A YEAR AFTER HER FRIEND'S DEATH NATALIE RUSHDIE ON HOW HELLO! INSPIRED HER CHARITY SINGLE IN HONOUR OF DAME DEBORAH JAMES

When Dame Deborah James asked her close friend Natalie Rushdie to sing Tell Me It’s Not True at her funeral, the jazz singer didn’t hesitate to say yes

- EMILY HORAN

And Natalie had the same answer four months later, at HELLO!’s Inspiration Awards, when the seeds were sown of a project to honour the campaigner, who died from bowel cancer in June 2022, aged 40.

“I was sat next to [Deborah’s parents] Heather and Alistair at the awards and that’s when they asked me if I would record Tell Me It’s Not True for Deborah. I said: ‘Of course,’” says 37-year-old Natalie, in this exclusive interview.

HELLO! honoured Deborah with the Divine Inspiration Award for tirelessly campaigning to raise awareness of bowel cancer, and Heather and Alistair accepted it on her behalf. “If it wasn’t for HELLO!, this wouldn’t have happened,” says Natalie, who was a long-time friend of Deborah, while her husband Zafar, the son of author Sir Salman Rushdie, has known Deborah’s husband Sebastien Bowen for 25 years.

ROYAL SUPPORT 

Natalie’s cover of the song from the Blood Brothers musical, which she performed at Deborah’s funeral last July, is now a powerful charity single. The Prince of Wales is among those giving it their backing, saying last week: “I’m wishing Natalie all the very best for her single release to raise money for such an important cause.”

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