Katie Melua: It is essential to take risks and to give women an opportunity to work

Since becoming a mother in her late 30s, her life has shifted from the cyclical nature of “album, tour, repeat” to each day offering something new with her son. “I didn’t really want to take risks in the past,” she admits. “The way I understand now, it’s essential to take risks and also to give women an opportunity to work, no matter where they are in their lives.”

A lot has changed for Melua in recent years, including getting divorced, meeting her new partner, writing an album and welcoming her first child, a baby boy named Sandro born in late 2022. Determined to keep working, she brought her young son on the road last year while touring her ninth studio album, Love & Money. Alongside industry expectations, she is navigating the pressure and judgement mothers often face.

“I think there’s very different types of pressures with male and female artists,” she notes. “One of the big pressures that females have is the glam side of things. When I was in my 20s, I had to have my hair and makeup done and it always took at least an hour and a half. And now as a new mum, it’s like you’ve got to drop the baby weight pretty quickly and you’ve got to look as sharp as possible.”

In order to keep her aligned on what is important to her, she is conscious about defining her “version of success”. “Which races am I running in?”, she muses. “Am I running in the races trying to have a TikTok viral hit? No, I’m not.

“I’m running in the race of ‘I want to be the best parent and I want to raise the best boy I possibly can’. And also I want to bring beautiful work into the world that he’ll be proud of and that will help to build a great culture in our country and our generation, those are the races that I’m running in.”

Among the other races Melua was keen to return to was live performing. Back in 2020, she had a special show at the prestigious Royal Albert Hall lined-up. It was, of course, halted due to the pandemic like everything else. But this just ignited the singer’s desire to perform the show some day even more. On May 16 2023 she got her chance. That evening, she entertained the sold-out crowd at her home venue with renditions of some of her most enduring hits including Nine Million Bicycles and The Closest Thing To Crazy.

“It was incredibly emotional, not only from that perspective of what had happened to the industry, but also personally for me as a new mum," she says. “I remember just after I had my baby, and that was such a precious and beautiful time, but there was also moments where I was like ‘Will I ever be able to get back on stage again?’ I’ve got such a respect for being on stage and making records and to me, I feel like it’s my calling in life and when you become a parent, everything changes. And my sense of self had changed.”

To preserve the moment she recorded the whole live show. She wasn’t initially sure if she would ever release it, but after reviewing the audio she was “delighted” at the idea of putting it out. After taking time to carefully mix and master each track, they have now been released as part of her third live album.

The show also marked 20 years since Melua’s 2003 debut album, Call Off The Search, which spent six weeks at number one in the UK and sold 1.8 million copies in its first five months of release. By 2007 she was the UK’s biggest-selling female artist.

The singer was born in Soviet Union-era Georgia before her family moved to Belfast and later to London. In her later teen years, she attended the Brits School, a non-fee-paying performing and creative arts school which boasts Adele and Raye among its alumni.

Melua hails the school as “completely essential” to her career, coming from an immigrant family who would have been sent back to Georgia if her father lost his job as a doctor. “I did an audition in my second year of the Brit School and that completely transformed my life,” she explains. “And if it wasn’t for the school, 100 per cent I wouldn’t have gotten the lift off that I did.”

The singer says she has been “really shocked” to see how the creative industries have had their funding reduced over the year, especially when many of those that have attended institutions like the Brit School have had such success.

It comes as her fellow Brit School veteran Kate Nash has announced the launch of an OnlyFans page to help subsidise her tour. The Foundations singer has said she made the move to make a point about how more musicians are having to fund themselves, in part due to the cost of presenting live music.

Melua agrees the industry can be isolating and some artists feel like the have to “fend for themselves”. “So it’s so important that we do create these networks of support and mentorship, and we do keep talking about the challenges that each of us as an artist faces,” she adds.

The singer, who has had talks with fellow artists about setting up a mentorship programme for young stars, feels it is “so important” to support creativity for people from all walks of life. “I actually think the industry thrives, has always thrived, so much from diverse voices because the beautiful thing about music is the doors are open to anyone,” she says. “You don’t need to be anyone or from any background. So the possibility is there.”

Katie Melua’s new album Live at The Royal Albert Hall is out now.