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Katie Melua at the Chambers Gallery where Georgian art is on show |
Katie: ‘Georgia on my mind’
Jazz singer tells of emotional return to the country of her birth
JAZZ singer Katie Melua spoke of her “difficult and emotional” return to her home nation as she visited a collection of Georgian art at the Chambers Gallery, Smithfield.
Ms Melua, one of Britain’s most popular jazz musicians, described the trip while viewing work at the gallery on Friday.
She paid tribute to the Georgian Artists collection, saying: “I really like the exhibition. My favourites are Kandelaki and Bugadze. It’s really incredible stuff. I find art a bit overwhelming. I’d like to spend a day here.”
Ms Melua, whose smoky blues voice shot her to the top of the UK charts in 2003 then spoke exclusively to the Tribune about her return to Georgia.
The journey to her homeland carried particular meaning for the singer, her first since the country’s war with Russia last summer. She said: “The situation is so complicated, nothing’s settled. It all carries on in a subtler, more complex way. Returning last week was difficult. I keep asking, ‘Can Georgia ever be independent of Russia?’”
Russian tanks rolled into South Ossetia in August last year, just as Ms Melua, 24, was about to visit.
“No one would let me go,” she said. “It was really annoying. But it was amazing to go back home and see family.”
Ms Melua, who moved to the UK, aged eight, returned at a time of rebuilding both for the war-torn country, and her own family – her grandfather’s house on stilts collapsed in an accident three months ago.
She paid tribute to the influence of Georgia’s exuberant culture on her own music, adding: “I don’t think I’d be a musician if I didn’t come from Georgia. They are so artistic, even the language lends itself to the most expressive emotions.”
The Georgian Artists exhibition at Chambers Gallery, 23 Long Lane, EC1A, ends today (Friday). |
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