Hayley Westenra (12 page)

It sounds very arrogant to me as I write this next sentence, but it's the truth. The main reason why the camping had to stop was that I had become too recognisable for us to be able to stay on the campsite and for me to find the experience in any way a relaxing break. On the first morning after we arrived at the site, I was standing in the queue for a shower in the morning.

'Hey, you're the singer, aren't you?' the woman standing next to me asked excitedly.

I looked embarrassed and mumbled, 'Er, yes, I am,' silently adding, 'And I just want to have my shower. I don't want anyone to recognise me. I've just got out of bed.'

My entire holiday began to centre on avoiding being recognised on the campsite. I think this was the first time that we truly understood the effect of a whole year of television, radio and newspaper reports, relentless advertising and posters in the window of every record store in New Zealand. It's not that I blame people – I realise that they bought my albums and bought into a slice of me in the process. So it was perfectly understandable that they would be intrigued when my family and I pitched our tent on the campsite where they had chosen to spend their holiday.

The trouble was that, once people had located our tent, there was simply no escape. Small groups started to hang out nearby for no good reason at all. Mum had to tell people that I was resting because I was tired, in the hope that they would become bored and go away. We had a family-sized tent with two big rooms and an outside area. Even though
we were right on the beach front, which was really beautiful, I spent hours hiding out inside pretending to be asleep so that the visitors would go away. There were hundreds of tents on the campsite, but absolutely everyone seemed to have worked out which one was ours. One young boy even brought around his fish and chips to eat while he waited for me to wake up. He just sat there chatting for ages to my family. It started not to be a holiday for me.

I was at the age where I wanted to hang out with my friends as well. It was by no means a rebellion on my part, but I was keen to exert my teenage independence. This made me kind of resentful that I was on a family holiday where I couldn't even chill out because I was having to be sociable the whole time.

The camping had to stop, and the following year we had a free week's holiday in Australia on the Gold Coast, between two concerts that I had to give, so it worked out really well. We had done the whole camping thing. Now we deserved a bit of luxury, with a bathroom of our own, rather than one we had to share with the whole campsite. Then, in 2006 we rented a house instead, which was great fun and much more civilised.

Being shut away in the back of the tent did give me plenty of listening time and, by the time I returned to London, I was pretty certain about the tracks I wanted to appear on my new album, which once again was produced by Giles Martin. Just as he had done with
Pure,
he made the whole experience very enjoyable and we continued to have a lot of laughs between takes.

We recorded most of the album at
Metropolis Studios in London, at the same time as the
McFly boys were recording there. As usual, I was excited to be working in the same building as a bunch of chart-topping pop stars. Every morning, I passed a group of girls not much younger than I was, who waited outside the studios, hoping to catch a
glimpse of the band. They must have had to hang around for hours just to get the most fleeting of sights of them. I used to feel quite smug about being able to walk into the studio complex and say, 'Hey, guys!' to them. I had met them before, briefly, at a
Universal Music sales conference, where we performed in front of the people responsible for selling our records into retailers. It still gave me a buzz to be recording in a studio such as Metropolis – it was such a starry place to be.

I was out on the road soon after
Odyssey
was released, but, rather than my own headline tour, this time I was appearing with
Il Divo, the pop-opera quartet created by
Simon Cowell, who have been particularly successful in the USA and in countries across Europe. For the American leg of the tour, I had a rock-band setup with drums, guitar, bass and Jeff Franzel on keyboards.

Working alongside Il Divo was a great opportunity for me to meet American audiences in a big way for the first time and also for me to experiment with a more pop-influenced style, rather than the classical-music setup that I had been used to at home in New Zealand and in the UK. We had some rehearsals in a little New York studio before we set off on the road. I loved working with a drummer; it was a novelty for me because most of my arrangements are string-based. It was a different experience and I felt quite pumped up when I heard the strong percussive beat next to me.

While we were in New York, we also spent some time thinking about what I should be wearing on stage. In the end, I opted for black knee-high boots, jeans and a sequinned top. It was a different look from anything I had worn before, and I enjoyed it a lot.

It was quite an adventure being on tour with Sebastian, Carlos, David and Urs – the Il Divo boys. All four of them
were unfailingly charming to me – especially Sebastian, who always kept an eye out for me to make sure that I was all right. When I first met them, they all came up to me to introduce themselves individually, which I thought was really sweet. They were very friendly, although I didn't see as much of them on the American leg of the tour as I did when we were in Europe. Initially, I was in my own little world with my band and they were in their zone. We bumped into each other at catering and on the side of the stage when they were running off from their soundcheck and I was going on to do mine.

As I was coming off the stage after performing in Los Angeles, I looked up and saw Simon Cowell walking down a corridor in front of me. He had been meeting with the Il Divo guys. Oh, my goodness! I thought to myself. He's right in front of me. I should introduce myself, I really should. But I bottled it and I was too shy to say a simple 'Hello, I'm Hayley.' I was like a rabbit caught in the headlights. The effect he had on people as he walked past them along the corridor was amazing. He is one of the most instantly recognisable individuals in America and people just stared at him open-mouthed when they saw him. There were lots of people just as starstruck as me, and I would have felt very embarrassed had I gone up to him. That said, given the chance again, I would say hello to him because I admire what he's achieved enormously.

While I was working with Il Divo, I was very lucky to have a tour manager called
Ali McMordie, who was a real rock'n'roll kind of guy. I'm sure that I posed far less of a challenge to him than some of the bands he had looked after in the past. His role was to make sure that everything ran smoothly and to see that we were all in the right place at the right time. He also had to sort out any problems that cropped up along the way. Previously, he had been a bass guitarist in a rock group, so he had seen a bit of life. He's
the sort of guy who has a very tough exterior, but turns out to be very sweet when you get to know him.

The musicians in the band were all male, so quite often I had to block my ears in the tour bus. It was only when I laughingly shouted out, 'Oh my gosh! I don't need to be hearing this!' that they remembered that they had a lady present. This had its good and bad points, but we had great fun and there was a lot of joking all through the tour.

Working with the band allowed me the opportunity to perform quite differently, and I still incorporate what I learned then into my sets these days. Sometimes, it's good to be thrown into new situations, so that you develop and learn new skills. I really got a handle on talking to audiences on the tour. For a start, I was the support act, so I was warned that, since I was not the main reason that the audience had come to the concert, they might behave differently towards me, for example, by not turning up until halfway through my set. Most of the time, the crowd who turned up to Il Divo's concerts were not your typical rock'n'roll audience and the majority of them were there on time, although there were still people who drifted in late and I had to work hard at grabbing their attention. I enjoyed that challenge because it reminded me of my busking days. I went into the mindset that I had used back in Christchurch, when I knew that I had to stop people in their tracks using nothing but my voice.

I started the show by chatting to the audience a little and I kept things very light throughout. I started off each night with
'She Moves Through the Fair' and then I sang many of my old favourites, although
'Both Sides Now' was the song that really seemed to hit the spot with the audience.

I definitely thrive on applause and the reaction from the audience when I'm on stage. I guess it feeds the ego. As singers go, I don't believe that I have a big ego, though. Because of my upbringing, I'm still quite a humble, down-to-earth
sort of person and I know that the rest of my family will always keep me grounded. They would never in a million years let me become big-headed.

I'm not going to name names here, because this is not that sort of book. But, rest assured, as I've travelled around the world, I've come across some really big egos among my fellow recording artists. They behave as if everyone were in second place to them. I can't understand how they fail to see what they're doing and what kind of image they're giving off. Maybe I'm too self-aware for my own good and sometimes I possibly care a little too much about what people think. But, when I hear about some of the antics that some stars get up to, I think, Oh my gosh! How embarrassing to create that much of a scene!

If I rise above myself and look down, I don't see myself as grabbing so frantically at fame as some people, who seem to be desperate to make their mark at any cost. I feel much more sure of my place in this world and the reasons why I'm here. I have some friends in the music industry who can be very sweet people, but they struggle to keep their egos in check. I don't understand how they can be such lovely people one minute and then so unsure of themselves the next. Their behaviour is almost self-destructive.

The really big stars I've worked with – people such as Jose Carreras and Bryn Terfel – are such warm and friendly people all of the time. Most of the people at the top are fundamentally nice. They've realised that to get to the top and stay there they have to behave in a way that is respectful to those working around them. Nobody does themselves any favours by being nasty. Mind you, I've been told on many occasions, 'Sometimes, it's good to be a bit of a diva, because you gain more respect.' I'm not certain that this is true, though, because I'm sure that people just find ways of working
around
a demanding artist, rather than working
with
them. I would hate for that ever to happen to me.

I do have a rider when I'm on tour – this is a list of demands that are part of the contract my management signs with the promoter of each concert that I do. Virtually every singer has some sort of rider and some of them can be extraordinarily excessive and prescriptive, forcing the promoter to jump through all sort of hoops just to keep the artist happy. Rock bands can be particularly demanding, but I reckon most of them do it just to see how far they can push the boundaries of what is acceptable.

My rider is an altogether more simple affair. I always ask for some bottles of room-temperature water. This is common to most singers, because chilled water affects the vocal cords. Then, I ask for a selection of fresh fruit, crudities, dips and crackers. Finally, I request a can of wild salmon and an avocado. I also stipulate that I need a can opener in the contract, because you have no idea how many times I've been unable to get at the salmon that has been provided for me, because nobody left a can opener behind. I never ask for alcohol because I never drink alcohol when I'm performing. My one luxury is that I ask for all the fruit and vegetables to be organic if possible. I also like things to be left in the packets, so that I know that they really are fresh and organic. And that's it! I'm sure that the backstage people in some concert halls think I'm odd because I ask for so little.

I have to admit that I'm a bit strange when it comes to my eating habits. I try to make a real effort to stay healthy because I'm always travelling. One of my vices however is Green & Black's organic dark chocolate. Somehow, my biggest fans have found this out and I usually end up with a few bars of chocolate after every concert. I tend to share it with the rest of the team in the van on the way back home.

After the final night of the American tour, Il Divo headed off to Australia and, unfortunately, I was unable to go with them, because I was committed to performing a few concerts
of my own in America. In some ways, it was a little disappointing, because Australia is almost (but not quite) home territory for me and it would have been great to have appeared there with the boys, because my Aussie friends always give me such a great reception whenever I perform there.

After my concerts in America, I needed to head straight back to rejoin Il Divo for the European leg of the tour. We were heading for Dublin, but our first flight from Florida had been delayed for about three hours, so we missed our connecting flight. It meant that my tour manager Ali and I ended up somewhere in the middle of America, trying to find a way to Dublin in time for the concert. Even if our travel plans had gone like clockwork, we were already cutting it fine, but the added delays meant that there was a real risk of my not making the concert at all. That would have meant letting too many people down, so we had to get there at all costs.

As we looked up at the indicator boards at the airport, we realised that more and more flights were being cancelled because of bad weather. There were no direct flights to Dublin and we were given two options: either we could fly to Paris and pick up a connecting flight there, or else we could fly to London Heathrow and then pick up a plane to Dublin from London Gatwick. We chose the latter option and my management had a fast car waiting for us at the airport, which zoomed us across London.