Watch Will Martin perform
It’s all Pavarotti’s fault. By bringing opera’s greatest hits to a mass
market, Pav and his partners in the Three Tenors not only invented classical
crossover, but unleashed a wonderful marketing opportunity for the business.
Classical crossover is one area of the music business that still sells CDs.
In the last quarter of 2007, Universal Classics and Jazz was the most
profitable UK division of the world’s largest record conglomerate. So, these
days, no large sporting event is complete without a sweet-voiced tenor
belting out Nessun Dorma. Performing at Twickenham and rugby league’s
Challenge Cup final at Wembley has replaced Parkinson as the stepping stone
to the big time.
The aria from Puccini’s Turandot was used by the BBC as its signature tune for
the 1990 World Cup. The evening before the final in Rome, Pavarotti, Placido
Domingo and Jose Carreras gave a concert at the Baths of Caracalla. Intended
as a one-off benefit for Carreras, who was recovering from leukaemia, the
Three Tenors in Concert album became the biggest classical album in history
(12m sales and counting). The Three Tenors then performed at the next three
World Cups, inextricably linking arias with football.
As in sport, timing is everything. Russell Watson and Andrea Bocelli probably
owe their careers to singing the right song at the right event. In 1996,
Bocelli and Sarah Brightman sang Time to Say Goodbye before the German boxer
Henry Maske’s last fight. The national hero lost, but the song sold close to
3m copies in Germany, launching Bocelli into international stardom. Three
years later, Watson performed Land of Hope and Glory at Barcelona’s Nou Camp
stadium before Manchester United beat Bayern Munich to win the Champions
League.
“I’m not naive enough to believe that record companies watch sports events
looking for a new star,” says Will Martin, who first performed before an All
Blacks game in his native New Zealand in 2005. His debut album was released
in September, and he has sung at Wembley, the Millennium Stadium, Ascot and
Old Trafford, as well as for the Royal Olympic Association. “But when you’re
singing to a huge crowd and a TV audience that can be in the tens of
millions, it is an opportunity to touch people where it matters most. . . in
the heart.”
The tenor Jonathan Ansell, once of G4, used Wembley to promote his second
album, Forever. He sang Hearts of England, the England rugby league team’s
World Cup song, at the Carnegie Challenge Cup final on August 30, 2008. The
following weekend, he was belting out — you guessed it — Nessun Dorma at
Soccer Aid.
“For a certain genre of artist, performing at sporting events is becoming a
more and more important part of their career development,” says Julian
Marks, of Event 360, which provides on-pitch entertainment for Wembley, the
Rugby Football Union and the Welsh Rugby Union, among others. For England’s
four home games at Twickers in November, Event 360 has moved away from the
solo power balladeer to all-girl combos. Yesterday the entertainment was
Passionata, a five-strong blonde group unimaginatively described as “the
operatic answer to Girls Aloud”, who performed excerpts from Carmina Burana.
Two slots are being taken by Escala, the string quartet who made the
Britain’s Got Talent final and will be unleashing their version of Live and
Let Die. Marks says they are trying a more contemporary approach than
retreads of national anthems. It will be interesting to see whether they can
captivate the rugby crowd, who have always enjoyed a good sing-along to the
anthem and adopted hymns such as Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.
The alliance between sport and music cuts both ways. “Sports events take place
year in and year out, and people want a bigger and better event, so having
entertainment adds to the package,” says Marks.
“At the recent NFL\ game at Wembley we put on the Stereophonics because All
Angels would have been totally inappropriate. The artist’s job is also to
heighten the atmosphere and to support the home team.”
The Welsh, especially at home rugby games, have been masters of harnessing the
power of song to improve sporting performance. Bryn Terfel and the Joneses
Tom and Aled have all used their lungs to inspire the fans, while the
mezzo-soprano Katherine Jenkins has been the team’s mascot — and potential
weapon of mass distraction when she lets rip on Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau or Cwm
Rhondda — since 2003. She has acknowledged the importance of her early
appearances in establishing herself.
Sport was an integral — maybe even the essential — factor in Russell Watson’s
breakthrough. He was playing the working men’s clubs, belting out pop
standards, when someone suggested he add Nessun Dorma to his repertoire. He
started out entertaining the half-time crowd at Preston North End, and was
scouted by Manchester
United in 1998, only to be kicked off his first scheduled show because Eric
Cantona demanded Simply Red. The following year, he sang the national anthem
at the Challenge Cup final, the first of seven Wembley appearances in 12
months (more than most sportsmen). He finally got to sing at Old Trafford
before Man United clinched the league title against Tottenham Hotspur. After
the game, he went back on the pitch to sing Barcelona, tearing off his
dinner jacket to reveal a Manchester United shirt beneath. A week later, he
was at the Nou Camp and on his way. Entering the sporting arena is a gamble
if the singers are weak or nervous. If you’re no good, you won’t be booed —
much worse, you’ll be ignored. Like him or loathe him, what made Watson was
his ability to communicate with his voice, to let the power of songs — which
are often totally familiar — ignite the crowd.
“Opera and sport mix very well together because they both generate so much
passion,” he told me just before the release of his first album in 2000.
“When somebody bangs a goal in from 30 yards, when those big notes are
belted out, both make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.”
“People are passionate about sport, and when they’re at a big game, they are
looking for a release for their emotions,” Martin says. “As a singer, your
job is to channel their passion. Classical singers are trained to convey
emotions. It’s a real test of nerves singing God Defend New Zealand before
an All Blacks game. It is a beautiful song in Maori and English, but
everyone knows all the words, so you can’t make a mistake.”
While disappointed he didn’t get the call to sing for the All Blacks this
time, Martin has just been signed up by Frank Warren’s Sports Network to
sing The Prize, a song commissioned by the boxing promoter that will be
played before all his fights and will, he hopes, become an international
anthem. It was launched at Amir Khan’s fight in September, which ended in a
disastrous 54-second knockout. Martin is hoping to perform the song live at
Khan’s next bout on December 6. “Amir’s a great fighter,” he says, “but this
time I really hope he’s standing in the ring longer than I am.”
Will Martin’s A New World is out now; Jonathan Ansell’s Forever is released
tomorrow; Russell Watson’s People Get Ready is out on November 17
