Beverley Knight is proudly celebrating entering her fifth chapter with the release of her ninth solo album.
The Queen of British Soul turned 50 earlier this year and will release her aptly-titled record, ‘The Fifth Chapter’, on September 29.
Speaking in RETROPOP’s September issue, she shares why it was important for her to embrace the milestone birthday: “I’m in an industry which has always frowned on women who get to this age. Christ, they frown on women who get to 35, let alone 50. It’s like you’re over or you’re plateauing or you’re falling off. This is an industry that has traditionally been crueller to people who are older but particularly to women.”
Having staged an intimate show at London’s Lafayette in March, she’s going all out heading into the tail end of 2023 and got fans buzzing with Last One On My Mind, the first taste of her new music.
So much for playing down her age, but then as Knight defiantly declares: “So much of what is expected of a woman is to be forever young, forever useful, forever beautiful, whatever that means. But I’m like, ‘You can be you exactly as you are. Be fucking beautiful and fabulous and own it.’ Who decreed that at 50 it’s a wrap for you?”
Case in point is Kylie Minogue who, aged 55, recently returned to the UK Top 10 for the first time in over a decade. “I look at Kylie and I’m like, ‘Look at that woman go!’ When she released Padam Padam, radio stations were very hesitant about it and they didn’t really want to get behind that song,” she reflects.
“Then, of course, the fabulous gay community was like, ‘Really?’, and they came out like an army to support that woman. I look at Kylie and I just think, ‘She’s leading the march and I’m here for it!'”
On her confidence in embarking on a new era, Beverley beams: “This is the most settled and optimistic I’ve ever felt. I’m a joyful person naturally and it takes a lot to get me down, so I’m naturally that person who is always looking up.
“But now I feel like I’m looking into the stratosphere. I feel as though the big take-off that everybody, God bless them, is hoping for me is right here now. It’s ready to go and ready to happen. I’ve never felt so sure of it and I’ve got a great collection of songs with which to do it.”
Read the full interview in the September 2023 edition of RETROPOP, out now. Order yours or subscribe via our Online Store, use our Store Finder to locate your nearest stockist, or get Digital Copies delivered direct to your devices.
