SARAH BRIGHTMAN - I BELIEVE IN FATHER CHRISTMAS

I BELIEVE IN FATHER CHRISTMAS

SARAH BRIGHTMAN

SONGWRITERS: GREG LAKE; PETER JOHN SINFIELD & SERGE PROFIEFF

COUNTRY: U. K.

ALBUM: A WINTER SYNPHONY

LABEL: MANHATTAN RECORDS

GENRE: CHRISTMAS

YEAR: 2008

 

       Sarah Brightman(born 14 August 1960) is an English classical crossover soprano, singer, songwriter, actress, dancer, and musician.

            Brightman began her career as a member of the dance troupe Hot Gossip and released several disco singles as a solo performer. In 1981, she made her West End musical theatre debut in Cats and met composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, whom she later married. She went on to star in several West End and Broadway musicals, including The Phantom of the Opera, where she originated the role of Christine Daaé. Her original London cast album of Phantom was released in CD format in 1987 and sold 40 million copies worldwide, making it the biggest-selling cast album ever.

       After retiring from the stage and divorcing Lloyd Webber, Brightman resumed her music career with former Enigma producer Frank Peterson, this time as a classical crossover artist. She has been credited as the creator and remains among the most prominent performers of this genre, with worldwide sales of more than 25 million albums and two million DVDs, establishing herself as the world's best-selling soprano.

       Brightman's 1996 duet with the Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, "Time to Say Goodbye", topped the charts all over Europe and became the highest and fastest-selling single of all-time in Germany, where it stayed at the top of the charts for 14 consecutive weeks and sold over three million copies. It subsequently became an international success, selling 12 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling singles of all-time. She has collected over 200 gold and platinum record awards in 38 different countries. In 2010, she was named by Billboard the fifth most influential and best-selling classical artist of the 2000s decade in the US and according to Nielsen SoundScan, she has sold 6.5million albums in the country.

       Brightman is the first artist to have been invited twice to perform the theme song at the Olympic Games, first at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games where she sang "Amigos Para Siempre" with the Spanish tenor José Carreras with an estimated global audience of a billion people, and 16 years later in 2008 in Beijing, this time with Chinese singer Liu Huan, performing the song "You and Me" to an estimated four billion people worldwide.

         In 2012, Brightman was appointed as the UNESCO Artist for Peace for the period 2012–2014, for her "commitment to humanitarian and charitable causes, her contribution, throughout her artistic career, to the promotion of cultural dialogue and the exchanges among cultures, and her dedication to the ideals and aims of the Organization". Since 2010, Brightman has been Panasonic's global brand ambassador.

         In 2014, she began training for a journey to the International Space Station, later postponed until further notice, citing personal reasons. Brightman was awarded the decoration 'Cavaliere' in the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic on 2 June 2016 and an honorary doctorate from the University of Hertfordshire in 2018, in recognition of her outstanding contributions to music and theatre.

        A Winter Symphony is a Christmas album from the English soprano singer Sarah Brightman, released in November 2008.

      The album borrows its name from Brightman's earlier 2008 album, Symphony.

          A deluxe edition was released through Barnes & Noble, which included extra tracks and a DVD that featured documentary segments: "The Making of A Winter Symphony", a photo gallery, and Brightman's live performances of "Fleurs du Mal", "Symphony", "Let It Rain", and "Running".

           Brightman chose a number of traditional songs from the season: "Silent Night", "In the Bleak Midwinter", and "Child in a Manger", as well as two versions of "Ave Maria", one being the classical piece by French composer Charles Gounod, and the other—in duet with tenor Fernando Lima—an original by Brightman and Mexican composer Jorge Avedaño. Included are also contemporary pop tunes, such as Vince Gill's "Colder Than Winter", a cover of Neil Diamond's "I've Been This Way Before" and Roy Wood's "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday". The set continues with a rendition of "Amazing Grace" and closes with a reading of "I Believe in Father Christmas" originally by Emerson, Lake & Palmer.

They said "There'll be snow at Christmas"

They said "There'll be peace on Earth"

But instead it just kept on raining

A veil of tears for the Virgin's birth

I remember one Christmas morning

A winter's light and a distant choir

And the peal of a bell and that Christmas-tree smell

And their eyes full of tinsel and fire

 

They sold me a dream of Christmas

They sold me a Silent Night

They told me a fairy story

Till I believed in the Israelite

And I believed in Father Christmas

And I looked at the sky with excited eyes

'Till I woke with a yawn, in the first light of dawn

And I saw him through his disguise

 

I wish you a hopeful Christmas

I wish you a brave New Year

All anguish, pain and sadness

Leave your heart and let your road be clear

They said "There'll be snow at Christmas"

They said "There'll be peace on Earth"

Hallelujah, Noel!

Be it Heaven or Hell

 

The Christmas we get we deserve.