Katherine Jenkins refuses to speak for a day before her gigs.
Katherine Jenkins refuses to speak for a day before her gigs
The 44-year-old singer, who has children Aaliay Reign, eight, and six-year-old Xander Robert Selwyn with her husband of 10 years Andrew Levitas, 46, says she won’t utter a sound for 24 hours ahead of shows to preserve her voice – even if it means being unable to control her kids.
She told The Times: “I don’t have alcohol, I drink loads of water and I stop going to noisy places so I don’t overuse my voice. I want to stay focused.
“In the 24 hours before the show I won’t speak at all. The voice is a muscle and when you whisper, you’re still vibrating the cords and not getting the rest.
“I’ve got a six-year-old and an eight-year-old, and they find it hilarious that they can do whatever they like to mummy and I can’t speak back, so the house becomes a big game of charades.”
Katherine also says she has a series of superstitions before concerts, adding: “I do things in a certain order, silly things like putting my right shoe on before my left.
“I always stop by myself for a little minute and I say a prayer. I ask God and my dad to bless my voice and help me to remember my words, more of a comfort than a necessity.”
Katherine’s father was killed by lung cancer aged 70 when she was 15, and the Times profile on the singer says mention of it and the fact her interviewer’s dad died when they were 12 made her burst into tears.
She said: “Life can go either way. It can be the reason that things unravel, or like in my case, my dad became a driving force.
“I’m trying not to cry – you know it’s so silly because it’s so long ago and now and again it just catches me.
“I’ve been without my dad longer than I was with him yet I think about him every day, every time I sing. I speak to him.
“He informs all my musical choices because if you’ve had loss, you’re more drawn to emotional music. Music has helped me.”
She added about how the disease that claimed her father’s life has afflicted her relatives and husband: “Cancer is a big thing in our family. Andrew also lost his dad to cancer, I lost a best friend to cancer when she was just 32, my mother worked in breast cancer screening, my sister worked for Macmillan.
“At school my best friend’s mum passed away to cancer within six months of me losing my dad.”
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