Top 91 Quotes & Sayings by Katie Melua
Explore popular quotes and sayings by a Georgian musician Katie Melua.
Last updated on December 3, 2024.
My father has been an inspiration - he instilled his work ethic without ever having to hammer it home. He was also very encouraging.
Granddad was deported to a Siberian prison camp at the age of 15.
I'm enjoying doing research, to get better at the guitar, to get better at rhyming. That's an essential skill.
But I do think I'm quite a selfish performer in the sense that I'm not one of those that's like 'Hey, come on everybody lets sing along' you know that kind of thing.
I love winter. It's a beautiful time, but also a melancholic time, a reflective time, and I'd come to a point in my life where I felt I had to make certain decisions about my career.
I love a classic, white silk shirt with dark trousers or jeans or a dark, knee-length skirt: timeless clothes that are not too fussy always work.
When the Soviet Union broke down, Georgia suffered a huge deal. Pretty much the whole of the 90's was known as 'the black decade... because we had a lot of electricity blackouts.
And I did feel there was an album to be made about winter that can make you feel the way Sinatra and Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline make me feel - warm, nostalgic and comforted.
I know I've been lucky, but I'm not very materialistic - I don't believe in collecting many unnecessary things and I'm not into girlie shopping.
I do tend to drape my real feelings with pretty words and different layers and stuff.
I may be developing aerophobia as I get older, or maybe I'm just becoming middle aged, because I find flying an increasingly unpleasant way of travelling. I would much rather drive than fly.
What I've picked up from working with the women in the Gori choir is that they don't have egos. All that matters is the music.
The thing about doing gigs is you make music, and then it is gone and that is being watched by thousands of people.
I wouldn't really call myself a Jazz singer I think it's offending to real Jazz singers to call me a Jazz singer.
I used to think being in the West would be incredible and then when I was nine my parents moved us to Belfast. I was initially amazed by little things - in toyshops you could actually play with the toys, the schools were more colourful and there were so many magazines everywhere.
I did go through a phase of reading a lot of poetry and getting heavily into philosophy and ended up writing things that weren't really in a musical format, which I put to some very electronic-based backing.
I personally stream or download from iTunes because I love the quick access that I have to music; I don't have to write down a list of songs that I like and then go to the shop.
I don't mind doing publicity but I want to make sure it's the right type and it's about promoting my music and not me.
I'm not a huge fan of Las Vegas. It's a fun place to go to play a bit of poker but it's so man-made. And being quite environmentally conscious, I couldn't believe the amount of neon lighting in the city.
I am not saying everything's perfect, but I embrace anything bad because that makes me appreciate all the good.
I grew up in Georgia where my parents, little brother Zurab and I shared a flat with my paternal grandparents and two uncles in the capital, Tbilisi. Times were hard and the country was racked by civil war.
I think singing is such an important and incredible art form and it is quite undervalued at times.
I love being out in nature. That is really important. It's everything actually.
When I had a mental breakdown I was 26 and the most important thing before that was my work. And I still adore it. But it was all that mattered and everything else was secondary: my relationship, my family, my own health.
Children are resilient - they can always find a way to play.
When I'm working, I'll often be upgraded to a suite though I don't ask for preferential treatment. I'll be there with a tour manager, my band and various promotions people and the hotel will offer to upgrade one of us; luckily, it's usually me.
My father longed for a better life for us, and when I was nine he got a job as a heart surgeon in Belfast. It was very bittersweet when we said goodbye to our relatives, and I remember crying my eyes out at the airport.
The first dramatic experience I had of music was when I was five. The electricity had gone out in Georgia, and my mum played the 'Moonlight Sonata' on the piano.
I've always been very open and unspecific about what kind of music I want to make.
I spend eight to nine months working abroad and cram in a holiday when I have the odd week off.
Because of things like 'The X Factor' and 'Autotune', the real art of communicating a song is not treasured any more. But singing other people's songs can be an intensely personal experience. I want the songs to be vessels that people fill with their own imagination, the same way that I fill it with my thoughts and feelings.
When the lights did come on in Georgia and the electricity did come on - you know, 'cause they did for about one hour during the day - we would watch Hollywood films and we'd listen to music from America and the West.
I never wanted to be a celebrity.
I mean Georgia, and also Belfast, aren't the most stable places, politically, in the world. But the thing is, in both places, the people were just so kind and so warm and in Belfast so welcoming.
And I've teamed up with a choir from home. They're called the Gori Women's Choir. They're a 23-piece all-female choir, and they've been going since the '70s.
The Georgians will treat you like royalty, and the odds are you'll do a lot of eating, drinking and toasting.
My mother is caring and selfless, and really looks after me. When I'm touring, she still picks me up from the airport, no matter what time it is.
I'd love to do a food tour of Italy but the next break I'll be having is skiing with my dad in Georgia. He's 58 and only just started skiing, so I'm looking forward to joining him on the slopes.
I'm the worst customer for a credit card company because I always pay my balance off every month.
Well, I always write when I am inspired, and I am not a constant song-writer.
Norway, for some reason, I find Norway really fascinating, you really feel nature in that country. And then there is somewhere like Japan, which is the most interesting culturally because their whole psychology, how they think is so different to us and how I've grown up.
Buying books is probably my biggest vice when I travel.
Of course, I like to keep my private life, private.
Most people in Georgia have a place in the hills for when it gets too hot in the city. We have good friends who own a place by a beautiful little river and the houses are full of hammocks.
We Georgians are really into food and drink. We would never have finger food at a party or a wedding - celebrations are always one long meal, on one long table, with endless toasts.
But I'll never forget my trip to Las Vegas. I'm a huge rollercoaster fan and we did the one at the Stratosphere, which curls around the hotel, and there's one that dips out from the roof then comes back in. That was intense.
I started writing and recording, at a very basic level, just in my own bedroom.
There are all these tests that are done on young kids and they all say they want to be famous but I just always felt that for my generation being famous was kind of corny and cheesy. Maybe because fame isn't something that proves you're good at something.
When I do my own makeup, I limit my options: I have one Mac eye colour, a neutral shade with a bit of shimmer, plus eyeliner and subtle mascara. I wear a little foundation and put Laura Mercier concealer around my nose, underneath my eyes and on any dark spots.
After 'Nine Million Bicycles', I was sent bikes from all over the world. I got about 10.
I love the French philosophy that everything starts with great-looking skin.
I think my biggest achievement is still going out on the road and wanting to make music on the road. It doesn't matter to me that I am still travelling around because I just love everything about it, I love the lifestyle, and I love being on stage.
I used to watch 'Aliens', and I just found Sigourney Weaver's character so empowering.
Well, I couldn't speak English before I went to Belfast. So I learned English with a Northern Irish accent.
I've started making my wardrobe a uniform: I find that the fewer options I have, the better my state of mind.
I don't cook very often but when I do I try and make Georgian food. I made a hinkali recently, which is like ravioli but is the size of your palm, with meat in the middle and thicker dough.
At 15, I did a ouija board with my best friend. I pretended I was possessed by a ghost, and she believed it.
Some of the songs are inspired by personal things that have happened. Others have been inspired by other people's stories, you know, like someone that witnesses something and so I tell the story through my own eyes. And some songs are just about how I feel about the world and others about the places that we have travelled to.
Ever since I left the Brit school I've been so protected. I had a woman to do my hair and makeup every day throughout my 20s.
But I do believe in living life to the full and so I have no problems spending money on travel and holidays.
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