Sarah Brightman’s ex-husband Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber has written a song for her to sing in space.
The 54-year-old classical singer will travel to the International Space Station later this year and intends on becoming the ever international artist to perform live from space.
Sarah wants the track to be something special so she enlisted the help of the revered composer – who she divorced in 1990 – to create a
poignant piece of music.
Speaking at a press conference in London on Tuesday (03.10.15) to announce her journey into space, she said: ”I’ve been working on something with my ex-husband, Andrew Lloyd Webber and he’s thought of the most beautiful line for something so we’re just taking it slowly at the moment. Because of the complexities of this, I don’t want to promise too much because there is a reality to all this.”
Sarah – who is believed to have paid £35 million to fund the trip – is also taking into consideration the difference between singing on Earth and in zero gravity.
She explained: ”I’ve been working on various things, it’s finding a song which suits the idea of space and something that’s incredibly simple because to sing in micro-gravity is a very different thing to singing down on Earth.”
Sarah has been training as an astronaut since January after being accepted by the Russian Federal Space Agency as a space-flight participant for a planned flight arranged by Space Adventures, Ltd. The singer has been learning everything from wilderness survival to the Russian language in preparation for her journey and 10-day stay on the International Space Station.
For Sarah it is the realization of a life-long dream to go into space.
She said: ”When I was 9 years old, I watched the first man on the moon. It actually changed my perception about life. Suddenly, my mind opened and I started to really work on the career I have now.
”I thank that moment, it was pivotal in my life. I never really talked about it as it could never be a reality, it was all very abstract. But it was always my ambition to fly to space, it’s something I dreamed about and wanted. I now have the luck, I’m going up on the Russian Soyuz to the International Space Station.”
Sarah is working together with Challenger Center and NASA, to launch a program get young people excited about science, technology, engineering and mathematics and teach them how the arts can help unleash innovation and inspiration.
The summer-long initiative will see students create videos using lyrics from one of Sarah’s songs and video entries will be posted online for the public to view and they will be able to vote for their favorites.
The initiative will culminate in a special event during Sarah’s time aboard the ISS and fans will get the opportunity to chat with her while she is there.