I enjoy being anonymous when I’m not on stage
International singing star Caro Emerald tells MARION MCMULLEN why she’s happy not playing the fame game
CARO Emerald has sold millions of records all over the world and her songs can be heard in TV shows and movies. She positively oozes glamour, but the Dutch jazz singer says she is rarely recognised away the spotlight ... and that’s just the way she likes it.
“At home, sure I get recognised a lot, but people here are too cool to say anything, but elsewhere, well, I wear a lot of make-up on stage and the look and hair is very distinctive. I don’t look like that when I go out. I just don’t have the time.”
She smiles: “I can be so anonymous, especially outside my own country. I have got a real private life and I can go walking on the street and have a chit chat with people.
“I was in Thailand on holiday recently and I met a couple from the UK and we would talk every day and eventually they asked what I did and I said I was a singer and it turned out they had one of my albums.
“We had been talking for three or four days and they hadn’t a clue who I was. I have got the best situation.”
The 35-year-old certainly likes to keep her private life exactly that... private.
She has never revealed the name of her baby daughter and enjoys the fact that she can go out shopping and sightseeing when she is on tour without being recognised.
Caro’s already had to add new UK dates to her The Emerald Island tour next year. It is her most extensive British tour and will see her all over the country including a return to London’s Royal Albert Hall.
She and her band will also be performing at several festivals this summer and there are also a series of European dates.
“I am really looking forward to it. I am ready for it. I have such loyal fans,” she says.
“My audience in the UK are really loyal to me and have been very supportive.
“We’re already planning the tour and working on everything from mood boards and visuals to lighting.
“It is a lot of organising, but it’s going really well. It always take more time than you think.”
Meanwhile, Caro is busy in the studio recording her next eagerly awaited album ahead of the tour.
“I can’t say anything about it,” she laughs, “I say things and it gets me into trouble. I don’t even have a release date yet.
“It’s very different to being on stage to being in the studio.
“On stage there is just one chance to go out there and get it right and there is the atmosphere and the energy, but it the studio you have so many things to consider and you want it to sound perfect. I am a perfectionist. I want to do my best. In fact, I’m at the recording studio now.
“This time it’s a little different. I have not released an album for quite some time, but my fans have been buying tickets for the new UK dates and there will be new songs.”
Born Caroline Esmeralda van der Leeuw in Amsterdam, her talent for music was evident from the start.
Her album The Shocking Miss Emerald went to the top of the
UK album charts three years ago and she made her American debut the same year.
The following year she was playing at Glastonbury and her concert performances have brought her international success.
“I was in Japan and South Korea last year. I played in this trendy little chic jazz cafe in Japan where they served food. Many didn’t know my music beforehand, but they enjoyed it.
“Then in South Korea I was standing in front of 10,000 people singing my songs. It was wonderful. They were really good singers as well.”
Caro might shun the public spotlight, but she recently travelled to Uganda with actress Pip Pellens to add her weight to a project run by Dutch organisation Plan Nederland to educate girls about feminine hygiene.
“It was a life-changing experience,” she says simply.
“I get asked to do a lot of things and it’s not possible to say yes to everything, but I was able to go to Uganda.
“The girls there had heard me on the radio and the internet and we taught them simple songs to help them learn about hygiene and that they would find easy to remember.
“The country is so beautiful and the nature so overwhelming. I didn’t expect that. I didn’t know what I was expecting, but it was beautiful.
“The people live in a completely different way to the way we do, but it way heart-warming to be there. It changed my views on life.
“The girls were really, really sweet and they really impressed me with their singing and we went around the villages.
“I just love the fact that my job allows me to do these things, to tour to sing ... and to work with great people. ”
SEE www.caroemerald.com for tour and ticket details.