As one of the UK’s highest-selling female recording artists of all time, Katie Melua is no stranger to the spotlight — and she's back on the Big Top stage at Cheltenham Jazz Festival this April 2025.
SoGlos chats to Katie ahead of her performance about what fans can expect from the show, writing her eighth album in the Cotswolds and what she's got coming up next...
It’s been six years since you last played Cheltenham Jazz Festival — what are you most looking forward to at this year’s event?
I'm so excited for it. I'm actually starting the rehearsals this weekend.
This will be my first concert with a new band. We've got a world-class set of musicians and I cannot wait to perform with them, so the Cheltenham Jazz Festival is going to get that premiere from me.
I don't know that I'll have a chance to see the other performers and artists, but I did have a look at the menu today and I'm really excited about Anna Moss; I'm really excited about the Neil Cowley Trio — Neil actually played on a single I released a few years ago. He's such a special piano player and an artist. He's playing on Monday, so he's almost a week after me, but if he was around, I'd be like, come and join us too!
What can the Jazz Festival audience expect from your performance?
It's a completely new lineup and they are a phenomenal set of musicians led by Gabe Pierce Mantel, who is an insanely great piano player and he often does the jazz circuits here in London.
He's just got such a great way of understanding these songs. It's a funny thing, because I love songs like 'Nine Million Bicycles' and 'Closest Thing To Crazy' — and they're so cherished by my audiences — but I always think about how we bring something new and fresh to them, but still keep that the link to the past alight.
I have to say, I feel like I'm meant to be on stage. Sometimes I do get a little nervous before I go on there, but once the music begins, it definitely feels like the most exotic, exciting, life changing experience, even after all these years — and I feel that the audience can feel that too, like they get that the music is transforming something and how I feel and how I think. And I think we all get that from music and songs.
Have you always been a jazz fan?
I do love jazz, but I didn't really grow up in a household that played jazz. I actually discovered jazz once I hit the studio at the age of 18, 19, when I was working with Mike Batt. After our first few sessions, he was like, 'oh, you're kind of doing things that Nina Simone might do or Édith Piaf' and I was like, oh, actually, I don't know who they are!
So embarrassingly, I then went home, downloaded Édith Piaf, Nina Simone, Ella Fitzgerald and just got completely immersed in their worlds. Ella Fitzgerald, particularly, I loved the way she embodied a song. It was so, so profound. Ultimately I've grown to be a huge fan of jazz and one of my favourite artists is Brad Mehldau. I actually saw him live just before Covid a number of times.
I think what I love about jazz is that I love music which is intricate and detailed. It's different to classical, jazz also has the feel and the energy of pop and rock'n'roll — so it's got the intricacy of classical, but the grooves and the feel of other more popular genres.
As mum to a toddler, how are you finding balancing music and motherhood?
I think the first part was actually easier because it took me such a long time to have the courage to start a family. And then when it finally happened, I was so grateful that it did happen and that we had a healthy baby.
I had a tour planned five months after he was born, because one got cancelled because of Covid, so we travelled Europe for nearly three months with Sandro as a five-month-old. But now that he's a toddler, it's like next level!
Now it's like every week or month, something new comes to the table that you have to adapt to and change the rhythm — it's not easy, but I guess I just keep believing and having the faith that actually he will have an enriched and wonderful life from my work and my craft, and that also my work and craft will be richer from the fact that I'm a parent.
And I get to watch this beautiful human being turn into an adult!
You spent some time in the Cotswolds while writing your eighth studio album — what was that like?
I actually did a writing retreat in Charlton Abbotts near Winchcombe and it was amazing. I was there for three weeks, completely on my own. No car. And the nearest pub was a 40-minute walk away — and it was blissful. It was glorious.
There was farmland next door and there were a couple of horses and I had some really funny moments, actually, with these beautiful horses. On the first day when I got close to the fence, the horse started coming towards me a little bit aggressively and I was a bit freaked out. I stepped back and then it lifted its leg up and, excuse me, but did a wee! So I was like, okay, this horse doesn't like me!
I was writing a song I wanted to feel like a horse running in a field, I wanted it to have energy, but I was stuck inside working — so I was hoping to get some kind of inspiration, but of course this horse was having none of it!
You released your ninth studio album in 2023. Are you working on any new projects at the moment?
Yes, I am — I'm working on album number 10, but I think it might be a while until it it's ready. Because now I'm a mum, I feel so happy with the records I've released and everything I've been able to do, so I really want to make this next one as special as possible and really phenomenal, so I need to take my time with it.
I'm also hoping to work with some younger artists to do some mentoring and maybe some writing, so that's also keeping me busy.
Are there any emerging artists on your wish list?
Gosh, I think there
are a lot of great ones. They're actually not that young because I think they've been around for a while, but I just find them brilliant — Men I Trust. They're led by a female singer-songwriter. I think they're phenomenal.
Really, really good.
You recorded a live album at The Royal Albert Hall last year, too — what was that like?
Oh, it was beautiful. That was the show that should have happened in 2020, but of course, as we all know, it couldn't. So when I then returned to the Albert Hall, I was a mum of a six-month-old Sandro and it felt like coming home.
It was majestic, absolutely majestic. It's such an iconic hall and to hear those songs vibrating around that room and see all those gorgeous people. It was really special.
After the Jazz Festival you’ve got some live dates in Europe coming up, do you have any plans for another UK tour?
It's going to be all studio work — the Cheltenham Jazz Festival is our only show this year in the UK.
Katie Melua performs at Cheltenham Jazz Festival on Wednesday 30 April 2025. Tickets cost from £30 and are available from the Cheltenham Festivals website.
For more information, see Cheltenham Jazz Festival.
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