KATIE MELUA - BEAUTIFUL SONGS

KATIE MELUA

If you were a sailboat

LYRICS

"If You Were A Sailboat"

If you're a cowboy I would trail you,
If you're a piece of wood I'd nail you to the floor.
If you're a sailboat I would sail you to the shore.
If you're a river I would swim you,
If you're a house I would live in you all my days.
If you're a preacher I'd begin to change my ways.

Sometimes I believe in fate,
But the chances we create,
Always seem to ring more true.
You took a chance on loving me,
I took a chance on loving you.

If I was in jail I know you'd spring me
If I was a telephone you'd ring me all day long
If was in pain I know you'd sing me soothing songs.

Sometimes I believe in fate,
But the chances we create,
Always seem to ring more true.
You took a chance on loving me,
I took a chance on loving you.

If I was hungry you would feed me
If I was in darkness you would lead me to the light
If I was a book I know you'd read me every night

If you're a cowboy I would trail you,
If you're a piece of wood I'd nail you to the floor
If you're a sailboat I would sail you to the shore
If you're a sailboat I would sail you to the shore

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VOCABULARY - GRAMMAR

AND PRONUNCIATION

LYRICS

"If You Were A Sailboat"

If you're a cowboy I would trail you,
If you're a piece of wood I'd nail you to the floor.
If you're a sailboat I would sail you to the shore.
If you're a river I would swim you,
If you're a house I would live in you all my days.
If you're a preacher I'd begin to change my ways.

Sometimes I believe in fate,
But the chances we create,
Always seem to ring more true.
You took a chance on loving me,
I took a chance on loving you.

If I was in jail I know you'd spring me
If I was a telephone you'd ring me all day long
If was in pain I know you'd sing me soothing songs.

Sometimes I believe in fate,
But the chances we create,
Always seem to ring more true.
You took a chance on loving me,
I took a chance on loving you.

If I was hungry you would feed me
If I was in darkness you would lead me to the light
If I was a book I know you'd read me every night

If you're a cowboy I would trail you,
If you're a piece of wood I'd nail you to the floor.
If you're a sailboat I would sail you to the shore.
If you're a sailboat I would sail you to the shore

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Trail: to follow someone in a particular direction

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Nail: to fasten something to something else with nails.

A NAIL: [countable] a thin pointed piece of metal with a flat top, which you hit into a surface with a hammer, for example to join things together or to hang something on:

Example:The key was hanging on a nail by the door.

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Sailboat: sail‧boat [countable] American English. A small boat with one or more sails

A SAIL: [countable]. A large piece of strong cloth fixed onto a boat, so that the wind will push the boat along:

Example: a yacht with white sails

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Shore: [uncountable and countable] the land along the edge of a large area of water such as an ocean or lake:

Examples

We could see a boat about a mile from shore.

Only a few survivors reached the shore.

She began to swim to shore.

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a preacher: [countable]. Someone who talks about a religious subject in a public place, especially at a church

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fate: [countable usually singular] the things that will happen to someone, especially unpleasant events

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chances: Opportunities, possibilities.

[countable] A time or situation which you can use to do something that you want to do

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to ring more true:

if something rings true, you believe it, even though you are sure why:

Example: It was a possible explanation, and it quite rang true

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Jail: also gaol British English [uncountable and countable]. A place where criminals are kept as part of their punishment, or where people who have been charged with a crime are kept before they are judged in a law court [= prison]

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Spring: spring past tense sprang also sprung American English past participle sprung. To release, free from

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In pain: [uncountable and countable] the feeling you have when part of your body hurts. To be in pain.

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soothing songs: adjective: gentle music, soothing music

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fate: [countable usually singular] the things that will happen to someone, especially unpleasant events

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hungry:  hun‧gry comparative hungrier, superlative hungriest

Hungry: wanting to eat something [↪ thirsty]:

EXAMPLES

I was cold, tired and hungry.

If you get hungry, there's some cold chicken in the fridge.

Do you still feel hungry?

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To feed, past tense fed and past participle fed. Give food.

To give food to a person or animal:

Example: Have you fed the cat?

-      feed yourself

Example: She was too weak to feed herself.

-      feed something to somebody

Exampple: Several children were feeding bread to the ducks.

-      feed somebody on/with something

Example: They were fed well on her mother's home cooking.

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Darkness: [uncountable]. When there is no light:

-      the long hours of darkness during winter

-      in darkness

The lamp suddenly went out, leaving us in darkness.

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Lead:        lead past tense led and past participle led

Take somebody somewhere. [intransitive and transitive]

-      to take someone somewhere by going in front of them while they follow, or by pulling them gently

-      lead somebody to/into etc something

Example: A nurse took her arm and led her to a chair.

Example: The horses were led to safety.

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First or SecondConditionals

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CONDITIONAL CLAUSES

Remember if you start the sentence with the IF CLAUSE you have to write A COMMA before the main sentence, but if you start it with THE MAIN SENTENCE no comma is required. Look at the examples and you´ll see it.

FIRST CONDITIONAL

                              

IF SENTENCE IN THE SIMPLE PRESENT

And

THE MAIN CLAUSE IN THE FUTURE, SIMPLE PRESENT

OR IMPERATIVE

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SECOND CONDITIONAL

IF SENTENCE IN THE SIMPLE PAST

AND

THE MAIN CLAUSE IN THE SIMPLE CONDITIONAL:

WOULD / COULD / MIGHT …

Examples

These examples are the ones mentioned in the previous video.

FIRST CONDITIONAL:” what will you do if it rains?”

FIRST CONDITIONAL:”if you win the lottery, what will you do ?”

SECOND CONDITIONAL:” if It rained, what would you do ”

SECOND CONDITIONAL:”What would you do if you won the lottery?”

EXAMPLES FROM THE LYRICS

-      If I was hungry, you would feed me. (2nd. Type)

- If I was in darkness, you would lead me to the light. (2nd. Type)

- If I was a book, I know you'd read me every night. (2nd. Type)

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WITH THE SECOND CONDITIONAL WE NEVER USE WAS,

 ALWAYS WERE, ALTHOUGH IN THE SONG SHE USES WAS.

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What is a Mixed Conditional ?

ESL British English Pronunciation

These examples are the ones mentioned in the previous video.

If I receive money today, I will call you tomorrow. (1^st. Type)

If I had studied harder, I wouldn´t be unemployed now. (Mixed)

If you give me some money now, I would tell you a “fortune”. (Mixed)

(tell a fortune = make predictions about a person’s future)

If you hadn´t eaten so much, wouldn´t feel like this now. (Mixed)

If you were a better swimmer, You wouldn´t have had so many problems / difficulties. (Mixed)

If it rains tomorrow, I would come tomorrow. (Mixed)

If I have money, I buy myself an extra drink. (1^st. Type)

If I were rich, I would live in a big house. (2^nd. Type)

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Mixed Conditionals

- If Past Condition

then

Present Result

- ESL British English Pronunciation

These examples are the ones mentioned in the previous video.

-      If he was born in Britain, he is British. (Mixed)

-      If he had been born in Britan, he would be British. (Mixed)

-      If my girlfriend didn´t spend the money in our joint account, then there is money in the account now. (Mixed)

-      If she didn´t spend it, then there is money now. (Mixed)

-      I don’t know if she did it or not. (Mixed)

-      If my girlfriend hadn´t spent all the money in the account, (but she has, I know she has) there would be money in the account now (but there isn´t). (Mixed)

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EXAMPLES FROM THE SONG

-      If you're a cowboy, I would trail you. (Mixed)

- If you're a piece of wood, I'd nail you to the floor. (Mixed)

- If you're a sailboat, I would sail you to the shore. (Mixed)

- If you're a river, I would swim you. (Mixed)

- If you're a house, I would live in you all my days. (Mixed)

- If you're a preacher, I'd begin to change my ways. (Mixed)

-      If I was in jail, I know you'd spring me. (Mixed)

- If I was a telephone, you'd ring me all day long. (Mixed)

- If was in pain, I know you'd sing me soothing songs. (Mixed)

Mixed Conditionals

- If Past Condition

Then

-Future Result

 

- ESL British English Pronunciation

These examples are the ones mentioned in the previous video.

EXAMPLES

If John didn´t buy a ticket, then he won´t go to the concert. (Mixed)

If John didn´t buy a ticket, then he is not going to the concert. (Mixed)

If John didn´t buy a ticket, then he is not going to go to the concert. (Mixed)

If John didn´t buy a ticket, then he won´t be going to the concert. (Mixed)

If he hadn´t bought a ticket, he wouldn´t be going to the concert. (Mixed)

MORE EXAMPLES

If his team didn´t win yesterday, there would be a training session tomorrow. (Mixed)

I don´t know if they won or not. (Mixed)

If they did win, there won´t be a training session. (Mixed)

If they didn´t win, there will be a training session. (Mixed)

If his team hadn´t won yesterday, there would be a training session. (Mixed)

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KARAOKE

KATIE MELUA 

IF you're were a sailboat

====================

Katie Melua

BBC Breakfast Interview

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Katie Melua

Million Bicycles

(live AVO Session)

"Nine Million Bicycles"

There are nine million bicycles in Beijing
That's a fact,
It's a thing we can't deny
Like the fact that I will love you till I die.

We are twelve billion light years from the edge,
That's a guess,
No-one can ever say it's true
But I know that I will always be with you.

I'm warmed by the fire of your love everyday
So don't call me a liar,
Just believe everything that I say

There are six BILLION people in the world
More or less
and it makes me feel quite small
But you're the one I love the most of all

[INTERLUDE]
We're high on the wire
With the world in our sight
And I'll never tire,
Of the love that you give me every night

There are nine million bicycles in Beijing
That's a Fact,
it's a thing we can't deny
Like the fact that I will love you till I die

And there are nine million bicycles in Beijing
And you know that I will love you till I die!

=====================

NINE MILLION BICYCLES

KATIE MELUA

LYRICS ON SCREEN

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Katie Melua

The Closest Thing to Crazy

Sopot 2006

"The Closest Thing To Crazy"

How can I think I'm standing strong,
Yet feel the air beneath my feet?
How can happiness feel so wrong?
How can misery feel so sweet?
How can you let me watch you sleep,
Then break my dreams the way you do?
How can I have got in so deep?
Why did I fall in love with you?

[CHORUS:]
This is the closest thing to crazy I have ever been
Feeling twenty-two, acting seventeen,
This is the nearest thing to crazy I have ever known,
I was never crazy on my own...
And now I know that there's a link between the two,
Being close to craziness and being close to you.

How can you make me fall apart
Then break my fall with loving lies?
It's so easy to break a heart;
It's so easy to close your eyes.
How can you treat me like a child
Yet like a child I yearn for you?
How can anyone feel so wild?
How can anyone feel so blue?

[CHORUS]

This is the closest thing to crazy I have ever been
Feeling twenty-two, acting seventeen,
This is the nearest thing to crazy I have ever known,
I was never crazy on my own...
And now I know that there's a link between the two,
Being close to craziness and being close to you.
and being close to you.
and being close to you.

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KARAOKE

Katy Melua

The Closest Thing To Crazy

 ============================

INTERVIEW

KATIE MELUA

Big Question

 

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Katie Melua & Eva Cassidy

Over the rainbow

LYRICS

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Eva Cassidy - Katie Melua Duet

Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high
There's a land that I heard of
Once in a lullaby
Somewhere over the rainbow
Skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true

Some day I'll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far behind me
Where troubles melt like lemondrops
Away above the chimney tops
That's where you'll find me

Somewhere over the rainbow
Bluebirds fly
Birds fly over the rainbow
Why then, oh why can't I?
Some day I'll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far behind me
Where troubles melt like lemondrops
Away above the chimney tops
That's where you'll find me

Somewhere over the rainbow
Bluebirds fly
Birds fly over the rainbow
Why then, oh why can't I?

If happy little bluebirds fly
Beyond the rainbow

===================

Eva Cassidy ´S Biography

Date of Birth: 2 February 1963, Oxon Hill, Maryland, USA

Date of Death: 2 November 1996, Bowie, Maryland, USA (cancer)

Birth Name: Eva Marie Cassidy

Mini Biography

Eva Marie Cassidy was born on 2nd February, 1963 in Washington Hospital Center in the United States to Barbara and Hugh Cassidy. Eva grew up with her siblings, Anette, Margaret and Dan, in Bowie, Maryland.

The Cassidy family was very musical. From an early age, Eva could master harmonies and first learned the auto-harp but later went on to learn the acoustic guitar. It wasn't just music at which she excelled, she was also a very talented artist. Through her teens, alongside her brother, Eva performed in a high school band called "Stonehenge". Some of the members from "Stonehenge" later worked with her on her later recordings. Though a musician, Eva also worked at a tree nursery, called Behnke's. While recording an album in 1987, alongside ex-Stonehenge musician, Ned Judy, Eva sang vocals for Method Actor. Songs written by David Christopher (formerly known as David Lourim). It was through these recording sessions that she met music producer, Chris Biondo.

She made eight albums in total. The Other Side (Duet With Chuck Brown), Live At Blues Alley, Eva By Heart, Songbird, Time After Time, Imagine, American Tune and Method Actor. But tragedy struck on November 2nd, 1996, when she died of melanoma (skin cancer) after a long battle with the disease.

It was after Eva's death that her albums became really successful. It was in 1997, that Paul Walters, a producer for BBC Radio 2 discovered her, and it was "Over The Rainbow" that was played on Terry Wogan's show and ultimately led to the release of the "Songbird" album, which by late 2000 achieved Gold and, by 2001, platinum. Eva's songs have brought solace to those who have lost loved ones, and her songs have been used for cancer research adverts and have been used in Love Actually (2003) and Sucedió en Manhattan (2002).

IMDb Mini Biography By: Agnetha of Sweden

Trivia

Figure skating champion Michelle Kwan used her version of "Fields of Gold" in her exhibition program in 2002. The program was performed at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, among other locations.

Her brother, Dan Cassidy, lives in Iceland and plays a fiddle.

Is a crystalline-soprano.

Is of Irish and German descent.

Her father Hugh, was the former World Champion Super Heavy-Weight in Power Lifting back in 1971.

Her rendition of 'Fly Me to the Moon' is used for the credits at the end of Japanese Anime "Evangelion"'s episodes.

Personal Quotes

I really like to create the sound of a choir the most. If you could see what the sound of it looks like when I shut my eyes and listen, you'd see the sound as angels spanning across the universe.

I have the easiest job in the world. All I have to do is sing and play the guitar

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Rainbow Connection with Lyric

( Fan's Video )

Tribute to the Muppets

 

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The Eva Cassidy Story

 

On ABC Nightline

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- Connie Talbot

– Somewhere over the rainbow

========

Lyrics

COONIE TALBOT

Somewhere Over the rainbow

=====================

Somewhere Over The Rainbow

Israel Kamakawiwo'ole "Iz" HQ 

  

================

 

KARAOKE

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

and

WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD

Israel Kamakawiwo'ole

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KATIE MELUA BIOGRAPHY

Ketevan "Katie" Melua (Georgian: ·); English pronunciation: ; born 16 September 1984) is a Georgian/British singer, songwriter and musician. She was born in Georgia, but moved to Northern Ireland at the age of eight and then relocated to England at the age of 14. Melua is signed to the small Dramatico record label, under the management of songwriter Mike Batt, and made her musical debut in 2003. In 2006, she was the United Kingdom's biggest-selling female artist and Europe's highest selling European female artist.

In November 2003, at the age of 19, Melua released her first album, Call off the Search, which reached the top of the United Kingdom album charts and sold 1.8 million copies in its first five months of release. Her second album, Piece by Piece, was released in September 2005 and to date has gone platinum four times. Melua released her third studio album Pictures in October 2007, which has been announced to be the last of her albums in collaboration with Mike Batt. According to the Sunday Times Rich List 2008, Melua has a fortune of ?18 million, making her the seventh richest British musician under thirty. It was reported in 2009 that she had lost almost half of her fortune as a result of the global economic downturn.

Life and career

Early life

Ketevan Melua, known as Ketino to her family, was born to Amiran and Tamara Melua in 1984 in Georgia, then part of the Soviet Union, in Kutaisi and spent her first years with her grandparents in Tbilisi. Later she moved with her parents and brother to the town of Batumi, Ajaria where her father worked as a heart specialist. During this time Melua sometimes had to carry buckets of water up five flights of stairs to her family's flat and according to her, "Now, when I'm staying in luxurious hotels, I think back to those days".

In 1993, in the aftermath of the Georgian Civil War, the family moved to Belfast, Northern Ireland, where her father took up a position at the prestigious Royal Victoria Hospital. The family remained in Belfast, living close to Falls Road, until Melua was thirteen. During her time in Northern Ireland, Melua attended St. Catherine's Primary School on the Falls Road and later moved to Dominican College, Fortwilliam. This is where Melua learned most of her English. Then the Melua family moved to Sutton, London, and some time later moved again to Redhill, Surrey. Melua recently moved just a few kilometers away from her parents' home in Maida Vale to an apartment in Notting Hill where she transformed the spare bedroom into a recording studio. Melua speaks Georgian, Russian and English and is partly of Canadian and Russian ancestry.

During the South Ossetia War in 2008, Melua's brother and mother were staying with relatives in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi. Melua was due to travel to Georgia herself just two weeks later.

First television appearance

Because of her upbringing in politically unstable Georgia and troubled Belfast, Melua initially planned to become either a historian or a politician. This changed in 2000, at the age of 15, when Melua took part in a talent competition on British television channel ITV called "Stars Up Their Noses" (a spoof of Stars in Their Eyes) as part of the children's programme Mad for It!. Melua won the contest by singing Badfinger's "Without You". The prize was ?350 worth of MFI vouchers, with which she bought a chair for her father. Had she lost the contest, she would have been gunged.

Education and religion

Although she is a baptised Orthodox Christian, whilst living in Belfast, Melua attended the Roman Catholic schools St Catherine's Primary School and Dominican College, Fortwilliam, while her younger brother attended Protestant schools. After completing her GCSEs at the all-girls' grammar school Nonsuch High School in Cheam, Sutton, Melua attended the BRIT School for the Performing Arts in the London Borough of Croydon, undertaking a BTEC with an A-level in music. She began to write songs when at the school. Melua first met her future manager, producer Mike Batt, when studying at the school.

Melua didn't attend University, though she has often stated her desire to do so, saying that English literature, history and physics would be her courses of choice should she get the chance to go to University.

Personal life

Melua met Luke Pritchard, lead singer of The Kooks, when they were both studying at the BRIT School where they began dating. Melua and Pritchard rarely speak of the relationship, but what is known is that the couple dated for three years. However, as Melua became more successful, the relationship came into difficulties and they split up in March 2005.

Melua is occasionally referred to as an 'adrenaline junkie' because she enjoys roller coasters and fun fairs and often paraglides and hang glides. She has skydived four times and taken several flying lessons, and in 2004 she was lowered from a 200 metre building in New Zealand at 60 mph. When asked about Melua being an 'adrenaline junkie', Mike Batt said, "she enjoys extremes, but in life her emotions are always in check."

British nationality

On 10 August 2005, Melua became a British citizen with her parents and brother. The citizenship ceremony took place in Weybridge, Surrey. On gaining British nationality, Melua was eligible for a British passport. Becoming a British citizen meant that Melua had held three citizenships before she was 21; first Soviet, then Georgian and finally British. After the ceremony, Melua stated her pride at her newest nationality. "As a family, we have been very fortunate to find a happy lifestyle in this country and we feel we belong. We still consider ourselves to be Georgian, because that is where our roots are, and I return to Georgia every year to see my uncles and grandparents, but I am proud to now be a British citizen.

Recording career

Mike Batt

It was when performing at a Brit School showcase that Melua caught the eye of Mike Batt, an English songwriter and producer who was originally looking for an acid-rock band, bass player and a singer capable of singing "jazz and blues in an interesting way". After hearing Melua sing "Faraway Voice" (a song she wrote about the death of her idol Eva Cassidy) Batt signed the 18 year-old Melua to his small Dramatico recording and management company and sent her into the studio.

Call off the Search

Main article: Call off the Search

Call off the Search featured two songs written by Melua: "Belfast (Penguins and Cats)", a song about Melua's experience of her time in the troubled capital of Northern Ireland, and "Faraway Voice", a song about the death of Eva Cassidy. Melua also covered songs by Delores J. Silver ("Learnin' the Blues"), John Mayall ("Crawling up a Hill"), Randy Newman ("I Think it's Going to Rain Today") and James Shelton ("Lilac Wine").Originally a major U.K. hit for singer Elkie Brooks. A final six songs on the album were by Mike Batt.

It was initially difficult for Melua and Batt to get airplay for the album's lead single, "The Closest Thing to Crazy". This changed when BBC Radio 2 producer Paul Walters heard the single and played it on the popular Terry Wogan breakfast show. Wogan played "The Closest Thing to Crazy" frequently in November and December 2003 in an attempt to make it that year's Christmas number-one. The single only reached number 10, but Wogan's support raised Melua's profile and when Call off the Search was released it became an immediate hit, reaching number one on the UK albums chart in January 2004. Call off the Search reached the top five in Ireland, top twenty in Norway, top thirty in a composite European chart and top fifty in Australia. In the UK, the album sold 1.2 million copies, making it four times platinum, and spent six weeks at the top of the charts. It sold three million copies worldwide. Subsequent singles did not reach the success of the first ? the second single and album title track, "Call off the Search", reached number 19, and the third single, "Crawling up a Hill", got to number 41.

Piece by Piece

Main article: Piece by Piece (album)

Melua's second album, Piece by Piece, was released on 26 September 2005. Its lead single was "Nine Million Bicycles", which was released a week before the album on 19 September. The first UK airplay for the single was on the Terry Wogan show on 1 August. The album contains four more songs written by Melua herself, four more by Batt, one Batt/Melua collaboration and three more songs described as new versions of "great songs". The band line-up was the same as on the first album. The album debuted at the number-one spot on the UK Albums Chart on the week of 3 October 2005.

On 30 September 2005, Melua came under criticism in The Guardian from writer and scientist Simon Singh for the lyrics of the track "Nine Million Bicycles". Melua's disputed lyrics were:
?
We are 12 billion light-years from the edge. That's a guess ? no-one can ever say it's true, but I know that I will always be with you.
?

They were interpreted by Singh as an assault on the accuracy of the work of cosmologists which sparked a series of letters from other Guardian readers, agreeing or disagreeing. On 15 October, Melua and Singh appeared on the BBC's Today programme, and Melua unveiled a re-recording of the songwhich included Singh's tongue-in-cheek amendments to the lyrics:
?
We are 13.7 billion light-years from the edge of the observable universe, That's a good estimate with well-defined error bars, And with the available information, I predict that I will always be with you.
?

Both sides amicably agreed that the new lyrics were less likely to achieve commercial success, amidst a discussion about scientific accuracy versus artistic licence. Melua said that she "should have known better" because she used to be a member of the astronomy club at school.

Katie Melua at Cambridge Corn Exchange, as part of her UK concert tour, 2006.

A double A-side of the Melua-penned "I Cried for You" and a cover of The Cure's "Just like Heaven" (1988), which is the theme song to the film Just like Heaven, was released in the UK on 5 December and peaked at number 35. "I Cried for You" was inspired by a meeting with the writer of Holy Blood, Holy Grail.

A third single, "Spider's Web" was released on 17 April 2006 and peaked at number 52 in the UK. Melua embarked on a concert tour in support of Piece by Piece, the UK leg of which started in Aberdeen, Scotland on 20 January 2006.

Towards the end of 2006, Melua released the single, "It's Only Pain", which was written by Mike Batt. This was followed by the release of "Shy Boy", also written by Batt.

Pictures
Main article: Pictures (Katie Melua album)

Melua's third album, Pictures, in the U.K. was released on 1 October 2007. and has been announced to be the last of her albums in collaboration with Mike Batt as a creative team. It also features Melua's friend Molly McQueen, the former frontwoman of The Faders, as co-writer of "Perfect Circle".

The iTunes version of the album includes a cover of the Prince song "Under the Cherry Moon" as a bonus track.

Pictures in the first eight months after the release has sold over 1.5 million copies worldwide and over 450,000 copies in the UK alone, being certified Platinum and becoming the 49th Best selling album in 2007.

Charity work

In November 2004 Melua was asked to take part in Band Aid 20 in which she joined a chorus of British and Irish pop singers to create a rendition of "Do They Know It's Christmas?" to raise money for famine relief in Africa. This was in celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the original Band Aid.

On 19 March 2005, Melua sang "Too Much Love Will Kill You" with Brian May at the 46664 concert in George, South Africa for Nelson Mandela's HIV charity. Melua had been a fan of Queen since her childhood in Georgia when her uncles played the band's music, so performing with May was a realisation of a childhood dream.

Melua is a goodwill ambassador to the charity Save the Children, and in 2005 she went to Sri Lanka to see the work the charity was doing for children in the area after the civil war and Indian Ocean tsunami. In 2006 Melua donated all the proceeds from her single "Spider's Web" to the charity.

Melua is a supporter of the Oxfam charity shops, using them frequently to buy her clothing. However, she has stated that this is related as much to her dislike of spending and glamour as it is to her support for the charity, admitting that, when out in public, she looks "like a tramp" and that her hairdresser playfully calls her look "the Romanian window cleaner".

On 7 July 2007 Melua performed at the German leg of Live Earth in Hamburg.

In December 2007, Melua released a cover of the Louis Armstrong song "What A Wonderful World" in which she sang with a recording of the late Eva Cassidy. All profits from the single, which entered the UK singles chart at #1 on 16 December 2007, went to the Red Cross.

World record holder

On 2 October 2006, Melua entered the Guinness Book of Records for playing the deepest underwater concert 303 metres below sea level on Statoil's Troll A platform in the North Sea. Melua and her band underwent extensive medical tests and survival training in Norway before flying by helicopter to the rig. Melua later described achieving the record as "the most surreal gig I have ever done". Melua's concert is commemorated in the DVD release Concert Under the Sea, released in June 2007.

Musical taste

In April 2006, for the Sun newspaper, Melua chose fourteen pieces of her favourite music that she enjoyed and had the biggest musical influence on her. The pieces she chose were Paul Simon's "Hearts and Bones", Jeff Buckley's version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah", Joni Mitchell's "Marcie", Bob Dylan's "Masters of War", James Taylor's "How Sweet It Is (to Be Loved by You)", Chuck Berry's "No Particular Place to Go", Portishead's "Glory Box", Bj?rk's "The Pleasure Is All Mine", Camille's "Au Port", Rage Against the Machine's "Killing in the Name", Bobbie Gentry's "Fancy", Finley Quaye's "Even After All", Suzanne Vega's "Caramel" and Babyshambles' "Fuck Forever".

Melua has said on numerous occasions how Queen were a huge influence on her as a child/teenager, with one of her memories being buying Queen's Greatest Hits II and singing along to "Radio Ga Ga" in her home country Georgia.. She performed with Queen guitarist Brian May at the 46664 concert in 2005.

Melua appeared on the BBC's The Culture Show in November 2006 advocating Paul McCartney as her choice in the search for Britain's greatest living icon.

Acting

In 2007, Melua announced that she would be appearing in a segment of the movie Grindhouse. The segment entitled "Don't", a faux trailer, was directed by Edgar Wright. In Melua's role, she and a group of friends open a door to find a crazy hatchet wielding man who kills one of her friends.

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