UK, the album sold 1.2 million copies, making it four times platinum, and spent six weeks at the top of the charts. It sold three million copies worldwide. Subsequent singles did not reach the success of the first — the second single and album title track, "Call off the Search", reached number 19, and the third single, "Crawling up a Hill", got to number 41.[30]

Piece by Piece

Main article: Piece by Piece (album)

Melua's second album, Piece by Piece, was released on 26 September 2005. It included the single "Nine Million Bicycles", which was released on 19 September of the same year. The first UK airplay for the single was on the Terry Wogan show on August 1. The album contains four more songs written by Melua herself, four more by Batt, one Batt/Melua collaboration and three more songs described as new versions of "great songs". The band line-up was the same as on the first album. The album debuted at the number-one spot on the UK Albums Chart on the week of 3 October 2005.[31]

On 30 September 2005, Melua came under criticism in The Guardian from writer and scientist Simon Singh for the lyrics of the track "Nine Million Bicycles". Melua's disputed lyrics were:

We are 12 billion light-years from the edge. That's a guess — no-one can ever say it's true, but I know that I will always be with you.

They were interpreted by Singh as an assault on the accuracy of the work of cosmologists[32] which sparked a series of letters from other Guardian readers, agreeing or disagreeing.[33] On 15 October, Melua and Singh appeared on the BBC's Today programme, and Melua unveiled a re-recording of the song which included Singh's tongue-in-cheek amendments to the lyrics:

We are 13.7 billion light-years from the edge of the observable universe; that's a good estimate with well-defined error bars and with the available information, I predict that I will always be with you.

Both sides amicably agreed that the new lyrics were less likely to achieve commercial success, amidst a discussion about scientific accuracy versus artistic licence. Melua said that she "should have known better" because she used to be a member of the astronomy club at school.[34]

A double A-side of the Melua-penned "I Cried for You" and a cover of The Cure's "Just like Heaven" (1988), which is the theme song to the film Just like Heaven,[35] was released in the UK on 5 December and peaked at number 35. "I Cried for You" was inspired by a meeting with the writer of Holy Blood, Holy Grail.[36]

A third single, "Spider's Web" was released on 17 April 2006 and peaked at number 52 in the UK. Melua embarked on a concert tour in support of Piece by Piece, the UK leg of which started in Aberdeen, Scotland on January 20, 2006.[37]

Towards the end of 2006, Melua released the single, "It's Only Pain", which was written by Mike Batt.[38] This was followed by the release of "Shy Boy", also written by Batt.

Pictures

Main article: Pictures (Katie Melua album)

Melua's third album, Pictures, is due for release on 1 October 2007.[39]

Charity work

In November 2004 Melua was asked to take part in Band Aid 20 in which she joined a chorus of British and Irish pop singers to create a rendition of "Do They Know It's Christmas?" to raise money for famine relief in Africa. This was in celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the original Band Aid.[40]

On 19 March 2005, Melua sang "Too Much Love Will Kill You" with Brian May at the 46664 concert in George, South Africa for Nelson Mandela's HIV charity. Melua had been a fan of Queen since her childhood in Georgia when her uncles played the band's music, so performing with May was a realisation of a childhood dream.[41][10]

Melua is a goodwill ambassador to the charity Save the Children, and in 2005 she went to Sri Lanka to see the work the charity was doing for children in the area after the civil war and Indian Ocean tsunami.[42] In 2006 Melua donated all the proceeds from her single "Spider's Web" to the charity.[43]

Melua is a supporter of the Oxfam charity shops, using them frequently to buy her clothing.[9] However, she has stated that this is related as much to her dislike of spending and glamour as it is to her support for the charity,[10] admitting that, when out in public, she looks "like a tramp" and that her hairdresser playfully calls her look "the Romanian window cleaner".[44]

On 7 July 2007 Melua performed at the German leg of Live Earth in Hamburg.[45]

World record holder

On 2 October 2006, Melua entered the Guinness Book of Records for playing the deepest underwater concert 303 metres below sea level on Statoil's Troll A platform in the North Sea. Melua and her band underwent extensive medical tests and survival training in Norway before flying by helicopter to the rig.[46] Melua later described achieving the record as "the most surreal gig I have ever done". She held the until April 2007, when an orchestra from Kalisz, Poland performed a concert further underground, in a Polish salt mine. Melua's concert is commemorated in the DVD release Concert Under the Sea, released in June 2007.

Musical taste

File:Katie Melua USA Promotion.jpg
A promotional image from Melua's USA tour in 2006

In April 2006, for The Sun newspaper, Melua chose fourteen pieces of her favourite music that she enjoyed and had the biggest musical influence on her. The pieces she chose were Paul Simon's "Hearts and Bones", Jeff Buckley's "Hallelujah", Joni Mitchell's "Marcie", Bob Dylan's "Masters of War", James Taylor's "How Sweet It Is (to Be Loved by You)", Chuck Berry's "No Particular Place to Go", Portishead's "Glory Box", Björk's "The Pleasure Is All Mine", Camille's "Au Port", Rage Against the Machine's "Killing in the Name", Bobbie Gentry's "Fancy", Finlay Quaye's "Even After All", Suzanne Vega's "Caramel" and Babyshambles' "Fuck Forever".[47]

Melua has said on numerous occasions how Queen were a huge influence on her as a child/teenager, with one of her memories being buying Queen's Greatest Hits II and singing along to "Radio Ga Ga" in her home country Georgia.[48]

Melua appeared on the BBC's The Culture Show in November 2006 advocating Paul McCartney as her choice in the search for Britain's greatest living icon.[49][50]

Acting

File:Katie Melua in Grindhouse.JPG
Melua in Edgar Wright's segment of Grindhouse.

In 2007, Melua announced that she would be appearing in a segment of the movie Grindhouse. The segment entitled "Don't", a faux trailer, was directed by Edgar Wright.[51][52]

In Melua's role, she and a group of friends open a door to find a hatchet wielding man go mad at them and bury the hatchet in Melua's head, splitting her in two.

Trivia

  • At the 2005 Brit awards, Radio 1's Scott Mills tried to cause fights backstage during the build up coverage on his show by telling other artists including KT Tunstall, The Kaiser Chiefs and Hard-Fi that Katie Melua had been slagging them off.

Discography

Katie Melua discography
Katie Melua discography
Katie Melua discography
Year Single Album Chart positions
UK NLD PL
2003 "The Closest Thing to Crazy" Call off the Search 10
2004 "Call off the Search" 19
"Crawling up a Hill" 41
2005 "Nine Million Bicycles" Piece by Piece 5 2 1
"I Cried for You"/"Just like Heaven" 35 36
2006 "Spider's Web" 52 2
"It's Only Pain" 41 4
"Shy Boy" — 1

Filmography

Soundtrack

Year Film Song
2007 Nancy Drew "Looking for Clues"
2006 Mía Sarah "Call off the Search", "Tiger in the Night"
Miss Potter "When You Taught Me How to Dance"
2005 Just like Heaven "Just like Heaven"

Acting

Year Film Role
2007 Grindhouse Murder victim (segment "Don't")

Documentary

Year Film Role
2007 Concert Under the Sea

Honours and awards

Year Ceremony Category Result
2007 ECHO Award Best International Female Artist Won[53]
Goldene Kamera Pop International Solo Won[54]
2006 BRIT Awards Best British Female Solo Artist Nominated[55]
Best Pop Act Nominated[55]
ECHO Award Best International Female Artist Nominated[56]
2005 Best International Newcomer Won[4]
  • Melua was the best-selling UK female artist of 2004 and 2005.[4]
  • In 2006 Melua had a tulip named after her.[57]
  • According to VH1, Call off the Search is the 87th best-selling British album in history.[58]

References

  1. ^ Neil McCormick (May 29, 2004). "Easy does it". The Sydney Morning Herald. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ a b Dramatico (2003). "biog". Official site.
  3. ^ a b Ariel Leve (2006-11-05). "The hitman and her". The Sunday Times. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ a b c Mandy Carter (August 1, 2006). "Interview: Katie Melua". myvillage. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ^ "IFPI confirm Katie Melua as Europe's highest selling European female artist in 2006". Press release. 2006-11-12. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ Johnny Loftus (2004). "review of Call off the Search". allmusic.
  7. ^ James Christopher Monger (2005). "review of Piece by Piece". allmusic.
  8. ^ Carl Wilkinson (February 27, 2005). "Georgia on her mind". The Observer. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  9. ^ a b c Andrew Billen (24 January 2006). "I still shop at Oxfam". The Times. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. ^ a b c Katrina Lobley (May 27, 2005). "Georgia peach". The Sydney Morning Herald. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  11. ^ "MELUA SHUNS LUXURIOUS LIVING". contact music. 2005-05-10. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  12. ^ James Bartlett (July 20, 2006). "UK Pop Sensation Katie Melua Tours the USA". associated content. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  13. ^ "Katie Melua In Gunfire Drama". Female First. 11 May 2005. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  14. ^ "Second Cup Café: Katie Melua". (CBS/AP). July 8 2006. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  15. ^ Courtney Grimes (July 19, 2005). ""The Closest Thing to Crazy:" An Interview With UK Rocker Katie Melua". Epiphone. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  16. ^ "Melua trivia page". Biography channel. 2005.
  17. ^ "Video of the performance show on Belgian TV". YouTube. 23 November 2006. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  18. ^ "New Music: Katie Melua". BBC News. 10 November 2003. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  19. ^ "MELUA TAKES TIME OUT TO STUDY". contactmusic.com. 2006-11-12. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  20. ^ Jane Clinton (12 November 2006). "melua takes time out to study". The Sunday Express. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Missing or empty |url= (help)
  21. ^ Sharon Feinstein (15 January 2006). "I LOVE HIM BUT WE'VE SLOWLY BROKEN EACH OTHER'S HEARTS ...IT SUCKS". Sunday Mail. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  22. ^ "KATIE MELUA: CANNABIS DENTED MY CREATIVITY". contactmusic.com. 08-02-2004. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  23. ^ Rick Fulton (24 September 2005). "I'M THE CLOSEST THING TO CRAZY". The Daily Record. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  24. ^ a b "Singer Melua made British citizen". BBC News. 11 August 2005. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  25. ^ "Katie Melua, 'piecing' together global fame". Sound Generator. 2006-08-06. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  26. ^ Mike Batt (2003). "Katie Melua". dramatico site.
  27. ^ Marcus Leroux (27 May 2004). "Fallen from Heaven". The Oxford Student. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  28. ^ Johnny Loftus (2003). ""Call off the Search" Review". allmusic.
  29. ^ Andrew Purcell (August 11, 2006). "Talk the talk". The Guardian.
  30. ^ "Melua Profile". purevolume.
  31. ^ "Katie Melua makes mellow comeback". BBC News. 26 September 2005. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  32. ^ Simon Singh (September 30, 2005). "Katie Melua's bad science". The Guardian. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  33. ^ Mike Batt (October 6, 2005). "A few million light years short of reality". The Guardian. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  34. ^ "Today Program". BBC Radio 4. 2005-10-15. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  35. ^ Rebecca Murray (2005-08-22). ""Just Like Heaven" Movie Soundtrack News". About Movies. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  36. ^ R.J. Carter (June 14, 2006). "Ingénue Rising". The Trades. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  37. ^ "Interview". teen today. January 2006.
  38. ^ "Melua reveals Kooks pain". Virgin Music. August 2006.
  39. ^ Maureen Coleman (2007-07-19). "Katie true to her heart on new album". The Belfast Telegraph. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  40. ^ "Geldof hails new Band Aid single". BBC News. 15 November 2004. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  41. ^ "Queen And Katie Melua Team Up". Female First. 10 March 2005. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  42. ^ Katie Melua (15 June 2005). "Katie's diary". Save the Children. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  43. ^ "MELUA TO DONATE SINGLE PROCEEDS TO CHARITY". contact music. 2006-04-11. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  44. ^ "I Look like a tramp". contact music. 2005-09-20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  45. ^ Maureen Coleman (2007-07-05). "Katie sings to save the planet". The Belfast Telegraph. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  46. ^ "Melua's deep sea gig sets record". BBC News. 2 October 2006. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  47. ^ "What Katie did next". The Sun. April 2006.
  48. ^ "The World According To... Katie Melua". The Independent. 2004-07-20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  49. ^ Katie Melua (November 2006). "Living Icons". BBC.
  50. ^ Katie Melua (January 25, 2007). "Katie Melua Talks About Paul McCartney". BBC. YouTube.
  51. ^ Katie Melua (7 March 2007). "Latest Blog - March 7th 2007". MySpace. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  52. ^ "US box office horror for Grindhouse". inthenews.co.uk. 2007-04-09. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameters: |month= and |coauthors= (help)
  53. ^ Wolfgang Spahr (2007-03-27). "Echo Awards handed out in Berlin". Monsters and Critics. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  54. ^ "KATIE MELUA AND NIC CAGE RECEIVE GERMAN HONOUR". Hello!. 2 February 2007. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  55. ^ a b "Brit Awards 2006: The winners". BBC News. 2006-02-15. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  56. ^ "ECHO 2006 Künstlerin des Jahres international". Deutsche Phono-Akademie e.V. (in German). 2006-03-12. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  57. ^ Steve P (2006-05-04). "Nine Million Botanists". BBC Top of the Pops. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  58. ^ Chris Bond (16 November 2006). "Another honours list for Britain's best-selling rock stars". Yorkshire Post. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
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