Bestselling Soprano Sarah Brightman Announces ‘Hymn’ Album, Tour And Partnership With Swarovski

The album will be accompanied by a 125-concert tour across five continents.

Published on

September 17, 2018

Photo: Simon Fowler

The bestselling soprano in the world, Sarah Brightman, will release her 15th full-length album Hymn on 9 November on Decca Gold/Universal Music Group. It’s available for pre-order and the title track is a version of a song by progressive rock favourites Barclay James Harvest. It’s Brightman’s first studio set since the international chart-topper of 2013, Dreamchaser, and the first track from the set, ‘Sogni,’ can be heard here.

The soprano has also announced a huge world tour, Hymn: Sarah Brightman In Concert, which will embrace no fewer than 125 shows on five continents. Announced dates can be seen below, with the itinerary due to start in South America in November.

Brightman is partnering with Swarovski for her world tour, with her elaborate costumes and dazzling tiaras to be composed of Swarovski crystals. There will also be a range of custom tour merchandise from the singer’s signature product line, designed and embellished with crystals from Swarovski. There’ll be more information on the partnership over the coming months.

“I’m so excited to share this album with everyone,” says Brightman. “Hymn is excitingly eclectic, encompassing many different styles, and I’m looking forward to performing the new songs on my world tour. Every project I’ve done has come from an emotional place, and I wanted to make something that sounded very beautiful and uplifting.

“To me, ‘hymn’ suggests joy,” she continues, “and a feeling of hope and light, something that is familiar and secure, and I hope that sentiment resonates through the music.”

Brightman began work on Hymn in 2016 with her longtime producer-collaborator Frank Peterson, who has overseen eight of Brightman’s album projects. The first of these was 1993’s Dive, and they went on to work together on Fly in 1995, Timeless (Time To Say Goodbye) (1997) Eden (1998]) La Luna (2000]) Harem (2003) and 2008’s Symphony and Winter Symphony.

The spiritually-themed Hymn features orchestrated, choir-based songs that were recorded over the past two years in Hamburg, Miami, London, Vancouver, Los Angeles, New York and Budapest.

The track ‘Hymn’ itself is Brightman’s reading of the track from Barclay James Harvest’s 1977 album Gone To Earth. The new album also includes songs by such modern composers as Eric Whitacre (‘Fly To Paradise’), Japanese superstar musician-songwriter Yoshiki (‘Miracle’) and the German DJ Paul Kalkbrenner (‘Sky and Sand’). The record concludes with a new rendition of Brightman’s signature duet with Andrea Bocelli, ‘Time To Say Goodbye,’ singing lyrics that she wrote herself, for the first time in English.

Hymn is released on 9 November. Scroll down to read the tracklisting and the announced dates on the Hymn: Sarah Brightman In Concert tour, and buy Hymn here.