Although classical music is definitely less popular in the world than pop, Vanessa-Mae has managed to achieve huge commercial success by combining the two. Her album “The Violin Player” from 1995 was in the 195th place of the best-selling in the world in the year of its release. In 1997, the violinist won the World Music Award for best-selling artist or artist in classical music.
Vanessa-Mae was Britain’s highest-paid young artist
According to data published on the Bestsellingalbum.org website, the violinist sold 250,000 pieces each in Poland and Germany. of their albums, in Great Britain 160 thousand, and e.g. in Austria 75 thousand. In our country, she received platinum records for “The Violin Player” and “The Classical Album” (at that time it was necessary to sell 100,000 records, today 20,000), and for “The Original Four Seasons” a gold record (50,000 respectively). and 10 thousand copies). Many people to this day will quickly associate the first sounds of her song “Toccata and Fugue in D Minor”.
Her mother was from Singapore and her father was from Thailand, but Vanessa-Mae was later adopted by her British stepfather. Born in Singapore in 1978, the British violinist, living in London since the age of four, was still a teenager in the mid-1990s and quickly gained fame and huge money. In 2006, she topped the list of Britain’s richest artists under 30.
She started practicing the violin right after arriving in London, having also tried the piano before. She made her professional debut at a festival in Germany as a 10-year-old. Three years later, she entered the Guinness Book of Records as the youngest soloist to record both Beethoven’s and Tchaikovsky’s violin concertos. Later, she performed in Janet Jackson’s “The Velvet Rope” music video, played at the opening of the 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, and performed the not-so-glorious Ramzan Kadyrov birthday concert in Grozny in 2011.
Vanessa-Mae at a concert in Zabrze in 1996 photo. Robert Krzanowski / Agencja Wyborcza.pl
Not only the violin. Vanessa-Mae’s Olympic dream was thwarted by a scandal
Around the same time she started playing the violin, skiing also entered her life. And although the beginning of her adult life was primarily associated with music, she did not abandon her second passion. In 2010, in an interview with The Telegraph, she said: “I’m British, but I can’t represent my country. However, because my biological father is Thai, they took me in.” In this way, she became the representative of Thailand in alpine skiing. Thanks to the rules, it was easier for her to qualify for the Olympics from this country than in the more heavily-staffed Great Britain.
“In Sochi, it was one of those stories that all the media covered. The story of the 36-year-old Mae, a violinist who conquered the charts a few years ago with classic techno hits, attracted like a magnet” – in November 2014, Sport .pl, remembering her 67th – last – place in the giant slalom (23 skiers did not finish the competition). At that time, however, it was already known that the violinist qualified for the competition as a result of irregularities, and not just the more lenient regulations applicable in this case, e.g. Thailand.
The scandal tarnished her image, then the FIS had to apologize
The International Ski Federation (FIS) has determined that the results of the understaffed competition in Slovenia that gave Vanessa-Mae Olympic qualification were rigged. A skier with a high ranking took part in them especially to raise their rank. “A few ‘dead souls’ also started, and a few skiers fell off the route so that Mae could score exactly as many points as she needed” – reported Jan Cieszń in Sport.pl. As a result of this investigation, the Thai representative was disqualified for four years. A few months later, however, the ineligibility was overturned by an arbitration court due to the lack of evidence of tampering, and Mae was also awarded compensation by the FIS, but her appeal was not upheld due to a number of violations distorting the results of the competition.
Vanessa-Mae – photo from 2019 EN/PER/Capital Pictures / 2EN/PER/Capital Pictures/Capital Pictures/East News
Finally, in 2016, the International Olympic Committee confirmed that Vanessa-Mae can be called an Olympian. In the same year, the skier also won a lawsuit against the FIS for defamation. In addition to paying the undisclosed sum, the bosses of the union had to declare that “Ms Vanakorn [pod takim nazwiskiem skrzypaczka występowała w zawodach – red.] and her team have not in any way improved, invented or improperly influenced the result, course, conduct or any other aspect of FIS approved races.”
Vanessa-Mae returned to skiing in 2017 and was still trying to qualify for the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang. In January 2018, however, she withdrew from the competition due to a shoulder injury and 21-year-old Alexia Arisarah Schenke jumped in her place in the Thailand national team.
Today, Vanessa-Mae works in for animals, including the protection of foxes against hunting. In 2022, she was among the distinguished people who rode on platforms on the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.
Source: Gazeta
Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
