Shropshire Star

Pink talks about her V appearance

The big decision for headliner Pink won’t be what to include in her main stage set at V. It’ll be what to leave out.

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Pink talks about her V appearance

The seller of around 50 million albums and winner of three Grammys, one Brit, a Daytime Emmy and six MTV Video Music Awards has been working on her upcoming seventh album, Beautiful Trauma, which is out in October.

And when it comes to choosing her set list, she’ll have to choose from six albums and 35 singles.

The hit-maker has scored some of the most important singles of the 2000s, including Get The Party Started, Who Knew, So What, Raise Your Glass, Perfect, Try, Just Give Me A Reason and Just Like Fire.

She has become increasingly successful throughout her career and her most recent studio album, The Truth About Love, was a number one in the USA, Canada, across Europe and in New Zealand.

It was released five years ago and looked at love, relationships, feminism, sexual prowess and social exclusion. She collaborated with Eminem, Lily Allen and Nate Ruess, from American band Fun.

A huge world tour followed, taking Pink through America, Australia and Europe.

She has since had a second child, a son, Jameson, to go with her daughter, Willow, and enjoyed time at home with her husband, Carey Hart, the professional motocross racer. The singer, described as the most trailblazing artist of her generation, lists Madonna and Janis Joplin as her two biggest heroes and she in turn has inspired Katy Perry, Kesha and Rihanna.

She has also acquired a new hobby, cultivating an organic vineyard in southern California after visiting leading wineries around the world. She describes her passion for wine as her ‘dirty little secret’ and says she started by taking online courses.

After that, she learned about pruning vines by taking her Beck album, listening to it through earphones and spending days pruning. Pink says she loved the ability to work for eight hours with nature and pruning quickly became her favourite thing.

She developed her 25-acre estate, which includes Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, Malbec, Grenache and Grenache Blanc. Her love of wine, however, has been a long-term thing. When she burst onto the scene at the end of the 1990s, her rider would include a bottle of Châteauneuf-du-Pape.

She told Decanter magazine: “When I made my [first] rider, I was 20 and I just put Châteauneuf-du-Pape on there because that was the wine that made me love wine.”

Since then, when she’s been travelling the world, she’s visited some of the best wineries that there are. She admits she doesn’t know too much about English wine – but is hoping to try a little after she headlines V.

Earlier this year, Pink teamed up with Sia to release a new song, Waterfall. They worked with Norwegian songwriters Stargate on the track. Stargate have previously written hits for Beyonce, Rihanna and Fifth Harmony.

Pink works hard to stay out of the Hollywood bubble and she has been a formidable campaigner for women’s rights. On social media and in interviews, she has lashed out at body shamers and lambasted those who are judgemental about women’s figures.

At the BMI Pop Awards, she said: “I don’t take well to bullying. I never have. I’m not a person that will be bullied. I’m not a person that will stand by watching other people bullied.

“I am a girl, I have feelings and people think I take no sh*t and I’m tough, tougher than nails, but I’m a human being.

“I think people have gotten it wrong. They think their opinion matters and holds weight and I don’t know where or why they’re giving themselves so much credit, you know?

“So I thought it was important for me to remind them that I don’t care. My life is full, I like food a lot and I really like to cook, I like to live, I find joy in that and were doing alright in the Hart household.”

Pink has been lauded by critics for being that rarest of creatures – a true artist.

While other stars have been criticised for oversinging, being unable to sing or being vocal lightweights, Pink has maintained a brilliant career by being an authentic, powerhouse vocalist. One of the singers on whom she had the greatest impact was Adele, who saw her as a teenager on the Missundaztood tour, at Brixton Academy. Adele rated it as one of the defining moments of her life and said: “I had never heard, being in the room, someone sing like that live. I remember sort of feeling like I was in a wind tunnel, her voice just hitting me. It was incredible.”

Adele isn’t the only one to credit Pink’s work as being inspirational – she’s also loved by Demi Lovato, Kelly Clarkson, Taylor Swift and more.

Pink has also rushed to the defence of other female stars, including Lady Gaga who was criticised for copying her Superbowl performance by ‘flying’ through the air.

She took to Instagram using the hashtag #womensupportingwomen to support Lady Gaga and wrote: “Her voice was powerful and beautiful, her outfits were on point, choreography stellar, her heart was in it and she sang about love and inclusiveness, all in front of millions and millions of people.”

Pink will be doing something similar this weekend – her fans can’t wait.