Russell Watson to perform at St Mary’s Church in Bury St Edmunds

The UK's best-selling classical artist has reflected on his 'rollercoaster' career as he prepares to celebrate 25 years in the spotlight with a performance in Suffolk.

Classical singer Russell Watson will perform at St Mary’s Church in Bury St Edmunds on Saturday, March 8, as part of his Magnificent Buildings Concert Series.

The show marks 25 years since the release of his debut album, The Voice, which topped the UK charts for a record-breaking 52 weeks.

During his career, Russell has performed for The Royal Family, The Pope and US presidents — but he said one of the biggest highlights of his career was singing at the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games at the Etihad Stadium, formerly known as the City of Manchester Stadium, in 2002.

“I literally stood splat bang in the middle of the opening ceremony proceedings,” he said. “Her Majesty the Queen was in attendance, as well as 40,000 people in the stadium — all the athletes were on the track surrounding me, we had a choir of 500 singers, and they’re all looking at me.

“And I’ve heard almost a billion people were watching live on television. It’s just so surreal to reflect on that.

“I think certainly in the first year or so, there was a sense of, dare I say, ‘imposter syndrome’.

“Just thinking like, should I really be here? I’ve literally come out of the backstreet working men’s clubs and suddenly here I am.

“It really was like a rollercoaster of emotions and performances at the start - but once I started to settle in to what was going on around me, I started to feel like, you know what, I have earned this and I’m proud of myself for getting to where I am.”

The 58-year-old singer said another defining moment was his decision to begin speaking openly about his health after he had two brain tumours, the first in 2006 and another in 2007.

Russell has supported numerous charities during his career and even pledged posthumous recordings to Worldwide Cancer Research to help fund the charity’s pioneering treatments.

He said: “There’s some people in the industry who have said I should stop talking about my health and that I should just focus on the music now.

“But for every person that comes up to me and says ‘I’ve got your record, I love it’ — which, don’t get me wrong, is a wonderful feeling — there’s someone else who comes up to me and says ‘I was listening to you talk about your health issues and it really put everything into perspective for me and hearing you talk has helped me with my own battle.’

“I just think that’s something that money can’t buy.

“So as long as I have people saying these kind of things to me, I’m going to keep talking about it.”

Russell has previously performed at The Apex in Bury but this will be his first time taking the stage at St Mary’s on Honey Hill.

He said the upcoming show is more classically orientated which he believes suits the grand spaces of the concert series.

“This music just seems to resonate so well in these big acoustically-designed locations,” he said. “Especially with the the big classical arias, and the sacred arias too like ‘Ave Maria’.

“It’s just a really good show all round — and we’ll of course have some of the musical biggies too from Les Mis and Phantom.

“I will be accompanied with my musical director and pianist Mike Moran and we have a great guest soprano joining us called Nancy May who is amazing.

“I’m really looking forward to it.”

The concert is set to start at 7.30pm and tickets are available at www.weloveconcerts.com.

Alternatively, you can contact the box office on 01256 416384.