Crowning her 50th birthday celebrations in style, the undoubted Queen of British Soul Beverley Knight releases a new studio album, The Fifth Chapter – September 29th on Tag8/BMG. No stranger to the spotlight, Beverley can do it all. An Olivier award-winning star of the West End stage, Saturday night TV regular on the latest series of Starstruck, and an astounding singer with a prolific music career. She finds herself aged 50, bigger than ever.
Partnering with a wealth of songwriting talent including Diane Warren, Seb Coe, Ollie Green and Andrew Roachford, as well as being co-produced with the likes of Jimmy Hogarth, AC Burrell, Mitch Allen & Josh Cohen/DJ Waldie, Beverley’s first collection of new music in seven years is a spectacular journey through the inspirations that have defined her incredible career.
Beverley explains; “My new album covers the kaleidoscope of my soul influences from disco, R&B, funk, gospel through to northern soul and big ballades. Maintaining a dual career in acting meant that for the first time I stepped back from my usual songwriting to allow some of the world’s greatest songwriters to scribe my thoughts. This album is a true team effort of incredible talents for which I am truly grateful.
The album’s first offering, ‘Last One On My Mind’ is a slice of stunning contemporary soul-pop – listen HERE. “Last One On My Mind is a sassy no nonsense but joyous sounding song with a big nod to modern disco,”Beverley notes. “It’s about taking your power back from a former lover and striding into the future. It gets in you and stays there.”
Beverley will take on her biggest ever UK tour to date, which has almost sold out already, performing twenty very special headline dates across the UK throughout October & November, to over 30,000 people. This past weekend she kicked off festival season headlining The Mighty Hoopla’s second stage. Back together with her live band, expect fun-filled nights where she will perform all of her classic hits, fan favourites along with brand new songs.
Beverley has had several Top 10 albums and sold over a million albums in the UK, with four gold-certified. Her most recent studio album Soulsville went straight into the UK Top 10.
In recent years, Wolverhampton born Knight has forged a formidable parallel career in theatre. Her West End debut was the starring role in The Bodyguard followed by leading the Tony winning Memphis The Musical. At the request of Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber she joined the cast of Cats, playing the iconic role of Grizabella. 2021 saw Beverley lead The Drifters Girl at the Garrick Theatre as the formidable manager of soul group The Drifters, which was Olivier nominated Best New Musical, and Beverley for Best Actress.
Starring to huge acclaim as Emmeline Pankhurst in Sylvia at The Old Vic, Beverley won Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Musical at the Olivier Awards in April. The show also received nominations for Best New Musical and Best Choreographer.
A British treasure, Beverley was awarded an MBE in 2007 for services to British music and charity, has won three MOBO Awards, been nominated for Best Female at the Brit Awards 3 times, Best Actress at the Olivier Awards twice, and Best Female at the prestigious Mercury Music Prize.
Beverley was also recently on screen Saturday nights as a panel judge in ITV’s talent series Starstruck. Broadcasting work beyond this hit show include presenting 4 series of Radio 2 show ‘Beverley’s Gospel Nights’ and two series of the BBC1 show Just the Two of Us. She recently appeared in the all star cast of Amazon’s new live action movie Cinderella (2021) with Camilla Cabello in the title role.
“I feel as though I am about to step into a whole new level of wonder because I have come into my power”, concludes Beverley. “My career is not a big shiny billboard poster that gets replaced with the next star in waiting. Mine is a novel, and I just entered the Fifth and most exciting chapter of it.”
UK TOUR DATES 2023
OCTOBER
17 – Reading Hexagon
18 – Bath Forum
19 – Cardiff St David’s Hall
21 – Aylesbury Waterside Theatre
23 – Sheffield City Hall
24 – Nottingham Royal Concert Hall
16 – Glasgow SEC Armadillo
28 – Gateshead Sage
29 – Northampton Derngate
31 – Leicester De Montfort Hall
NOVEMBER
02 – Liverpool Philharmonic Hall
03 – Manchester Bridgewater Hall
04 – Birmingham Symphony Hall
06 – Cambridge Corn Exchange
07 – Brighton Dome
09 – York Barbican
10 – Stoke-on-Trent Regent Theatre
11 – Bournemouth Pavilion
13 – Southend Cliffs Pavilion
14 – London Palladium
