Emeli Sande has told how classical composers like Chopin, Beethoven, Mozart and Tchaikovsky have been an inspiration in making her “push further with pop music”.
The 35-year-old Scottish singer is fronting Composed With Emeli Sande, a new, weekly music show on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Sounds which sees her exploring music that brings “strength and inspiration”.
Throughout the 12-week series, each episode will focus on a different theme with topics ranging from a Spring Awakening to Fragile Days and Sun Salutations.
She told the PA news agency that classical music is what she listened to when she was studying, explaining: “When songs have words in it, your brain gets a bit distracted.
“I found with classical music, it just put me in such a calm, meditative mind state.
“And I’ve always admired the composers – Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Mozart – I love melody when I’m creating.
“So when you just hear hours of brilliant melody and harmony, it blows me away and what they do within one or two bars is so complex and intelligent that it inspires me to push further with pop music.”
She released solo singles Heaven and Read All About It, for which she gained her first number one, in 2011, and in 2012 was named as the Brit Awards Critics’ Choice winner, an accolade that has been renamed as the Rising Star award.
She found huge success with her debut album Our Version Of Events in 2012, which spent 10 non-consecutive weeks at number one and was the best-selling album of 2012 and she went on to perform at the opening and closing ceremonies of the London Olympics.
Her song Next To Me won two Ivor Novello Awards and in 2017 she was named in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for her services to music, and was made an MBE.
Sande said that during lockdown she had more time to study classical music.
She said: “I used to play clarinet in school so that was my first introduction to classical music through the clarinet. But I’ve always longed to learn more on the piano. So the past couple of years has definitely given me time to dig into that and I’m really enjoying it.
“I don’t know if it’s anything I’ll ever do publicly or for people, but just for my own enjoyment, I find it so therapeutic and just being able to play these great works, just so exciting.”
The singer said she hopes the new weekly music show, which launched on April 9, and songs are a “nice kind of moment to switch off from the world, which I think we all kind of need now and again”.
She added: “I care so much about trying to improve or help people’s mental health and sometimes it can be as easy as just taking some time to breathe.
“And I hope that this hour will allow people just to kind of get out of the hectic chaos, and spend some time just letting the clouds drift by in some way.”
Composed With Emeli Sande is available on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Sounds.
