Katie Melua set to 'take risks' at Cheltenham Jazz Festival after being 'placed in box'

Katie Melua is ready to take to the stage at the upcoming . However, for Katie, the event is more than just another performance. It has been six years since she last performed and she admits she was "drawn" to it.

Speaking to the , said: "I think a jazz festival in the UK is so interesting, because I think Cheltenham has a heritage, and I know also Jazz at the moment in the UK has had such an amazing sort of revival.

"Now, I remember when I first came on the scene, 22 years ago now, we had people like Jamie Cullum and Amy Winehouse and myself, and we were kind of placed in this sort box. So it was a bit of a revival. But it's interesting to them see the direction that Amy went in, the direction that Jamie has gone in, you know, I've certainly not stayed in Jazz at all.

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"But I do like to, like flirt with it as a genre. I really love what's happened in more recent years. So, yeah, it's exciting to be part of it."

Katie is being joined by a stellar line-up which also includes the likes of Lulu, Macy Gray and Corinne Bailey Rae. However, Katie confessed: "I think grassroots music is so important, you know? So we have to keep kind of creating that environment and soil for young artists to come through."

And she explained what fans can expect from her own performance: "I think what they can expect is sort of, maybe the reason why I'm still being booked at festivals like that is because they love live musicianship," she said.

"The band that I'm gonna have is just so bloody brilliant and they're all phenomenal live musicians. And I want to learn from them, because they can come up with things you know in the moment that are so inspiring, and to do that in front of an audience can be a bit of a risky thing.

"I just think live music is all about taking risks and kind of creating these spaces and discover how best to bring a song to light and in a fresh way and with new energy.

"So it's about that, yeah, it's, for me, it's about that kind of exciting riskiness that jazz can bring."

Katie, who is also set for a European tour, admitted she has many more ideas for the future, insisting she still loves the music life. "I still have, like, specific ideas for albums," she insisted after discussing her nine albums to date.

However, while she confessed she can't go into details just yet, she said: "I love doing this. I love making records.

"[I know how] much responsibility we have as music makers, because songs really get inside people, there such works of art, and you really do have a responsibility to new listeners that we might have to sort of create new songs that are worthy of generations adopting it."

The Cheltenham Jazz Festival, which is being between from 30 April – 5 May 2025, presents an array of special one-off performances, free events, group workshops, family-orientated shows and late-night jams.

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