SEEING HER LIVE

For my 16th birthday (4 years ago ahh), my mother treated me to Sarah Brightman's Harem Tour concert. It is not everyday that the talented singer comes to town so I wanted to see her for sure! Although I wasn't too impressed by her Harem album, her live performance quickly changed my mind and I've loved the album ever since. Unlike her previous albums, Harem was inspired by middle eastern music which resulted in terrific dance based songs. It also features a lot of great guest singers from all over the world.

I was very lucky and managed to find great seats at the end of the cat walk. I wasn't expecting to be so close to her but all of a sudden when the concert started, Sarah appeared right in front of me! It was a great experience and I was so happy to see her in person. People look very different in real life! She's very petite but for someone in their 40's, having the same built as my teenage self, is just amazing.

I was also impressed by her beautiful voice that was even better live. The band and her dancers were very talented and the show kept my attention at every second. The costumes were really stunning, as well and she managed to change every once in a while. She even had some great special effects like fireworks, and petals falling from the celing. She also sat in a giant swing and swung over the audience during the famous "what a wonderful world" song. I was also so happy that she decided to perform a few songs from Phantom of the Opera, and the crowd cheered! I had no idea that so many people loved Phantom as much as I do. Well, I really hope that a lot of her fans were able to see this concert because it was really entertaining. The Harem DVD live from Las Vegas is now out, which is a taped recording of the performance; but nothing is better than seeing it live.

Harem
Visual images were always a part of Sarah Brightman's inspiration for Harem. "I have always been fascinated by the desert, the space and feeling of spirituality that the emptiness and huge vaulted skies bring, and, at the same time, those magical images of the Arabian Nights with their princesses and palaces."

“
Those stories were my favourite reading as a child;

when I came to start work on this, my latest project,

I went back to those glorious technicolour pictures 

that had remained with me. I wanted to do something with

 a middle eastern percussive feel to it 

and as I listened to Turkish, Indian & middle eastern 

music, especially some of the dance orientated things

 that are being produced, the whole concept of the album 

and the show began to be clear to me; the idea

of parallel worlds, of mystery and the faraway 

lands of legend and myth all lent themselves 

to what I wanted to create musically- the sensuous

 dance rhythms, the wonderful melodies and 

fantastic range of instruments and sounds.

 ”