# Katie Melua

Ketevan "Katie" Melua (Georgian: ქეთევან "ქეთი" მელუა) (born 16 September 1984) is a Georgian-born, Belfast-raised, British singer-songwriter.

## Quotes

* წითელი ღვინო, სტალინი, შევარდნაძე, ქეთი მელუა.
** Translation:"Red wine, Stalin, Shevardnadze, Katie Melua."
** About being from Georgia.
* It's so funny because when you do smoke weed and write a song, you're like, 'Yeah, this is brilliant, this is excellent!' - and the next morning you go back and often find that really it's not very good at all... I've never done anything like acid or cocaine and I hope I don't. But I guess you have to try things once in a while... just once. I think you have to be very wary of falling into that trap of getting addicted.
** About smoking cannabis.
** "Katie Melua: Cannabis Dented My Creativity". contactmusic.com. 2004-02-08.
* A fucking good tune
** Referring to Bohemian Rhapsody during a performance at the Oxford Union.
** Marcus Leroux (2004-05-27). "Fallen from Heaven". The Oxford Student.
* When I was 14 or 15 I was into the whole Spice Girls and I was a huge fan, but two years ago I heard The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell and I was like - fucking hell, I've been born in the wrong bloody decade!
** "Designer Magazine".
* Dancing is an important function of music, but so is crying.
** Jasper Gerard (2005-05-19). "Me and my motors". The Sunday Times.
* I get guilty when I spend money on silly things like clothes and stuff... Having experienced a completely different extreme of wealth, and I don't mean me being poor or rich, I mean knowing that 40 quid that gets spent on a pair of shoes could go a long way for a family in Georgia for a week or even a month, having experienced that, you're a bit more [guilty].
** Katrina Lobley (2005-05-26). "Georgia peach". The Sydney Morning Herald.
* As a family, we have been very fortunate to find a happy lifestyle in this country and we feel we belong. We still consider ourselves to be Georgian, because that is where our roots are, and I return to Georgia every year to see my uncles and grandparents, but I am proud to now be a British citizen.
** About becoming a British citizen.
** "Singer Melua made British citizen". BBC News. 2005-08-11.
* I do know that there are some things that exist in this world that you just can't prove. That could be the case with God or whoever might be up there, but I don't follow any one religion.
** Portia Colwell (2005-09-17). "Not just anybody: Katie Melua". The Times.
* I think I am easy to make fun of. I try not to pay too much attention. You can't let critics dictate what you do... The thing that fascinates me, is the emotion in music, the way it can make me cry or laugh or be angry. I'm not trying to be hip or cool, and I'm not scared to put everything I have into songs. Passion is the greatest thing that music can evoke. We live in a society where I think people often find it hard to express themselves, but sometimes a song can do that for you. It might not be groundbreaking, but there is something about the simplicity of presenting songs where it's all about the lyric and the melody. People don't need to get through a whole lot of production to get to the root of the song. It's just music doing what music does best... A lot of things in the mainstream are repetitive and soulless and have been churned out without any real conviction. It is really unfair to call Coldplay insufferable, when they obviously care about what they do. James [Blunt] too. Too much of the music industry is controlled by lawyers and businessmen, making music like it's a product on the factory line. That's what I call insufferable.
** Neil McCormick (2005-09-29). "Who is right? Critics or the public?". The Telegraph.
* Of course [Kate Bush] is still relevant. I wasn't actually in the country when her music first came out, so I only discovered it three or four years ago. What's amazing is that something like "Wuthering Heights" still sounds so different. I actually saw her about nine months ago, we were just passing at an industry event and I went up to her and said I was a big fan and asked her about the new record. She was really excited about it but quite nervous because she felt that everyone was hyping it up a bit and she just wanted to bring out an album. You know, she's a musician.
** About meeting Kate Bush.
** Gaffaweb - Kate Bush - REACHING OUT - The Reviews - Aerial, UK Part 3.
* Promo? It's a fucking nightmare!
** Andrew Purcell (2006-08-11). "Talk the talk". The Guardian.
* I spend eight to nine months working abroad and cram in a holiday when I have the odd week off. This year, three of those months were spent in America playing gigs with my band, so we got to visit all kinds of places from Arizona to New York. After a few weeks, I really began to miss family and friends not to mention baked beans!
** York Membery (2006-09-18). "Travelling Life - Katie Melua". The Telegraph.
* Buying books is probably my biggest vice when I travel. I bought a great one in America called An Incomplete Education, which covers everything from fashion to philosophy in quite a humorous way. It’s a bluffer’s guide, but pretty extensive. Because I never went to university, it’s my attempt to bone up on subjects I don’t know much about.
** York Membery (2006-09-18). "Travelling Life - Katie Melua". The Telegraph.
* I don't think I could see myself with someone who's famous. I don't like the lifestyle and everything it stands for. Too superficial. That attention is too much. For me to go home and be surrounded by that sounds like a fucking nightmare. But a musician or someone who's into music is different.
** Ariel Leve (2006-11-05). "The hitman and her". The Sunday Times Magazine.
* Some people think it's got a double meaning, but as my mum's in the audience tonight, it doesn't.
** About "Halfway Up The Hindu Kush"
** André Paine (2006-12-04). "Katie comes of age". Evening Standard.
* ...after all we don't want the radio star to kill video.
** About the decline of the music video.
** Katie Melua (2007-05-29). "Katie comes of age". Official blog.
* The last verse [In My Secret Life] completely got to me, about how we all have great ideals but in reality we end up conforming, following everyone else. We want to be stronger so we lead that life inside, thinking of ourselves as these great brave souls. I literally thought when I was 15 that I was a musical genius and I could change the world, but in fact you're not and you can't and you don't, and that realisation is almost heartbreaking.
** Neil McCormick (2007-09-15). "Katie Melua: I want to start afresh". The Telegraph.
* Don't come into the music industry. It's almost inevitable that you'll psychologically be quite screwed up. Fame isn't a natural, human, behavioural thing. You get alienated. You're not really surrounded by truth.
** Bernard Perusse (2008-06-26). "A private path to fame". The Gazette (canada.com).
* I've never had paparazzi follow me and I rarely get recognised. I dress like a tramp when I'm not working. My hairdresser calls me the Romanian window cleaner. That's just the way I am.
** "I look like a tramp". contactmusic.com.

## Attributed

* Wanking housewives
** Melua's alleged description of Il Divo's audience.
** Purcell, Andrew (11 August 2006). Andrew Purcell Meets Katie Melua. The Guardian. Guardian News and Media Limited. Retrieved on 12 April 2016.
** Some days later, Melua's manager, Mike Batt, wrote in The Guardian and denied the quote had ever been said.
** Mike Batt (2006-09-29). "Housewives' choice". The Guardian.
* Earth is my home!
** Variant: "I'm from Earth."
** Said in many interviews, usually when asked where the Georgian-born, Belfast-raised, British singer feels she belongs.
** German Video interview
* I just think war is fucked up
** Said to a group of Danish journalists when asked about the 2008 South Ossetia War.
** Katie Melua (2008-08-10). "Katie Melua talks about the Georgia-Russia conflict". Ekstra Bladet (YouTube).

## About

* "She is one of the most intelligent singers I've worked with for a very long time, - there are little reminders in her voice, of all sorts of other singers like Eartha Kitt and Edith Piaf, - of whom she has never heard. She exudes a modest confidence, she is completely sure of herself and has a maturity far in advance of her age."
** Mike Batt
** about.com
* "She enjoys extremes, but in life her emotions are always in check."
** Mike Batt
** Ariel Leve (2006-11-05). "The hitman and her". The Sunday Times Magazine.
* I'm a songwriter but she [Melua] has her songs written for her... She must think it's her fucking lucky day... It's not like she's singing old songs like Jamie [Cullum], she's singing shit new songs that her manager writes for her.
** Amy Winehouse
** Sara McDonnell (2004-04-04). "Amy Winehouse - Frank About All That Jazz". musicOMH.
* The only trouble is that there's absolutely no passion, no soul and no excitement to be found here...Yet all good music should provoke some sort of emotion, and this [Nine Million Bicycles] provokes none whatsoever.
** John Murphy
** John Murphy (2005-09-19). "Nine Million Bicycles review". musicOMH.
* [Melua] makes music that's easy on the ear and even easier on the brain. She's the perfect good girl in the middle of the road. I'm not keen to make things too easy for anyone.
** Thea Gilmore
** Stephanie Merritt (2008-05-30). "'I don't make things easy'". The Guardian.

## Lyrics

* I've got a ticket, To the fast city, Where the bells don't really ring, Getting off the plane the cold air, Rushes like bullets through my brain, And I'm divided between penguins and cats, But it's not about what animal you've got, It's about being able to fly, It's about dying nine times.
** Belfast, from Call Off The Search (2003)
* Because the line between, Wrong and right, Is the width of a thread, From a spider's web. The piano keys are black and white, But they sound like a million colours in your mind.
** Spider's Web, from Piece By Piece (2005)
* We are 12 billion light-years from the edge. That's a guess — no-one can ever say it's true, but I know that I will always be with you.
** Nine Million Bicycles, from Piece By Piece (2005)
* We are 13.7 billion light-years from the edge of the observable universe; that's a good estimate with well-defined error bars and with the available information, I predict that I will always be with you.
** Nine Million Bicycles, alternative lyrics, written by scientist Simon Singh.
** Singh, Simon (30 September 2005). Katie Melua's Bad Science. The Guardian. Guardian News and Media Limited.
** 12 or 13.7 billion light years? (video) (10 January 2007).

## External links

* Encyclopedic article on Katie Melua on Wikipedia
* Media related to Katie Melua on Wikimedia Commons
* Official website