Acclaimed singer-songwriter Katie Melua has announced details of her forthcoming third live album, Live at The Royal Albert Hall; a remarkable celebration of her 20-year career to date. Live at The Royal Albert Hall will be released on 6th December via BMG and is available to pre-order/save HERE.
Recorded at the Royal Albert Hall in London on 16th May 2023 to a sold-out audience, the 21-track setlist takes in beautiful live renditions of some of Katie’s best-loved and classic songs, including ‘Nine Million Bicycles,’ ‘The Closest Thing To Crazy’, ‘I Cried for You’, as well as the first live recordings of newer songs like ‘Golden Record’, ‘Quiet Moves’ and more.
These 21 previously unreleased live recordings have been meticulously recorded, mixed and mastered and are available as a Limited-Edition Double Vinyl LP and 2CD album. Each pressing is packed with exclusive photography by legendary concert photographer Christie Goodwin. Her photos are remarkable – intimate, honest, and epic in equal measure – and always capture the energy of a live show so poetically.
The release of this exquisite live album follows a successful UK & EU Tour for Katie’s ninth studio album, Love & Money, recorded while pregnant with her newborn son who subsequently travelled with her on tour.
The live renditions are brought to life most profoundly in ‘The Closest Thing To Crazy’, released today and available HERE. A track renowned for its poignant lyrics that take the form of a series of rhetorical questions, describing the contradictory emotions of being in love. Melua’s rich, soulful delivery is amplified in this delicate live rendition performed by Katie and her band – Tim Harries, Mark Edwards, Joe Yoshida, and Zurab Melua.
Speaking on the live album, Katie says: “Three years after the original show was cancelled due to COVID, a new tour was planned in the spring of 2023. Standing on that stage in front of a full house felt electrifying. The magic and madness of a live show are in the fact that we can’t really stop. In the recording studio, you can stop; on a tv performance or any kind of recording, you can stop; but when it’s live it’s live. It’s a wave that, once it begins and people are watching, has to have a certain beginning and a certain end. That wave changes the tone and character of each song based on where it is in the set. We present the songs in this recording exactly as they were played. Each note here is exactly as it was played live. And as you listen from beginning to end, I’m sure you’ll get right inside that enormously powerful wave with us.”
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