Sarah Brightman space, British soprano Sarah Brightman is preparing to boldly sing where no singer has sung before: In space.
Sorry, we couldn't resist. But no, it's not a joke: Brightman really is preparing to blast off atop a Russian Soyuz rocket this fall to become the first professional singer/ space tourist on the International Space Station.
Just as soon as she figures out what to sing when she gets there.
Speaking at a press conference in London on Tuesday, Brightman, 54, said she's working with her ex, composer Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, to create a new song for her to warble once she arrives at the space station after her Sept. 1 blast-off.
Brightman and Lloyd Webber, the former musical power couple (they are still close), are looking to create a song that "suits the idea of space," while scientists figure out how to make the performance work, possibly with a choir or another singer on Earth, she said.
"I'm trying to find a piece which is beautiful and simple in its message, as well as not too complicated to sing," she said, according to the Associated Press. "We're trying to work out all the technical details; obviously it's quite a complex thing to do."
No kidding.
But she's not nervous, not yet anyway, just a little "overwhelmed" with preparations.
And no wonder. A beauty with a beautiful voice, Brightman is better known for playing the original lead in her husband's popular musical The Phantom of the Opera. She also appeared in the original cast of his long-running Cats musical in the 1980s. The pair married in 1984 and divorced in 1990.
She embarked on a solo career, and has sold 30 million records worldwide. Credited with helping popularize the classical crossover genre, her duet with Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, Time to Say Goodbye, was a worldwide hit.
But the girl who could hit all the high notes sought to go higher still. She said she has wanted to go into space since she watched the first moon landing in 1969 as a 9-year-old.
Originally, Brightman's space adventure was to take place in 2013.For this journey, arranged by the private space company Space Adventures, she will be part of a three-person team and spend 10 days aboard the space station.
She began training in January at Star City near Moscow, learning Russian, becoming familiar with the space equipment and training in high g-force launch simulators.
"It feels like you've got an elephant on your chest, that's the only way I can explain it when you're in centrifuge," she said.
Brightman would not disclose the cost of the trip — reportedly about $50 million — but says she is paying for it herself. (She got millions in the divorce from Lloyd Webber, then worth about $500 million.)
"For me to have got this far and have a taste of what I felt at that time, to be part of the future, is an amazing thing," she said.Technically, she won't be the first person to sing in space, because real astronauts have done it before, with fair to middling results. In 2013, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield's rendition of David Bowie's Space Oddity from the International Space Station became a huge YouTube hit, with nearly 25 million hits so far.
Sorry, we couldn't resist. But no, it's not a joke: Brightman really is preparing to blast off atop a Russian Soyuz rocket this fall to become the first professional singer/ space tourist on the International Space Station.
Just as soon as she figures out what to sing when she gets there.
Speaking at a press conference in London on Tuesday, Brightman, 54, said she's working with her ex, composer Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, to create a new song for her to warble once she arrives at the space station after her Sept. 1 blast-off.
Brightman and Lloyd Webber, the former musical power couple (they are still close), are looking to create a song that "suits the idea of space," while scientists figure out how to make the performance work, possibly with a choir or another singer on Earth, she said.
"I'm trying to find a piece which is beautiful and simple in its message, as well as not too complicated to sing," she said, according to the Associated Press. "We're trying to work out all the technical details; obviously it's quite a complex thing to do."
No kidding.
But she's not nervous, not yet anyway, just a little "overwhelmed" with preparations.
And no wonder. A beauty with a beautiful voice, Brightman is better known for playing the original lead in her husband's popular musical The Phantom of the Opera. She also appeared in the original cast of his long-running Cats musical in the 1980s. The pair married in 1984 and divorced in 1990.
She embarked on a solo career, and has sold 30 million records worldwide. Credited with helping popularize the classical crossover genre, her duet with Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, Time to Say Goodbye, was a worldwide hit.
But the girl who could hit all the high notes sought to go higher still. She said she has wanted to go into space since she watched the first moon landing in 1969 as a 9-year-old.
Originally, Brightman's space adventure was to take place in 2013.For this journey, arranged by the private space company Space Adventures, she will be part of a three-person team and spend 10 days aboard the space station.
She began training in January at Star City near Moscow, learning Russian, becoming familiar with the space equipment and training in high g-force launch simulators.
"It feels like you've got an elephant on your chest, that's the only way I can explain it when you're in centrifuge," she said.
Brightman would not disclose the cost of the trip — reportedly about $50 million — but says she is paying for it herself. (She got millions in the divorce from Lloyd Webber, then worth about $500 million.)
"For me to have got this far and have a taste of what I felt at that time, to be part of the future, is an amazing thing," she said.Technically, she won't be the first person to sing in space, because real astronauts have done it before, with fair to middling results. In 2013, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield's rendition of David Bowie's Space Oddity from the International Space Station became a huge YouTube hit, with nearly 25 million hits so far.
