Natasha Hemmings plays Brighton Centre
Supporting Ronan Keating at the Brighton Centre on Friday, July 1 will be Natasha Hemmings, hot on the heels of her second album Invisible.
Natasha, who was Miss England at the age of 19 in 2015-16, brought the album out in mid-June. Invisible, the single and title track of the album, came out in May – all part of a very big change in Natasha's music-making.
“I'm very excited about the album. It is my life.
"Each song has been written from a personal memory or event or moment in my life. It is all about things and experiences that I've gone through. It was a very cathartic process to write. Some of the songs I have been working on for a long time and some of the songs I wrote during the lockdown. The whole thing is a journey for me, the writing as well as the music. My first album Whispers was very much a classical album about emerging as a musician,” says Natasha who studied at the Royal Northern College of Music as a junior at the age of 14 and in 2019 graduated with honours.
“This new album is a huge development. It is a completely different album in a different style which I think makes it much more contemporary. Theyarepersonalsongs.Whispers was about my love of classical music and literature but now this is me.
"Invisible is the single that the album is named after and ithasgotsomanydifferenthidden meanings for me. When I wasMissEnglandpeoplewould prejudge me and not see me as a musician and just want to see me as a model but that really wasn't what the competition was all about. It was all about empoweringwomenandthings for the community.”
If anyone regards beauty competitions as being effectively cattle markets: “They are just so wrong,” Natasha says.
“It has got nothing to do with outer beauty. It's about a celebration of how hard you work. It is all about the things you do in your community and the difference that you make. It's all about trying to be a role model that people can look too.”
The song also looks at social media: “It's talking about the fact that everyone is putting out a version of themselves on social media which is just perfect which is just not themselves. We are all looking and comparing ourselves with these fake versions of reality and it's no wonder it is causing mental health issues for so many people because no one could live up to those versions that they see. It's about how the real person becomes invisible.”
The tour with Ronan is an important one for Natasha: “As a new artist, an emerging artist, people won't necessarily knowmymusicsoI'mhavingto think about the best way to describe myself, but I will also be doing some covers in between my original songs. I will do Enjoy The Silence and then I will do Wuthering Heights by Kate Bush. I did that on the last tour anditwassuchabighitwiththe audience which was great. I'm vocally in the same territory, and Kate Bush is someone that reallyinspiredme.AndIwillalsobedoingacoverofSongbird.”