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Katie Melua heads south
17/03/2005 07:32 - (SA)
Cape Town - New kid on the block, British jazz singer, Katie Melua is heading to South Africa for a whirlwind tour.
She will be performing at Carnival City on the East Rand on March 20, and at Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens in Cape Town on March 21.
With sales of over 55 000 albums in South Africa alone, Melua's platinum selling Call Off The Search was the biggest selling debut album in South Africa for 2004.
Following her UK sell-out tour and UK and Irish festival appearances, Melua has confirmed the South Africa dates as part of her Call Off The Search World Tour.
Since the release of her debut album Call Off The Search last year, Katie Melua has gone from being an unknown musician signed to a small independent label to being the most successful artist in Britain with the album selling more than 1.3 million copies and sitting at number one for six weeks.
The singer was born in Georgia (former USSR) in 1984, and moved to Belfast when she was just eight years old, due to her father's profession as a heart surgeon.
After the family moved to London five years later, Melua entered a TV talent competition called Stars Up Their Nose - singing Mariah Carey's Without You. She won the competition and gained valuable experience by performing live on the UK's ITV channel three times.
On hearing an Eva Cassidy song while studying at the Brit School for Performing Arts, Melua was blown away and when she discovered that Eva was no longer alive wrote the song Faraway Voice as a tribute to her.
Composer and producer Mike Batt paid a visit to the school looking for musicians to form a jazz band, and Melua decided to perform this song for him. Batt realised that he had found someone very special: "Artists like Katie don't come along very often, she is a true original." Katie was immediately signed to Batt's record label Dramatico.
Melua will also be one of the international artists at Saturday's 46664 Aids concert to be held at Fancourt.
Tour itinerary
Sunday, March 20 - The Big Top Arena, Carnival City, Brakpan
Monday, March 21 - Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, Cape Town
Ticket Booking
Tickets from Computicket (083 915 8000), Shoprite Checkers (083 918 0001) and Kirstenbosch Gardens (021 761 2866).
- News24
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South Africa
