{"id":7324,"date":"2023-09-25T00:41:25","date_gmt":"2023-09-24T19:11:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/im-grateful-fans-still-want-to-see-me-beverley-knight-embraces-milestone-with-new-tour-music-entertainment\/"},"modified":"2023-09-25T00:41:25","modified_gmt":"2023-09-24T19:11:25","slug":"im-grateful-fans-still-want-to-see-me-beverley-knight-embraces-milestone-with-new-tour-music-entertainment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/im-grateful-fans-still-want-to-see-me-beverley-knight-embraces-milestone-with-new-tour-music-entertainment\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I\u2019m grateful fans still want to see me\u2019: Beverley Knight embraces milestone with new tour | Music | Entertainment"},"content":{"rendered":"

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This article contains affiliate links, we will receive a commission on any sales we generate from it. Learn more<\/div>\n

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\"Beverley<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/p>\n

Beverley performing this summer (Image: Getty)<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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Not every star can say their fans included David Bowie, Prince and Vladimir Putin, but then not every star is Beverley Knight. \u201cI knew Prince a little,\u201d she tells me with typical restraint. \u201cHe was kind enough to champion me. I opened for him at the O2 in 2007 and did the after-show, And I sang at his Oscars party in LA the following year.<\/p>\n

\u201cDavid called me \u2018little Aretha\u2019 and came to see me unannounced at the Jazz Caf\u00e9 in Camden. When I looked out and saw him I thought, \u2018No, it can\u2019t be\u2026!\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought I was the luckiest woman in the world that these great icons had time for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wolverhampton-born Beverley, dubbed the Queen of British soul, turned 50 this year and has been turning heads since the 90s with her incredible gospel-powered vocals. Her most surprising audience was geo-political \u2013 when she was invited to sing for world leaders, including Putin, at the 2006 G8 summit in St Petersburg.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Russian Minister for Culture took a shine to me. I had to sit next to him watching Swan Lake,\u201d she recalls. \u201cThen I was obliged to attend a dinner on Putin\u2019s yacht, alone \u2013 I had to take my passport and my management weren\u2019t allowed on. I sat on a table with all these oligarchs constantly trying to give me vodka.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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READ MORE <\/strong> Mick Jagger loves streaming music despite it costing him millions <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Beverley<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/p>\n

Beverley with fan David Bowie back in 2000 (Image: Getty)<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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“The Scorpions were there too, so I wasn\u2019t the only musical artist. Eventually I was asked by security to follow them into another room where I found myself with Blair, Chirac, Gerhard Schr\u00f6der and Putin. It was terrifying, and fascinating.<\/p>\n

\u201cPutin seemed nervous of me because I looked into his eyes. He hopped from foot to foot. He seemed sinister, like Darth Vader.\u201d<\/p>\n

Knight\u2019s own feet remain firmly grounded. Her late father Edward Smith, a Jamaican immigrant, was a builder who started his own business before she was born.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy family came to Britain when my sister was tiny. We were broke, but he was very driven \u2013 I get my drive from him, I\u2019m exactly like my father. My mum Delores was the life and soul of the party. She was an ophthalmic nurse at Wolverhampton Eye Infirmary.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Smiths were a Pentecostal family and young Beverley\u2019s earliest fans were at church. At home, the only music she ever heard was the gospel and faith-fuelled country of Hank Williams and Jim Reeves.<\/p>\n

\u201cSam Cooke mesmerised me but I didn\u2019t know him as a soul artist, I actually knew him as a gospel singer. He did
an album called The Two Sides Of Sam Cooke and at home they only played the gospel side, not the secular side.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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At 14 she started writing songs and a few years later began to gig in her own right \u2013 \u201cjust for the love of it\u201d \u2013 as well as singing in church. She was spotted performing at the Wolverhampton club Paloma for a pirate radio station\u2019s fifth anniversary.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was all luck that I was there and got offered a deal. I was going to university that year \u2013 I was very bookish and still am \u2013 and I said, \u2018If you think I\u2019m good, you\u2019ll hang on until after my third year of university\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

She signed to a small label and released her debut album, The B-Funk, before graduating in 1995.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cMy plan was always to finish my degree and get my thesis done, but the white label of my first single went crazy in the clubs, and I found myself trying to write songs and write a dissertation at the same time\u201d \u2013 on
Cults, Sects & Churches of 20th Century Britain.<\/p>\n

A bona fide national treasure, smart, vivacious Beverley has chalked up Top Ten hits \u2013 like Shoulda Woulda Coulda and Come As You Are \u2013 and gold and platinum albums.<\/p>\n

Delicious highs include being awarded the MBE in 2006 for services to music and charity, and singing the national anthem for Lennox Lewis at his world title comeback fight in Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas in 2001. She has also sustained a long parallel career in musical theatre, winning three Olivier Awards. The lows came with the acrid stench of racism.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Beverley<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/p>\n

Beverley with her husband James O\u2019Keefe (Image: Getty)<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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Name-calling at school paled into insignificance compared to her experiences in Cheltenham as a University Of Gloucester student.<\/p>\n

First was the bigoted landlady who pretended she wasn\u2019t the landlady as soon as she saw Beverley\u2019s face \u2013 but worse was to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was spat at once,\u201d she tells me softly. \u201cI left the campus and was walking along with my books. A car slowed down with a bunch of lads in it. I thought they wanted directions but when I went over, they shouted, \u2018You effing black slag\u2019, and spat at me and sped off laughing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI stood there in absolute shock, then I ran after the car, until I came to my senses. I was upset and then angry, but that hasn\u2019t happened to me in a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nowadays strangers are always friendly, if occasionally confused. \u201cI\u2019ve had someone say \u2018I\u2019m such a fan\u2019 and ask me to pose for a picture and then ask me to sign a picture that is not me. Sometimes it\u2019s Mica Paris, sometimes Alexandra Burke. Even when I tell them it\u2019s not me, they say, \u2018Are you sure?\u2019<\/p>\n

“Absolutely I\u2019m sure!\u201d she adds, laughing. \u201cI\u2019ve had people send me underwear and ask me to sign it. It gets lost! I can\u2019t be signing anybody\u2019s underwear. The next thing you know I\u2019ve been named in court.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Teetotal Beverley, a staunch Wolves fan, found the love of her life when she was shooting a TV ad in 2007 and bumped into lighting gaffer James O\u2019Keefe.<\/p>\n

\u201cA man came down a ladder and said hi. He was gorgeous and seemed a nice guy. I got his number and I texted him \u2013 I\u2019d never done that in my life before!\u201d<\/p>\n

Now her husband and a wellness coach, Londoner James was plunged into the madness of fame within months, as Knight was hounded by paparazzi while opening for Prince at the O2. When she had her hysterectomy in 2017, he was her rock. In 2013, Beverley moved into her parallel West End career, with acclaimed lead roles in The Bodyguard, Memphis and Cats.<\/p>\n

This year she starred in radical R&B-infused musical Sylvia, playing Emmeline Pankhurst \u2013 mother of suffragette Sylvia.<\/p>\n

Bev is celebrating the big 5-0 with a new studio album that spans the \u201ckaleidoscope\u201d of her soul influences, from 80s-inspired pop-funk to big ballads and northern soul. She brought in top-rated writers to work with, including Diane Warren, Ollie Green and Seb Coe (not the runner).<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re astonishingly great songs. I am so grateful,\u201d she says. Everything\u2019s Gonna Be Alright, featuring the London Community Gospel Choir, reflects her enduring optimism. \u201cI find negativism annoying and upsetting \u2013 let people live!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Beverley<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/p>\n

Beverley Knight\u2019s new album (Image: )<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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How does this self-defined workaholic relax?<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m relaxing right now, talking to you in the park where I walk the dog,\u201d Bev says, although she\u2019s also technically working. \u201cI read books and watch documentaries, I listen to Sade. Russell Kane and Peter Kay make me laugh… and Richard Pryor. Eddie Murphy is the king of everything!\u201d<\/p>\n

She\u2019s come a long way from being the studious girl at school in her \u201cDeirdre Barlow glasses\u201d. Bev made feature film Cinderella during lockdown and judged on ITV\u2019s Starstruck earlier this year. Film and TV acting roles are in the pipeline, and a Vegas residency is a possibility; but first there\u2019s the UK tour.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be joyous,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m not hiding being 50, I\u2019m embracing it. It\u2019s a privilege that I\u2019ve got to this stage of my career.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m here, I\u2019m grateful for it and grateful the public still want to see me. So be prepared to dance! A lot of the songs you\u2019ll know, some you\u2019ll only just have heard, but you\u2019ll love them!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n[ad_2]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[ad_1] This article contains affiliate links, we will receive a commission on any sales we generate from it. Learn more Beverley performing this summer (Image: Getty) Not every star can say their fans included David Bowie, Prince and Vladimir Putin, but then not every star is Beverley Knight. \u201cI knew Prince a little,\u201d she tells …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7326,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[766],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7324"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}