NEWS

Indonesia Expat Jan 16, 2019

Indonesia Expat had the privilege to interview the world-famous English singer, Engelbert Humperdinck. He will have a show in Jakarta sometime in 2019 at the Double Tree by Hilton Jakarta.

Have you ever been to Indonesia before?

I have had the pleasure of visiting Indonesia many times. On one of those occasions, I had to leave my son and daughter behind and go on with the tour. My youngest boy had to have his appendix out in Jakarta! People were praying outside the hospital with candles… but they thought he was Richie Sambora from Bon Jovi.

What is your favourite song to sing on tour? What do the fans usually want to hear the most?

I am fortunate to have 52 years of material to choose from when I make up my show. It’s hard to make the set list because I have had some amazing writers over the years and everyone has a different favourite. I would say Release Me and The Last Waltz are two songs that I could never let go from my show.

I do love to sing a song from my recent CD release The Man I Want to Be. The song is called I’m Glad I Danced with You. It’s a duet written by my daughter and her partner Tony, and dedicated to my wife, who I met in a dance hall in the late 50s. What makes it even more special is that it is sung with my granddaughter Olivia, who is now ten but was only nine when it was recorded. It was a great success in the show and on public television in the States, where we just released a show which was filmed in Hawaii.

How did you decide to name your tour after your song Angel on My Shoulder?

I really have felt that I have had an angel follow me through life. There were times when I thought my time was up. Once in a tuberculosis hospital when I was a young man, six months of my life was spent watching others not make it in my ward.

I fell in a timber pond as a really young boy and my brother saved me, not only from drowning, but also from the shark infested waters. I’ve also visited several places in the world where my story might have ended, but there was an angel looking out for me for sure. When I heard the song, it was as if the writer had lived and watched my life with me. I think it’s a great tour title… and lucky, I hope!

As one of the longest-standing stars in the music industry, how do you think the industry has changed and how does it affect you?

I’m so grateful that I was not a flash in the pan, a one-hit wonder. It takes a great team to get a career going and maintain it. I have worked hard all my life but the writers and that angel and the out of the blue TV appearance with Release Me gave me the opportunity for a global career. (I replaced someone who had fallen ill. It was a show called Sunday Night at The London Palladium. The next day, Release Me started selling 80-100,000 a day). Now, anyone can have global interest in their music without leaving home due to technology, but I think the competition for the limelight is tougher. My audiences are my “spark plugs” and keep coming back for more, which is an amazing incentive to get out the front door!!

After a long career, can you give us your favourite show business anecdote?  

It’s a showbiz superstition that has held on throughout the years. If you whistle in my dressing room, you have to go out, turn around three times, use a slang phrase that is ever so slightly off colour, and kick the door before you are allowed back in. Don’t try it but you can look up the dangers of whistling backstage during a show. Bad luck you know!

https://indonesiaexpat.biz/lifestyle/interview-singer-engelbert-humperdinck/

Nicky Campbell celebrates the remarkable career of Engelbert Humperdinck, which has taken him from Leicester to Las Vegas, with many stops along the way. Throughout this frank but friendly chat, he speaks about his early hits, including “Release Me”, “There Goes My Everything” and of course “Last Waltz”. Meeting his influential but controversial manager Gordon Mills, who also managed his stable mate Tom Jones although they haven’t always been that “matey”. Appearing at Las Vegas where he befriended such luminaries as Elvis Presley, Sammy Davis Junior, Frank Sinatra and the man who always referred to him not by his unusual name but “Humpy, Bumpy, Lumpy, Dumpy”, that was the coolest man in the business Dean Martin and throughout the interview Nicky encourages Engelbert to give his well-known impersonation of his friend Dean. He continues to perform worldwide and it was in Hawaii that he met the megastar Bruno Mars who sang at one of his concerts when he was just 5 years old, to thank him Engelbert recorded Bruno’s hit “Just The Way You Are”. He tells us how he was offered the chance to work with Damon Albarn and The Gorillaz, but missed out because of a management mistake. Also, how he would love to work and record with Ariane Grande, Lady Gaga and of course Bruno Mars. He has had many surprises in his illustrious career and talks about representing the UK in The Eurovision Song Contest back in 2012 and how he was asked to record “Lesbian Seagulls” used on the soundtrack of “Beavis and Butthead Do America” which went Platinum. Despite 60 years in the business he is still in great voice, and maintains “I can hit notes that a Bank can’t cash”. Nicky Campbell, unearths many more surprises from Engelbert’s career but sadly not his renowned impersonation of Dean Martin.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00022b1

Engelbert Humperdinck performing "Please Come Home for Christmas" off his new album 'Warmest Christmas Wishes' live on BBC Two's 'Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two' presented by Zoë Ball.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pvPz05bNiA

Author: Paul Coia, 18 December 2018, The Sunday Post

BORN Arnold George Dorsey, he changed his name to become a huge-selling recording star.

His songs regularly competed with The Beatles, and he became friends with Elvis Presley.

He has worked with all the greats from Dean Martin to Charles Aznavour and, at the age of 82, the balladeer has released a new album called Warmest Christmas Wishes.

Do you look at your reviews?

I love reading them because they make me feel good, and the reviewers have loved this Christmas album. It’s already charted in America. Can you believe it?

It’s not all standards, though, is it?

No. I wanted a mix of familiar and new ones, but I’m sure the song Around The Christmas Tree, for instance, will become a standard. I knew the writer when he was a boy, and now he’s 60.

Do you encourage new talent?

Yes. Years ago my fan club had a party, and the entertainment was a five-year-old singer. I said “you’re going to be a star,” but I was wrong because he actually became a megastar. It was Bruno Mars.

When you met Elvis were you jealous?

No, there was none of that. He was far too big for anyone to think they could compete. But I did tell him that I had the sideburns first.

What do you think is your biggest triumph?

Finding the song Please Release Me and stopping The Beatles getting to No 1. I’m in the Guinness book Of Records for that, going from selling nothing to shifting 127,000 records in a day.

Has anyone ever made you starstruck?

Dean Martin. I couldn’t believe I was on his TV show, and when I played Vegas he put his name above the posters saying “Dean Martin Proudly Presents.” He never did it for anyone else.

At 82, do you keep active?

I play golf, and I’ve just got down from a 40-inch waist to 34 for my Christmas TV Special. I want to look as slim as I did in my other TV shows.

Where do you live?

have a house in America and one in Leicester where I’ll be this month, checking the house is looked after.

Have you always been blessed with good luck?

Bert Kaempfert gave me a song he wrote. I recorded it and it sounded like a No 1 hit, but it wasn’t released as Frank Sinatra wanted it. It was called Strangers In The Night. Same with To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before, which went to Julio Iglesias.

You have 24 hours left to live. How do you spend it?

With the family in Hawaii. I have a soft spot for the smells, the flowers, everything. It gives me a thrill. And when my time’s up I better go out to Please Release Me Let Me Go (laughs.)

https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/questionsfor-engelbert-humperdinck/

Fifty years after his debut, the veteran entertainer is as beloved as ever, touring Europe and America to perform to legions of his ‘Humperdinckers’. Following the release of Warmest Christmas Wishes, his first Christmas album in nearly three decades, the singer talks to Alex Green about faith, family and his wife Patricia’s illness.

Engelbert Humperdinck is driving home for Christmas. At least he will be tomorrow, when he leaves London after four days of gruelling interviews.

The veteran balladeer (82) is promoting his first Christmas album in nearly 30 years. Tomorrow he drives to Leicester for early festivities with his family.

“It’s so accurate, a song like that — the song is so real,” he says of Chris Rea’s classic, chatting happily in a quiet corner on the 15th floor of the St George’s Hotel in central London.

The world-famous crooner has the tanned skin and slim figure of a much younger man. Only his poor hearing gives away his octogenarian status.

His wife Patricia is not with him and will not be travelling to Leicester. At the couple’s home in warm Bel Air, Los Angeles, she is being treated for Alzheimer’s.

Humperdinck, who changed his name from Arnold George Dorsey, recently went public about Patricia’s decade-long battle with the illness, which has seen him search desperately for a cure. He will return to LA to spend Christmas Day with her.

“My family has always been important to me,” he explains. “At Christmas time, we celebrate together, but this year I can’t come home to Leicester because of my wife’s illness. Hopefully, when she is better, we will come and spend Christmas at home.”

His wife’s illness dominates the conversation, but Humperdinck is overwhelmingly optimistic. They met over 50 years ago at a dancehall in Leicester, and married in 1964. Now, she struggles to recognise his face.

The performer, known for his deep Catholic faith, credits prayer for preventing her condition from worsening.

“The reason I went public with her condition is because I do have great faith and I believe that the more people who pray, the more it forms a chain, a rosary of prayer,” he says.

“I think prayer is one of the greatest healers around, more than medication.”

He has been investigating alternative medicine, looking to India and Sri Lanka for cures.

“I don’t think you should rely on (regular) medicine,” he declares. “I think you should rely upon herbal doctors, acupuncture and doctors outside the medical world with different kinds and forms of treatment. I rely upon nature to provide the cure for my wife.”

He claims to have found success in electrical acupuncture — shock treatment he claims can form new stem cells. “I think it’s had a lot to do with the repairing of my wife’s health,” the singer insists.

Still a formidable performer with a voice seemingly unaffected by age, Humperdinck has had to reduce his touring schedule to spend more time with his wife.

“It’s hard to leave her,” he says, “but she’s in reliable hands. She has her carers and I have to work.”

Humperdinck’s sharp sense of humour and gentle swagger remain intact, even after 51 years in showbusiness.

When he turns to discussing his fans, dubbed the ‘Humperdinckers’, he is fiercely defensive. Trolling, he says, has never been a problem.

“You do get a bad apple now and again, but that doesn’t matter. You ignore that,” he adds, before chuckling to himself: “I don’t get the bad apples.”

Humperdinck may not be a household name for those under the age of 30, but he has impacted modern music in extraordinary ways. Damon Albarn tried to recruit him for his Gorillaz project, and a recent album saw him collaborate with Elton John.

Humperdinck keeps one eye on the changing landscape of popular taste.

He says Ariana Grande is a “talent beyond” and his dream duet partner, and happily explains his aspirations to appear The Voice, which he uses as a barometer of popular opinion.

“I like watching those shows because they present music that is of today’s nature,” he explains.

“This is the way I keep in touch with what is going on in the modern world.”

Aside from faith and family, his third great love is football, specifically Leicester City FC.

It is no surprise that the death of club chairman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha touched him.

The Thai billionaire lifted the team to Premier League champions, but he died in a helicopter crash at the grounds earlier this year.

“It’s a tragedy. It was terrible, terrible. He was such a wonderful man,” the singer sighs.

“They came to LA to play in a match over there, and I went over to watch them rehearse, I mean practice. Ah, I’m from showbusiness, you see.

“I met all the team and had the trophy in my hands. Oh yes, it was my pride and joy. It was wonderful.”

For now, Humperdinck plans to focus all his energy on caring for his wife, snatching time to sing for his fans when he can. Despite all this, he feels a deep sense of optimism.

“You can’t sit at home and wait for things to happen,” he insists.

“You have to be here,” he adds, slapping the table top with the palm of his right hand.

“You have to be here talking to people. That’s the way I am. I’m not tired of it. I love doing it and I’m still very flattered that people still want to talk to me.”

Warmest Christmas Wishes is out now

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/life/features/showbiz-legend-engelbert-humperdinck-on-life-the-leicester-tragedy-and-his-wifes-battle-with-alzheimers-37624627.html

December 14 2018, Belfast Telegraph

Fifty years after his debut, the veteran entertainer is as beloved as ever, touring Europe and America to perform to legions of his ‘Humperdinckers’. Following the release of Warmest Christmas Wishes, his first Christmas album in nearly three decades, the singer talks to Alex Green about faith, family and his wife Patricia’s illness.

Engelbert Humperdinck is driving home for Christmas. At least he will be tomorrow, when he leaves London after four days of gruelling interviews.

The veteran balladeer (82) is promoting his first Christmas album in nearly 30 years. Tomorrow he drives to Leicester for early festivities with his family.

“It’s so accurate, a song like that — the song is so real,” he says of Chris Rea’s classic, chatting happily in a quiet corner on the 15th floor of the St George’s Hotel in central London.

The world-famous crooner has the tanned skin and slim figure of a much younger man. Only his poor hearing gives away his octogenarian status.

His wife Patricia is not with him and will not be travelling to Leicester. At the couple’s home in warm Bel Air, Los Angeles, she is being treated for Alzheimer’s.

Humperdinck, who changed his name from Arnold George Dorsey, recently went public about Patricia’s decade-long battle with the illness, which has seen him search desperately for a cure. He will return to LA to spend Christmas Day with her.

“My family has always been important to me,” he explains. “At Christmas time, we celebrate together, but this year I can’t come home to Leicester because of my wife’s illness. Hopefully, when she is better, we will come and spend Christmas at home.”

His wife’s illness dominates the conversation, but Humperdinck is overwhelmingly optimistic. They met over 50 years ago at a dancehall in Leicester, and married in 1964. Now, she struggles to recognise his face.

The performer, known for his deep Catholic faith, credits prayer for preventing her condition from worsening.

“The reason I went public with her condition is because I do have great faith and I believe that the more people who pray, the more it forms a chain, a rosary of prayer,” he says.

“I think prayer is one of the greatest healers around, more than medication.”

He has been investigating alternative medicine, looking to India and Sri Lanka for cures.

“I don’t think you should rely on (regular) medicine,” he declares. “I think you should rely upon herbal doctors, acupuncture and doctors outside the medical world with different kinds and forms of treatment. I rely upon nature to provide the cure for my wife.”

He claims to have found success in electrical acupuncture — shock treatment he claims can form new stem cells. “I think it’s had a lot to do with the repairing of my wife’s health,” the singer insists.

Still a formidable performer with a voice seemingly unaffected by age, Humperdinck has had to reduce his touring schedule to spend more time with his wife.

“It’s hard to leave her,” he says, “but she’s in reliable hands. She has her carers and I have to work.”

Humperdinck’s sharp sense of humour and gentle swagger remain intact, even after 51 years in showbusiness.

When he turns to discussing his fans, dubbed the ‘Humperdinckers’, he is fiercely defensive. Trolling, he says, has never been a problem.

“You do get a bad apple now and again, but that doesn’t matter. You ignore that,” he adds, before chuckling to himself: “I don’t get the bad apples.”

Humperdinck may not be a household name for those under the age of 30, but he has impacted modern music in extraordinary ways. Damon Albarn tried to recruit him for his Gorillaz project, and a recent album saw him collaborate with Elton John.

Humperdinck keeps one eye on the changing landscape of popular taste.

He says Ariana Grande is a “talent beyond” and his dream duet partner, and happily explains his aspirations to appear The Voice, which he uses as a barometer of popular opinion.

“I like watching those shows because they present music that is of today’s nature,” he explains.

“This is the way I keep in touch with what is going on in the modern world.”

Aside from faith and family, his third great love is football, specifically Leicester City FC.

It is no surprise that the death of club chairman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha touched him.

The Thai billionaire lifted the team to Premier League champions, but he died in a helicopter crash at the grounds earlier this year.

“It’s a tragedy. It was terrible, terrible. He was such a wonderful man,” the singer sighs.

“They came to LA to play in a match over there, and I went over to watch them rehearse, I mean practice. Ah, I’m from showbusiness, you see.

“I met all the team and had the trophy in my hands. Oh yes, it was my pride and joy. It was wonderful.”

For now, Humperdinck plans to focus all his energy on caring for his wife, snatching time to sing for his fans when he can. Despite all this, he feels a deep sense of optimism.

“You can’t sit at home and wait for things to happen,” he insists.

“You have to be here,” he adds, slapping the table top with the palm of his right hand.

“You have to be here talking to people. That’s the way I am. I’m not tired of it. I love doing it and I’m still very flattered that people still want to talk to me.”

Warmest Christmas Wishes is out now

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/life/features/showbiz-legend-engelbert-humperdinck-on-life-the-leicester-tragedy-and-his-wifes-battle-with-alzheimers-37624627.html

Interview starts at 1:33

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytZJVkKsuWM

Engelbert Humperdinck performing live on the award winning British daytime television program 'This Morning' with Phillip Schofield & Rochelle Humes. Originally aired on December 4th, 2018 via ITV.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytZJVkKsuWM

STUART DERDEYN December 13, 2018, Vancouver Sun

Engelbert Humperdinck: Warmest Christmas Wishes (OK! Good Records). How can this be included in an alternative album selection, you ask? It just so happens that Humperdinck’s first Christmas recording in almost forty years matches the delightfully surprising 2017 album The Man I Want to Be. Celebrating 50 years in the music biz, he sounds great on this Jurgen Korduletsch-produced set of 14 tunes which range from I’ll Be Home for Christmas — check out that old skool string arrangement — to a crooner-riffic Leise rieselt der Schnee. You could pull this out on a few generations of family and probably get through the whole album.

https://vancouversun.com/entertainment/festivals/alternative-christmas-albums-deliver-something-new-to-spin-this-season

'I think prayer is one of the greatest healers around, more than medication'

18:55, 12 DEC 2018 Leicestershire Live By Alex Green & Chris Jones

Superstar Engelbert Humperdinck has spoken out about the battle he and his loved ones have faced since his wife was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.

Fifty years after his showbusiness debut, Enge talked to the Press Association following a series of interviews to promote the release of Warmest Christmas Wishes, his first Christmas album in nearly three decades.

Tomorrow the singing sensation, who counted Elvis Presley among his pals, will drive home to Leicestershire from London, where he has been holding interviews, for some early family festive celebrations.

However, the 82-year-old's wife, Patricia, will not be travelling with him to his home county. Instead, she is at the couple's home in Bel Air, Los Angeles, being treated for Alzheimer's.

Engelbert, who changed his name from Arnold George Dorsey, recently went public about his wife's decade-long battle with the illness - a battle that has seen him searching desperately for a cure.

He will return to LA for Christmas Day, which he will spend with Patricia, whom he met in Leicester.

"My family has always been important to me," he says.

"At Christmas time, we celebrate together.

"But this year I can't come home to Leicester because of my wife's illness.

"Hopefully, when she is better, we will come and spend Christmas at home."

'I don't think you should rely on medicine'

The pair met each other decades ago in a city dance hall before marrying in 1964.

Now, Patricia struggles to even recognise her husband's face.

The performer, known for his deep Roman-Catholic faith, credits prayer for preventing her condition from worsening.

"The reason I went public with her condition is because I do have great faith and I believe that the more people who pray, the more it forms a chain, a rosary of prayer.

"It comes down to the person who is suffering, the victim of the disease. I think prayer is one of the greatest healers around, more than medication."

Engelbert has been investigating alternative medicine, looking to India and Sri Lanka for herbal cures for the devastating disease.

"I don't think you should rely on medicine," he says.

"I think you should rely upon herbal doctors, acupuncture and doctors outside the medical world, with different kinds and forms of treatment. I rely upon nature to provide the cure for my wife."

And he claims to have found success in electrical acupuncture, shock treatment he claims can form new stem cells.

"I think it's had a lot to do with the repairing of my wife's health," he says.

Still a formidable performer with a voice seemingly unaffected by age, Humperdinck has been forced to reduce his touring schedule to spend more time with his wife.

"It's hard to leave her," he says.

"But she's in reliable hands. She has her carers.

"And I have to work."

"You have to be here talking to people. That's the way I am.

"I'm not tired of it. I love doing it, and I'm still very flattered that people still want to talk to me."

Warmest Christmas Wishes, which contains many festive classics, is out now.

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/leicester-news/engelbert-humperdinck-i-rely-nature-2320963