Katherine Jenkins On Her Lightning-Fast Path To Fame

Welsh Mezzo Soprano Katherine Jenkins OBE talks to Charlotte Metcalf about her lightning-fast path to fame, losing her father and singing for the late Queen.

Conversations at Scarfes Bar: Katherine Jenkins

Having watched several of her performances, I was ready for the flawless complexion and radiant smile but expected a diva to lurk within. After all, Katherine Jenkins was named the century’s highest-selling classical artist by Classic FM, and in 2014 was appointed an OBE for services to music and charity.

Yet unlike many famous people, fiercely protective of their privacy, Jenkins is happy to chat away about her husband, American filmmaker Andrew Levitas, whom she gleefully admits being set up with on a blind date by her hairstylist, Charles Dujic, in 2012. ‘I was in LA on tour with Andrea Bocelli and Charles, who also cut Andrew’s hair, intuited that we were both creative, family-minded and had lost our fathers early to cancer. He persuaded me to meet him; today, our kids still call Charles “Uncle Cupid”.’

We are here to talk about the mezzo-soprano’s award-winning gin, Cygnet, launched in 2023. ‘Spirits are rough on the voice, but I love a gin and tonic,’ Jenkins says. During lockdown, she and Levitas got creative and found a master distiller to create Jenkins’ personal blend with manuka honey. ‘Cygnet is so beautifully clean and smooth I can sip it neat without harming my voice. If I’m restricted on what I drink, it has to be the very best.’

Jenkins was born in Neath, Wales, the elder of two girls. Her father was 55 when she was born and became a house husband so her mother, 23 years his junior, could continue working as a mammographer. ‘I was very close to my dad,’ she says. ‘He had that older, calm wisdom and was never pushy but filled me with quiet confidence. “You can do this, Kath,” he’d say. That’s stayed with me and is why I’ve dedicated everything to him.’

When she was 15, her father died of lung cancer. Despite her shock and grief, Jenkins sailed through her GCSEs, determined to pass for his sake. Though academic, music was always her first love: ‘There’s a video of me aged four with my headmaster, who is introducing me to an audience, but I keep interrupting him by singing. I just wanted to sing and sing forever; it’s a feeling that has never left me.’

Aged ten, Jenkins won BBC Radio 2’s Welsh Choirgirl of the Year. Prize after prize followed, culminating in a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music. Her big break came soon after graduation, when a producer friend asked her to sing on a dance mix of Flower Duet from the opera Lakmé. When Universal Classics and Jazz heard it, Jenkins was immediately offered a six-album deal.

‘It was insane, like out of a movie,’ she remembers. ‘Mum said, “Things like this don’t happen to people from Neath.” So we never told anyone while we waited to record the album.’ Première was released in 2004. Since then, she’s sung across the globe, from palaces and stadiums to Trafalgar Square on VE Day.

Jenkins was dubbed the ‘Forces’ Sweetheart’ after visiting British troops in Northern Ireland, Afghanistan and Iraq. Footage of her singing at the former Camp Bastion shows young soldiers moved to tears. When I ask how she seems so approachable, she says: ‘I’ve never taken any of this for granted. If you don’t feel entitled, people trust that you genuinely care, which I do.’

The British Forces Foundation later made her a trustee, while the Royal Navy has asked her to sponsor one of its newest warships. ‘They’re really cool-looking submarine hunters,’ she says, delighted. ‘The first sponsor is the Princess of Wales of HMS Glasgow; mine will be HMS Cardiff.’

I ask what performance she’s most relished. ‘Difficult, but there are two: singing to a sea of a million people at Brandenburg Gate on New Year’s Eve 2014, and another time to just ten people, including our late Queen, in a private room.’

As we wrap up, I compliment Jenkins on her outfit. ‘Marks & Spencer, top to toe!’ she beams. ‘I’m proud to support British fashion.’ Warm, full of humour – and zero trace of a diva.

In Brief: Katherine Jenkins’ Fast Favourites

Go-to designer: I’ve been collaborating with Suzanne Neville on my stage gowns for 15 years

Favourite aria: Maria Callas singing Rossini’s Una Voce Poco Fa. It’s six minutes of vocal gymnastics

Happy place: Wales, every time

Childhood song: Madonna’s Material Girl. I saw the music video when I was four and loved the glamour

Best book: In my teens it was Children of the Dust by Louise Lawrence. I still love historical fiction; the Tudors would be my Mastermind specialist subject

Desert island disc: Puccini’s Vissi d’arte

Last meal: A humongous roast dinner without the meat. I make really good roast potatoes