World Song Contest

THE WINNER 

Country: New Zealand
Artist(s): Hayley Westenra
Song: Summer Rain

Hayley Dee Westenra (born 10 April 1987 in Christchurch, New Zealand) is a New Zealand soprano of Irish heritage. Her first internationally released album, Pure, reached #1 on the UK classical charts in 2003 and has sold more than two million copies worldwide. Westenra has received awards for her contribution to music, both in New Zealand and elsewhere. Pure is the fastest-selling international début classical album to date, and Westenra became an international star, aged 16, when the first of her international albums were released. In August 2006, Westenra joined the Irish group Celtic Woman and toured with them on their 2007 Spring Tour. Westenra has performed for dignitaries around the world. She is the youngest UNICEF Ambassador to date and has contributed to charities around the world. Westenra's parents, Jill and Gerald Westenra, have two other children, Sophie and Isaac. The family has a history of music: Westenra's grandmother Shirley Ireland was a singer, and her grandfather was a pianist who also played the piano accordion. Her pursuit of a musical career began at the age of six, when she was cast in the lead singing role of "Little Star" in the Christmas play at her school, Cobham Intermediate. After the show, a teacher who had watched the performance approached her parents to tell them that their daughter was pitch perfect. The teacher encouraged Westenra to learn how to play a musical instrument to improve her abilities, and she duly learned to read music and play the violin, piano, and recorder. She began voice lessons and discovered a passion for musical theatre. By age 11, she had performed more than 40 times on stage but was often given male parts. At the age of 12, Westenra entered a professional recording studio to record Walking in the Air, a demo album originally created for friends and family; only about 1000 copies were made. Some time later, after finishing her album, both Westenra and her sister, Sophie, busked in Christchurch. The pair drew a large crowd, and one woman asked the girls if they had ever recorded anything. The woman turned out to be a journalist with Canterbury Television, and she asked Westenra to appear on air. A concert promotion company, under the direction of Gray Bartlett, watched the show and became interested in working with Westenra. Shortly after this, she was offered a recording deal with Universal New Zealand before she met any representatives of the company. On this label, Westenra released a self-titled album of show tunes and light classical songs, as well as My Gift to You, a CD of Christmas music. Following the success of her albums, she was offered and later received lessons from Dame Malvina Major. Although her albums were quite successful in New Zealand, Westenra was unknown worldwide until she landed a contract with Decca Records and recorded Pure, a CD of classical, light pop, and traditional Māori songs. Decca's UK president was also impressed with her voice when they signed her to the label. Pure enjoyed record success: it became the fastest-selling international debut album in the history of the UK classical charts, sold 19,068 copies in its first week alone, quickly reached #1 on the UK chart, and entered the UK Pop Chart at #8. To date, over two million copies of Pure have been sold. In New Zealand, Pure has been certified 10x platinum, making her the best-selling artist, regardless of genre, in the country's history. Pure's success ensured that Decca would take Westenra seriously. Some of her fame today can be directly attributed to the way in which Decca promoted her. Although the traditional audience of classical crossover music is that of adult women, they also promoted her music to children and teenagers. Westenra recorded the end-title song for Disney's movie Mulan II. They also featured her in the national Radio Disney music education tour for middle-school students. Westenra was the 2004 Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards winner of "Highest Selling New Zealand Album" and "International Achievement Award" On 20 February 2004, Prime Minister Helen Clark awarded her for being the first New Zealand artist to receive the tenfold platinum status in the New Zealand market, where she held the number one artist position for 18 weeks. She has won two Japanese Grammies for her work (Song of the Year, "Amazing Grace" and Album of the Year, Pure). Also in 2004, she began her world tour of New Zealand, Australia, Japan, and the UK, performing in a concert in November for Her Majesty The Queen, Prime Minister Tony Blair, Prince Charles, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice and President George W. Bush. Her successful career was again bolstered at the Sydney Opera House where she received a rare standing ovation. She concluded 2004 with a successful Christmas tour of the east coast of the United States as guest soloist with the Boston Pops Orchestra. In 2005, she released a new album called Odyssey. A mix of classical, pop, Celtic, and new age music, she co-wrote and arranged some of the tracks on the album, which was released in the United States on 18 October 2005. A more recent version of Odyssey containing several recordings not on the original album was released in the United Kingdom on 10 April 2006, her 19th birthday. In August 2006, Westenra joined Celtic Woman and is featured on their second major DVD/CD album, Celtic Woman: A New Journey, which was released 30 January 2007 and immediately hit the Billboard Top 200 music chart at #4. She toured with the group in the United States in 2007, with scheduled appearances in 88 venues across the country; the tour ended in June of the same year. Westenra's third international album, Treasure, was released on 26 February 2007 in the UK. Westenra co-wrote four of the fifteen tracks, and the album also features singer Humphrey Berney. The US/Australia/NZ edition followed in March under the name Celtic Treasure.

Official website: http://www.hayleywestenra.com/
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/hayleywestenra

Lyrics

Days of burning sun
Watch the colours run
Into pools that catch the eye
Disappear as you pass by

You're my summer rain
You're my summer rain
And I know that I'll see you again
And I know that I'll see you again

Hear my prayer
Answer my call
Breathe life into my soul
I am waiting for you to show
Come and hold me so

You're my summer rain
You're my summer rain
And I know that I'll see you again
And I know that I'll see you again

Dreams of a day with you
Fading away

You're my summer rain
You're my summer rain
And I know and I know and I know that I'll see you again
And I know and I know and I know that I'll see you again
Summer rain
You're my summer rain
And I know and I know and I know that I'll see you again
And I know and I know and I know that I'll see you again
Ah huh ah
Summer rain
Ah huh ah
Summer rain

65 countries took part in the 40th edition of the World Song Contest, an edition which welcomed Nicaragua. The South American made its first appearance in the contest, while Chile and Slovakia made their come back after a long absence.

ESC related artists proved to be a bad choice this time as if lot of them managed to qualify, they did badly in the final, Sakis Rouvas reaching the 14th position. Of course Sébastien Tellier represented France in 2008, but it was first a WSC participants, back in WSC .30. It was then for Luxembourg, and he finished second with the same number of points than the winner. This time, Sébastien Tellier reached the top 10 again, for Monaco, finishing 6th.

Monaco was not the only country represented by a song performed in French to reach the top 10. In fact, 4 songs did it as Canada, Belgium and Italy also reached the top 10, proving that French can be a winning ingredient. Among the other songs of the top 10, 4 were performed in English, one in Greek, and one in Icelandic.

If the Brazilian players of the World Song Contest allowed San Marino to win with a comfortable advance in the previous edition, this time they couldn't help Cyprus to win, despite the fact 4 of them awarded the song with their maximum vote. Cyprus was not the only song they gave support to as the Netherlands benefited from it once again to reach the 4th position, 1 point ahead of Lithuania, which prevented the country to equal its best result in WSC. Finally the danger came from somewhere else as New Zealand and Israel were separated by one point before the last vote was given, and New Zealand had an advantage of 4 points over Cyprus. But the last vote didn't change a thing, as Norway didn't vote for these songs giving the victory to Hayley Westenra and the song "Summer Rain", the song became, the second winner from Oceania.

Gallery of Participants

Infected Mushroom

Thanos Petrelis

Anouk

Mantas

Sébastien Tellier

Sigur Rós

Marie-Chantal Toupin

Suarez