WITH her wonderful voice and great looks, Katherine Jenkins has the world at her feet. She could even stake a claim to the title ‘the new Pavarotti’! Of course, she neither looks nor sounds anything like the late, great tenor but just as 20 years ago he was opening the ears of the world to opera, Katherine is also proving to be a great international ambassador for this kind of music, drawing massive crowds to her concerts and millions to her recordings.

“That’s a very nice thought,” she says. “Luciano Pavarotti was fantastic for opera and if I can make even a fraction of the contribution he made, I would be very happy indeed.”

Despite her amazing success, Katherine remains a modest girl and has managed to keep her feet on the ground even though she has already had the kind of career in just a few years that others would struggle to achieve in an entire lifetime.

“It has been amazing, I have to pinch myself sometimes to make sure that it’s not just a dream. So much has happened to me in only a few years that it has been a real whirlwind and I sometimes have to step back to remind myself of where I am. It seems like yesterday I signed my first recording contract and now here we are with several albums and lots of lovely things happening for me. 

“I don’t know if I can pick any particular highlight but experiences like singing for Her Majesty the Queen, entertaining the troops, singing before rugby internationals and appearing in huge concert halls are among the very special events that I will never forget even if it all stopped tomorrow.”

Perhaps that is why Katherine Jenkins is here to stay — she is never complacent.

“I know there is more to it than just a few years of success,” she says. “I don’t think you can really say that you have achieved something unless you are around for a long time. One of my heroes is Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and she has made her mark over several decades. It was a real thrill to sing The Flower Duet with her and a great reminder that there is still a long way to go if you want to join the list of all-time greats. Everyone knows the name of my real favourite — Maria Callas. You don’t achieve that kind of love and respect in just a few years.

“I am still ambitious and want to prove myself on the opera stage. I think it would be marvellous to sing in some of the biggest productions and that is somewhere I should like to go. I hope so, although I don’t want to lose the concerts because I just love being out there with an audience. I think I am a people person and having a rapport with an audience is something you cannot really describe. It is something you feel. I am always nervous before a concert of course but once I’m on that stage with an orchestra and an audience I never want it to end. You can feel the audience wanting you to do well and it really gives you a fantastic lift.”

There is no mistaking Katherine’s Welsh origins, of course. She was born in Neath, attended school there and still goes back to her old school when time permits to sing for the pupils and encourage them to take an interest in all kinds of music.

“Most people have a love of music and I’m a bit of a pop fan myself but it is good to sample other kinds of music too. You never know what you might like. So I try to encourage young people — and older ones as well — to at least have a listen. You never know where it might take you or what it might come to mean to you.

“That is one of the reasons we started the Katherine In The Park festival concert at Morgan Park. The idea is to try to make it a real variety of music with no particular genre or concept. There is everything from opera to folk with soloists and choirs. It is not just that there is something for everyone but that there is also something for everyone to try. I love it when families come along to concerts and festivals to share the experience and a love of music.”

Katherine’s own love of music began at an early age both at school and in her local church as well as at home. Not only did she achieve many awards but she also rose to high grades in playing the piano. The Welsh are famed for music and singing so perhaps that helped.

“I am very Welsh of course and perhaps that did help,” she says. “I know that for as far back as I can remember there has always been music in my life. At home there was music of all sorts playing all the time and then at school music played a great part in daily life. I loved the music at church so I don’t think you could grow up in an environment like that without it being such a big part of you.

“Bryn Terfel will tell you the same. We are good friends from similar backgrounds and we both want to promote music as well as fly the flag for Wales. Music is Wales and Wales is music.” 

Before her career took off, Katherine graduated as a music teacher at the Royal Academy of Music.

“I think that was probably going to be my career,” she reveals. “I wanted to perform but you never really think that you will get a chance on the big stage. I would have been happy to sing in local festivals and concerts, but then I was given the chance to show what I could do and signed a contract with Universal which changed my whole life. I am very grateful for my time at the Royal Academy because I learned so much, including how to protect your voice and the various techniques that provide stamina and general well-being, which mean your voice will last and not just give up because of too much use. I am very careful about the environments in which I find myself. I know I must take really good care of my voice and I do.”

Entertaining the troops and appearing at the British Legion Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall has led to Katherine being titled the new Forces Sweetheart, a mantle she has taken over from Dame Vera Lynn, and she is delighted with the honour.

“I don’t think I have taken over from Dame Vera, nobody could ever do that,” says Katherine. “It is a great honour to be compared though and I am very flattered by being mentioned in the same breath. If it means that singing for the troops has helped them in some way then I am even more delighted. Dame Vera is fantastic and it was such a great thrill to share the stage with her at the VE Day Anniversary concert. We sang We’ll Meet Again and I couldn’t help having a little tear in my eye. It was a wonderful moment for me.”

It was a wonderful moment among many for Katherine Jenkins and there are a lot more to come of course, with time on the road shared with time in the recording studio. Does she ever relax?

“Yes, I go home to Wales and I take time out with my family and my friends and just wander around the places I know. That is where I come from, and wherever I go I never forget that I owe it all to music and to Wales.”