Pure joy for Westenra as CD breaks million mark

By NATASHA HARRIS

Young New Zealand classical singing star Hayley Westenra has sold one million copies of her album Pure worldwide.

Not since Auckland band OMC sold a million copies of their debut album in 1996 has a New Zealand musician come close to the 16-year-old's success.

Pure was released in September and became the best-selling debut album in the history of the British classical charts. She is the New Zealand Top 50 chart record-holder for having the No 1 album for 15 weeks, and has sold about 135,000 copies in this country.

Westenra has been home in Christchurch and camping with family at Timaru for three weeks.

She heads to the United States this month to prepare for her album launch there in March. In between, she will tour New Zealand, beginning in Dunedin on February 16.

On hearing of the million-plus sales, she said: "It's like, wow. Overwhelming ...

"A little girl from Christchurch and look what has happened. It's a massive compliment."