Westenra to open for Il Divo on US tour

Hayley Westenra is to go on tour in the United States. File picture / Dean Purcell

Christchurch's internationally renowned teen diva, Hayley Westenra, has landed the opening slot on the United States tour of operatic boy band Il Divo.

The 18-year-old will tour with the group until the end of February, opening around 14 shows, the music news website Pollstar reports.

Westenra, who has performed infrequently in the US, will follow up the 2006 Il Divo tour with her own headline tour of North America in the spring.

Pure, Westenra's fifth album and her first international release, sold more than 2 million copies worldwide and became the biggest selling New Zealand album, with 175,000 copies sold.
It also topped the British classical chart and spawned a Japanese No 1 single.

The 2005 follow-up, Odyssey, has been doing well internationally since its July release.

The new CD features her rendition of Joni Mitchell's Both Sides Now, as well as a duet, Dell'amore non sis a, with blind Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, with whom she performed in New Zealand last year.

- NZPA