Hayley Westenra by Hayley Westenra Page B

the car outside, so she didn't really want to be doing the whole meet-'n'-greet thing. She was wearing a cute cap and she looked very starry as she walked into the bar. Everyone turned to look at her and I felt like a country bumpkin in comparison. It didn't worry me and it was not a big deal, although I did silently wish that I could look that stylish.
    'Oh, yes, great concert. You're doing very well. Congratulations,' she said.
    'It's lovely to be meeting you,' I replied. 'Congratulations on your success too.'
    Our conversation was very polite – not tense at all, but just polite. Looking back, I guess it should have been more tense than it was because we were very much seen as competitors in the same market at the time. Now, we are a million miles apart in what we do.
    Another big star whom I nearly met wasVictoria Beckham, but she makes it into this book only because I said 'no' to her. Sorry, Victoria. Her parents came to the concert that Russell and I gave at Wembley Stadium. While I was performing, her parents held up their mobile phone so that she could hear how I sounded. I was then invited to sing at one of the Beckhams' exclusive showbiz parties. To the shock of many of my friends, I turned them down.
    To be honest with you, I would love to have gone along, but I was committed to performing in a series of concerts back in New Zealand, and in one of them my sister Sophie was due to perform with me. She was all psyched up for it and was really looking forward to the experience. I couldn't possibly let her down. I was also worried about cancelling the show and disappointing my fans. It obviously was not an easy decision to make, but I do believe that once an artist has made a commitment to do something, and their fans
have paid out their cash for tickets and are eagerly awaiting the show date, the artist should do everything possible to honour the commitment to their fans. And that means sometimes having to say no to other fantastic invitations that come along on the way. No performer should ever take their fans for granted.
    By now, I was living a fairly nomadic existence, flying back and forth to New Zealand. We moved into a flat in the bustling Covent Garden area of London, which became our European base. I had been quite homesick for New Zealand on my first trip and, although I do still miss my friends and family when I'm away for a long period, I'm more used to it these days. Throughout the period that I was making Pure, I was attempting to carry on with my schooling atBurnside High School, although my absences were not looking too good on the attendance register.
    When I was there, I did well, particularly in maths and science, and I was reasonably good at English. If I'm being honest, I would have to say that by this stage, with so much happening to me in terms of my music career, my heart was not really in school. As I neared the end of my high school years, I felt that even if my marks were a little on the low side, it wouldn't matter, since I didn't need bits of paper to make it as a singer. Mum and Dad took a slightly more pragmatic view and were keen for me to keep up with my schoolwork. They, along with my lawyer, did some negotiating with the record company and organised a tutor for me while I was in London, although this still was not ideal, since he didn't travel with me, so I could have lessons only on my days off from recording. I suppose that my school-work did come second to my music. Put it this way: I don't ever remember doing homework sitting at the back of a recording studio. I probably should have been keeping up with schoolwork on a daily basis, but,
instead, everything had to be squeezed into the occasional day off.
    I ended up taking the British GCSE exams a year later because, the year that I was due to take the New Zealand School Certificate, a new system had been introduced, which made it very difficult for teachers to give me work that they had prepared in advance. There was also a good