In Winter Katie Melua

• 1 The Little Swallow 01:47
• 2 River 03:26
• 3 Perfect World 04:25
• 4 Cradle Song 01:44
• 5 A Time to Buy 03:32
• 6 Plane Song 04:08
• 7 If You Are so Beautiful 03:44
• 8 Dreams on Fire 04:06
• 9 All-Night Vigil - Nunc Dimittis 04:16
• 10 O Holy Night 04:24
• Total Runtime 35:32

Info for In Winter

It has been 3 years since multi-award-winning Katie Melua released ‘Ketevan’, her 6th and final album through her creative partnership with Mike Batt and Dramatico. There is no question that Katie and Mike achieved immense success during their 10+ years of working together, but the release of ‘In Winter’ this October, Katie’s first album as a truly independent artist, marks a significant new chapter in her creative evolution. Unlike her prior releases, ‘In Winter’ sees Katie taking over the reigns as creative director, principal song-writer, recording artist, and producer, to create an album that is very much of her own making. The album is focused on exploring the themes of Winter, both festive and personal. For many Winter is bitter-sweet, full of feelings of love, family, gifting, magic, warmth, and celebration, but equally: melancholy, regret, dashed hopes, a longing to return home, and, of course, the cold. The creation of ‘In Winter’ has also provided Melua the opportunity to engage in a far richer perspective on 2 different cultures that are so close to her: the West and the ex-Soviet Union. She didn’t only record the album in Gori, Georgia (her country of birth), but has also been drawing from the rich traditions of carols and folk-tales from the region.

Katie has spent the last 18 months traveling between her home in London, and the town of Gori, where she has been working with a phenomenal group of 23 female singers called Gori Women’s Choir. She has wanted to work with the choir for many years now, and this record has finally presented the perfect opportunity. She has also enlisted the immense talents of Oxford-based Bob Chilcott, whose work as a choral arranger is nothing short of world-renowned. And as much as the quality of the music is of paramount importance, so, too, is the aesthetic presentation. This aspect of the work is being created by an exemplary illustrator by the name of Niroot Puttapipat, originally from Thailand and now based in London. Niroot has an incredible talent of bringing words to life in pictures. He works only by hand, and has illustrated such notable book titles as The Nutcracker, The Rubáiyát of Omar Khattám, and Jane Austen’s Emma.

‘In Winter’ opens with the traditional Ukrainian Carol introduced to the West as Carol of the Bells, and closes with a show-stopping rendition of ‘O Holy Night’. The album also features 4 brand new songs written by Melua, as well as a truly magnificent cover-version of Joni Mitchell’s festive classic, ‘River’.

Katie Melua, vocals
Gori Women’s Choir

Katie Melua
was born in Georgia and moved to Belfast when she was eight after her heart surgeon father landed a job there. When she was fifteen she entered a light-hearted TV talent competition called ‘Stars Up Their Nose’ and her version of Mariah Carey’s ‘Without You’ earned her victory. Katie later joined the Brit School for Performing Arts where she studied for a BTEC and Music A-level.

Having visited the school on the lookout for new talent, Mike Batt of ‘The Wombles’ fame discovered Katie and immediately signed her up to his Dramatico label. Having graduated from the Brits School with a distinction in 2003 she joined Batt in the studio to record a demo. Radio 2 DJ, Terry Wogan became her champion and his support of the single ‘The Closest Thing To Crazy’ led to it entering the charts at No.10 on its release.

Her debut album ‘Call Off the Search’ went quadruple platinum and in 2004 the young singer set off on her debut live tour. The album featured two songs written by Melua including ‘Belfast (Penguins and Cats)’ about her childhood experience living in the troubled capital of Northern Ireland and ‘Faraway Voice’ about the death of Eva Cassidy. Melua’s follow-up album ‘Piece by Piece’ was released on 26 September 2005. The first single ‘Nine Million Bicycles’ was released the week before and reached number three in the UK charts. It also featured four more songs written by Melua and reached number one in the UK album chart on 5 October 2005.

This album also helped the singer break Europe, as it sold more than one million copies in Germany alone. It has since sold 35 million copies worldwide. Her third album was entitled ‘Pictures’ and was released in the UK on 1 October 2007. It was announced as being the last album on which Batt would be the lead writer and producer. The record featured Melua’s friend Molly McQueen, former frontwoman of The Faders, and Andrea McEwan, who wrote the lyrics for ‘What I Miss About You’ and ‘Dirty Dice’.

In 2008, Melua embarked on a world tour, allowing her to focus on her previous three records. Her live performance at London’s O2 Arena was released on DVD in May 2009. Melua focused on breaking the US during the first half of 2009 by undertaking an acoustic tour performing with her guitar and piano. She then retired to the studio to write her new album on her own and with Guy Chambers, Rick Nowels and Mike Batt. On 24 May 2010, Melua’s fourth studio album ‘The House’ was released. The singer’s scheduled European tour in 2010 was postponed due to illness, with Melua saying: “I had a bit of a breakdown so needed to take time off.” In September that year she was ordered by her doctors to stop working, resulting in her hospitalisation for six months.

Her postponed tour took place in 2011 and she released her fifth album ‘Secret Symphony’ on 5 March 2012. She also confirmed her engagement to World Superbike racer James Toseland in January 2012.

This album contains no booklet.