Pretty JOYFUL

Soprano Pretty Yende reflects on how music has taken her from humble beginnings in South Africa to prestigious events around the world – including the King's coronation

- BECKY DONALDSON

The South African operatic soprano Pretty Yende has graced the world's greatest stages, from the Metropolitan Opera in New York to the Opéra Bastille in Paris and the Vienna State Opera. Currently singing the title role in Handel's Semele at London's Royal Opera House, she joins HELLO! for this exclusive interview and photoshoot.

Softly spoken and with a lyrical tone to her voice that draws you in as she reflects on what she calls a "fairytale journey", Pretty, 40, describes her voice as a gift that has taken her around the world and shaped the course of her life.

"The connections I've made and the growth I've experienced, as a person and as an artist, are all thanks to the music that carried me from rural South Africa to the global stage," she says.

Her extraordinary career reached another peak when she became the first African soloist to perform at a British coronation - that of King Charles III, at Westminster Abbey in May 2023. Watched by an estimated two billion viewers worldwide, the ceremony carried her voice beyond gilded theatres and into living rooms across the globe. Pretty performed Sacred Fire, composed and arranged by Sarah Class, as she demonstrated a voice literally fit to crown a king.

BORN TO DO IT

The singer grew up in a musical family, with three younger siblings, in the small town of Piet Retief, located in a timber-growing region in Mpumalanga province.

Her sister, Nombulelo Yende, is also an opera singer, while her brothers work as DJs. "Each evening after supper, we sang hymns together," she recalls. "When I was around five years old, my grandmother began teaching me hymns."