Katie will be performing in the historical city of Timișoara in beautiful Romania on Friday, 8th December. If you happen to live in Romania then this is a rare and unmissable opportunity to see one of the finest musical artists in the world on your home soil. For everyone else, well, if you have the time and the means then why not treat yourself to a last-minute trip to to a beautiful and fascinating country and get a Katie live fix into the bargain! Click the pic for more details.

Katie looked amazing and sounded a little emotional in a beautiful performance of Fields of Gold as part of the Royal British Legion Festival Of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall last night. Click the image to find the show on iPlayer. Katie performs at 41:00.

The last ever Beatles song has been released. And, thanks to incredible technology involving AI, all four Beatles perform on it. Let's clarify the AI bit—computers have not simulated John and George but the AI is able to separate their original work on the track from other instruments. Hence, John's vocals emerged crystal clear from a tape demo where they had been intertwined, seemingly forever, with muddy piano playing. This is one of the best examples to date of exactly how astonishing AI can be. Isolating voices and instruments that have been mixed together on tape seems like science fiction but it is now a reality, thanks to pioneering work done by director Peter Jackson in developing such software during development of his wonderful Get Back documentary.

Paul McCartney had been in possession of the Now and Then demo tape for over thirty years. It is a song written by Lennon and recorded on a standard audio tape. The remaining Beatles tried, whilst George Harrison was still alive, to record the track but they ultimately had to give up due to John's vocals being compromised by the piano playing. Finally, in 2023, AI was able to separate John's vocals from the piano and Paul and Ringo were able to lay down new performances on bass, guitar and drums to be mixed in with John's original vocals and some of George's work from the abandoned earlier attempt. The result is astonishing. A true Beatles track, one in which all four are participating. It is almost a miracle, and a perfect way to give proper closure to the greatest band of all time. Even the title could not have been better—although intended by Lennon in the sense 'occasionally', it poignantly can also be seen as a nod to the Beatles, both now and then.

If you haven't seen the official video I urge you to do so right away. Just click the pic to go see it on YouTube. Warning: you will probably need tissues because it is one of the most moving videos ever created.

Happy birthday to Call Off The Search! A truly iconic album and, for yours truly, probably the greatest debut album ever. Twenty years is a third of my lifetime and more than half of Katie's—this album has been in her life longer than it hasn't. Katie hasn't aged and nor has this album. Newly remastered, it sounds crisp and clean, fresh as forest air on a spring morning. The brilliance of Mike Batt cannot be underestimated, not just for taking a chance on Katie but for writing songs for this album and picking perfect ones for Katie to cover and then arranging them all so beautifully as well as getting the very best out of the amazing raw talent he suddenly had on his hands. All credit to Katie for taking on board the guidance and advice given her and producing work of such maturity and control it beggars belief. Although Katie has spent more than half her life as a self-confessed student of songwriting it is clear that she had already graduated by the time this album appeared. Her songs Belfast and Faraway Voice are gorgeous. Mike Batt was not indulging her including them on this album, they are there on merit and hold their own with all the other material and though Katie's blockbuster early hits were with Mike's songs she was always encouraged to write her own music and be known as a singer-songwriter. She seems to like the process of collaborating with others but she is perfectly capable of going it alone. We'll never know what might have happened if her debut album had consisted of all her own songs—personally, I think she would still have been a success—but I thank Mike for getting her to cover classics because it showed the world what a truly sensational interpreter of a song she is. This anniversary isn't just about a record, it is about the day we all gave a piece of our heart to a young woman who has never let us down in the two decades that have passed since.

The build-up continues towards the impending 20th anniversary edition of Call Off The Search. The latest video to get a bit of spit and polish is the big one—Closest Thing To Crazy. Yes, the song that launched Katie into the stratosphere and blew our collective minds. It's a sweet little video but if I'm honest the real benefit of this whole 4k remastering is in the pristine audio. There isn't a great deal that can be done with the video and it retains the original soft-focus look. Still, it reminds you how good Katie could have been as an actress since she looks completely natural in her role. You can watch the video by clicking the image below.

The longest studio track Katie has recorded, by some margin, is Millions Of Things from the album Aerial Objects. At 6m 49s it is more than a minute longer than the previous record holder, No Better Magic (5m 46s), from Acoustic Album No. 8. The shortest recording is Cradle Song from In Winter at 1m 43s, just pipping The Little Swallow (1m 46s), also from In Winter.

Goodness me, this is getting ridiculous! It seems like I'm posting about this playlist every five minutes but somehow another year has passed by and once again we are into the spooky season of Halloween. I make no apologies for posting this every year for one simple reason—this playlist is banging! There is a slight pang of disappointment that Love & Money contains no suitable additions to the list but that doesn't detract from what a wonderful selection of tracks this is. And now you have a choice of platforms: Spotify or YouTube Music. You pays your money...

Play on:

The latest remastered single from the upcoming re-release of Call Off The Search is Tiger In The Night. These remastered versions sound stunning and they make you realise just what a special album Katie's debut offering was. And whilst the included bonus demo versions of these tracks seem to give Katie equal amounts of amusement and embarrassment, real fans find them fascinating and still entirely listenable. Whilst they demonstrate the amount of refinement the recordings underwent they also show just how much magic there is in Katie's voice, even in those raw early efforts. This re-release is also a wonderful opportunity to own an iconic album on vinyl at last.

You can listen to the pristine track and the original demo on Spotify or YouTube. and other streaming platforms.

A quick reminder to check out my random song title generator, which can be found in the Miscellany section of the site. This was created for a bit of fun, and often throws up funny or weird results but now and then comes up with some pretty good suggestions. Despite the name, it works equally well for poems or novels. Have a play, and if you end up having a massive hit or best-selling novel then I'd appreciate a gentle nod to Craggie's Song Title Generator!

The stroll down memory lane over the imminent 20th anniversary of Call Off The Search has now turned into a brisk walk, if not a light jog. Crawling Up A Hill is the latest release from the newly remastered album and the video is available to chuckle at, I mean admire, on YouTube. If you'd forgotten why you'd fallen in love with Katie then these early videos will bring it all flooding back. Fresh-faced and innocent—I was both of those things back then, but Katie, well, she looked more at home in the music industry than she does now. Though, it has to be said, she looked less at home posing as a humble office worker, bless. You can watch the wonderful video by clicking the image below.

Oh, and keep your eyes peeled for the pic of Grumpy Cat on the wall at her desk. Genius.

Happy 15th birthday to The Katie Melua Collection, released on this day in 2008. Although early in her career, this was more than just a Greatest Hits compilation. It gave us the new tracks "Two Bare Feet", "Toy Collection", "Somewhere In The Same Hotel", "When You Taught Me How To Dance", and "What A Wonderful World" (a duet with the great Eva Cassidy). Worth the price for those alone, but there was also a stunning DVD in the package which contains a live concert from her Arena Tour 2008 and is an absolute gem. If you never bothered to buy this CD/DVD you really should hunt it down.

November 3rd will mark the 20th anniversary of Katie’s stunning debut album, Call Off The Search. Hard to believe isn’t it. Social etiquette seems to demand we say she hasn’t changed a bit but in this case it is pretty accurate—if you don’t believe me then compare the still below from the video, when Katie was nineteen, to the album cover of Ultimate Collection in the previous post, where she was thirty-ahem-something. One thing that has changed is the pitch of her voice, which is now much lower (as happens with most people as they age). This is one reason why I am hoping to hear her re-record this album at some point—her sultry lower register is ideally suited to these jazz-oriented songs—but for now we will have to make do with a remastered version of the original album. Perhaps ‘make do’ is an unfair phrase, since I’ve listened to the new single, the title track, and it sounds about as perfect as you could ever hope for. I haven’t directly compared it to the original album version but it is so crisp and clear and perfectly mixed it sounds like it was recorded yesterday (apart from the aforementioned higher pitch of Katie’s younger voice). It is enough to convince me that the remastered version of the album will be a worthwhile addition to the collection, though the deal-sealer is the inclusion of previously unreleased tracks. Some of these did appear on the B-Sides compilation but September Song is something I’ve always wanted to hear Katie sing and here it finally is after being hidden away on a shelf for twenty years—that track alone should make the entire package worth purchasing, but the opportunity to own this iconic album as a gatefold double-album vinyl is a further compelling argument. You can watch the video for the new single by clicking the image below.

You can also pre-order the 20th anniversary edition of the album from Katie’s online store by clicking the pic below.

Happy 5th birthday to Ultimate Collection, released on this day in 2018. There are a few notable anniversaries this autumn, the most significant being the 20th anniversary of Call Off The Search which Katie, thankfully, is celebrating with a new release of that iconic album on November 3rd. That will be an unmissable opportunity to own Call Off The Search in a double-album gatefold vinyl, which is THE way to own music.

I haven't mentioned this for a while and perhaps some of you are unaware that Katie had an asteroid named after. I steadfastly refuse to make any kind of comment about heavenly bodies, though I can think of a few that might not be so restrained. Anyway, if you are a science geek you can see considerably more data on Asteroid 25131, Katie Melua by visiting its web page. Yes, Katie's asteroidal namesake does indeed have its own web page.

The inner rings are the orbits of the planets Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. Asteroid Katie Melua orbits Earth every 4.51 years and is located between Mars and Saturn. It is represented in the diagram by the yellow and blue line, where yellow means it is above the ecliptic and blue below it (which you can visualise as being in the Northern hemisphere or Southern.) I'm sure you'll be relieved to know that because it is so far away and in a steady orbit there is no chance of Katie Melua wiping out life on earth.

Happy Birthday to Katie! It is special for her since it is her first as a mother. And it was 10 years ago today that Ketevan was released, the brilliant album that contained the beautiful track "I Will Be There". The song was written by Mike Batt for Queen Elizabeth II but it was for and about all mothers. I imagine it now carries more meaning for Katie too.

Katie has released a version of 14 Windows from which the proceeds will go to the Royal Medical Benevolent Fund. You can support the charity by buying the single or by making a direct donation to RMBF. To listen to the track, buy it, watch the video, or other options, visit Katie's link page.

I rarely add new wallpaper images to the Wallpaper section of the site, but Katie's new video for 14 Windows is so sumptuously shot it would have been a crime for some of the images to be blinked and missed!

Unscramble the letters to reveal the title of a Katie track.

The summer tour of Europe is rolling along nicely. However, sometimes even the greatest encounter the odd bump in the road. I should point out however, that I have always said I much prefer Katie's lower register and consider the poncho-clad audience at Lauchheim to be beyond lucky. I can only hope that one day I am in attendance at a show where Katie's high register has a night off and allows the low to be star of the show.

Now then, listen up. Do you fancy a holiday at the end of September? Perhaps a relaxing break in a lovely country mansion? How about if you were there with a bunch of songwriters keen on honing their skills in a creative environment? And what if tutors were there to help you, such as Fiona Sampson, Findlay Napier and, wait for it, our very own Katie? If you are a songwriter that wishes to step up to the next level and you have the time, September 25th - 30th, the inclination and the, *ahem*, money, then why not click on the image below to investigate further. Look, I'm not going to sugar-coat this: it isn't cheap. But if you're serious about a career as a songwriter then this could be a life-changing event for you. This would be a good opportunity for anyone interested in songwriting but since you are reading this you must be a Katie fan and just imagine how awesome it would be to get advice and feedback straight from her!

On this day in 2022 Katie released her collaboration album with SImon Goff, Aerial Objects. It is utterly splendiferous and unlike anything else she has done. Yet it is hard to believe it has only been one year since so much has happened in that time—Katie has released another album, named Love & Money, she has released a child, named Sandro, and she has completed a tour of the UK and Europe. That is a busy year! It is a shame Aerial Objects didn’t get a tour of its own (Album No. 8 didn’t either, but that was due to covid). It would be nice if Katie could one day do a one-off performance of it in the UK but it seems unlikely. If these things were purely down to the artists’ whim then maybe they could happen but level-headed commercial considerations dictate most decisions of this nature. We’ve said it before—the music business is a business.

For those among you who care about such things (and I am neither admitting to nor denying being one of them), here is the set list from Katie's special night at the Royal Albert Hall last month. The fact that "Nine Million Bicycles" is nowadays referred to as "Bikes" should in no way be taken as meaning Katie regards that song as a tedious but necessary part of her live repertoire, though one suspects that is quite possibly the case and I, for one, would forgive her for it.

It was a long road to get there but the musical match made in heaven finally happened as Katie performed at the Royal Albert Hall in London on Tuesday evening. This was the event many fans had been looking forward to back in 2020, only to be devastated when covid restrictions caused the entire 2020 tour to be cancelled. It is sad that not everyone who was going to go three years ago was able to be there this time but for those who were it was a case of good things coming to those who wait.

For anyone interested in architecture, the RAH is undoubtedly a glorious and iconic building. Inside it is something of a labyrinth and contains all manner of impressive bars and restaurants but the auditorium itself is surprisingly small, though it probably doesn't feel that way if you're the one standing centre stage. But if you've only ever seen it on television with an event such as Last Night Of The Proms you might have had the impression it is a large theatre.

The stage is surprisingly small. I say 'surprisingly' because you are hard pushed to imagine how an entire Philharmonic Orchestra is able to squeeze on to it when Katie and her band of four musicians seemed to have gobbled up most of it on their own. I was struck by how amazing the Gori Women's Choir would have sounded there but couldn't imagine where on earth they could have stood.

What the compact vibe of the theatre does do is give an amazing feel of intimacy. For the performer, it must feel like they can reach out and touch the entire audience and the surprising number of levels of boxes seems to reach to the ceiling. Depending on who you are, I guess it could be either intimidating or exhilarating to stand on that stage looking out at the sea of faces all around you. Katie, as you probably know, is a particularly cool customer but there were a couple of moments this evening when you wondered if even she was feeling a tad nervous. That would be quite understandable of course–not just for the weight of history of the venue around her but also, as she revealed to the audience, this show was the only one of the tour that would be recorded. (Possible future live album? Let's hope so.)

If Katie did have nerves they didn't really show during her performance, which was of the high standard that has become one of her trademarks. She was ably supported as usual by her band, with her brother Zurab dazzling with a few solos. I'd love to see that band cut loose for a jam session inside a late night jazz club. There was the odd moment where Joe's drums came across perhaps a tad too loud but it is worth remembering that the show was being recorded and hence the equipment was probably set up to sound as good as possible in the recording, which may not have been the optimal setting for the audience on the night, though it is only nit-picking and Katie's vocals were fine.

There is an unusual demographic with the audiences at Katie's shows. They seem to range from 20s to 80s and include all nationalities. Like many artists that are not so much in the public spotlight, Katie has a core of fans that are familiar with most of her work but the anomaly remains that her two biggest hits are ingrained on the public psyche from her extraordinary Wogan-boosted breakout year two decades ago. It is predictable, and a little frustrating, to hear the raucous applause and whistles when she sings "Nine Million Bicycles" and "Closest Thing To Crazy" and compare it to the gentle, polite applause which follows her other songs (though "Wonderful Life" does get a more energetic reaction, no doubt because of a certain television advertising campaign). However, this does not surprise me in the least. Whenever I mention Katie to anyone it is nearly always her two early chart successes that they know her for and it is quite rare to stumble across someone who is familiar with her work from the last decade or so. That always saddens me because they are missing out on some sublime music. What seems to happen a lot is that when people see Katie is performing in their town it reminds them how much they loved her back in the day (and probably every household has a copy of "Call Off The Search"), so they feel a wave of nostalgia and decide to go see her live. Of course, they are patiently waiting for her to perform the big two, but in my experience they usually end up being blown away by the whole show. Hopefully, they go home and begin to explore more of the back catalogue they have been missing.

As for this particular evening, all I can say is that it must be a special moment indeed in the life of any artist to stand in the centre of the Royal Albert Hall amidst a rapturous standing ovation and that humble Georgian smile as she takes it all in was wonderful to witness. The little girl from Kutaisi has come a long, long way.

One thing that is happening more and more now, mostly as a result of Katie's Instagram chats with fans during lockdown, is that fans are becoming friends and meeting up quite a lot. At one point on Tuesday evening there were eleven of us around a table at the Italian restaurant in the Royal Albert Hall. The group comprised of fans not just from across England but also from Portugal, Belgium and Denmark. We are a wide range of people of varying ages and nationalities all united in our love and appreciation for one special lady from Georgia.

A good album you may have missed... (see them all HERE)

Passages Ravi Shankar & Philip Glass

North Indian classical music and Western contemporary classical music are worlds that you might think could never collide. Perhaps that is part of the reason why in 1990 two giants of those genres, Ravi Shankar and Philip Glass, decided to have a go at such an unlikely arranged musical marriage.

Now, two such accomplished composers with such different backgrounds working on the same music might have been very difficult to make happen without disagreements and ego clashes. The solution they used to avoid this was genius—both of them wrote three basic themes, a bare structure of a song, and then they swapped them, leaving the other to complete the piece in any way they saw fit. This fascinating strategy worked perfectly and the resulting six tracks are all gorgeous. Whilst there was always the potential for this experiment to go badly wrong, I think the deep mutual respect the men had for each other ensured they put a lot of thought and care into the process and it is hard to imagine the result could have been any better.

Sadly, this collaboration was a one-off. It was a concept that intrigued both men but after creating such a beautiful piece of work there was nothing left to prove and both still had much to achieve in their own musical spheres but in Passages they showed the world that any collaboration can be made to work with mutual desire and respect.

Listen to Passages on Spotify via the link below:

Play on:

Katie's love affair with Germany continues with another summer tour this July. She will be playing seven dates at the end of the month, all at different venues. click HERE to see details and ticket links.

Tonight is the first date of Katie's Love & Money Tour. It kicks off in Warsaw, Poland. Have a great time, Katie! Imagine little Sandro, having his first live gig experience at just a few months old. Surely, music will be in his blood. Warsaw is in for a great night tonight, followed by Gdynia tomorrow and Wroclaw on Friday.

You can catch Katie’s appearance on the BBC Two book review show, Between The Covers, by clicking the pic below.

The Travel Diaries is a podcast by Holly Rubenstein. Now into Season 9, Katie is the latest guest and gives some fascinating insights into her life. Well worth a listen. Click the pic to go to the podcast episode website or search for it in your usual podcast place.

There's a new range of merchandise available for pre-order on Katie's online store. It includes T-shirts, sweatshirts and tote bags, all tasteful and stylish, and available later in April. It isn't cheap but it is cheerful so if you can afford it, treat yourself! And don't ask me what "torquoise" is. A new shade of turquoise perhaps?

The official video for Katie's latest single, "Love & Money" , is out now, to coincide with the release of the new album of the same name. If you've ever wondered what your cleaner gets up to when you're not there you're about to find out.
Click the pic...

Katie's 9th studio album, Love & Money, is out today. It is available to stream from the usual platforms right now and you can buy the CD or vinyl from Katie's web store, if you believe in supporting artists. It is a happy album, which might be just what you need right now, so go and listen and stop mooching around here!

Microsoft have just unleashed their revolutionary artificial intelligence ChatBot upon the world. You can find it by clicking the blue Bing icon in the Microsoft Edge browser. On the face of it, it’s just a pimped up search engine but if you try to give it a stiffer challenge it seems to be game to try and the results can be anything from weird, hilarious, unexpected to genuinely useful, impressive and even amazing. A.I. is getting serious.

It can easily handle obvious search engine tasks like looking for recipes or songs, but where it gets more interesting is in its ability to create. It can write poems, songs or even prose. It can even write computer programs—a fact that, as a programmer myself, I consider intriguing now but I can see the potential for that to become a rather insidious ability.

You could ask it to write a nursery rhyme about an octopus or a poem about a ballet-dancing Womble. No matter what you throw at it, it’ll have a fair stab. The results you get are variable. The more detail you give it in your query the better your response will be.

At first, this all seems like a lot of fun. You ask it to do things like write a poem about a turtle called Donald and chuckle at what it comes up with a few seconds later. But once you get over the novelty, is this the birth of a more sinister phenomenon we are witnessing? Could it make human creativity redundant? After all, if you wanted to write a song about a particular subject it might take you hours or even days whereas ChatBot could come up with something in seconds. It might not be perfect, but it would give you something to tweak and polish. If you then have a hit with that song, who gets the credit, you or the ChatBot? Would you even acknowledge you used the A.I.? Cheating is an obvious abuse of this technology—imagine your child has to write an essay for their homework: how easy it would be for them to ask the ChatBot to do it for them whilst they are on their PlayStation. There is also the thought that it might be able to write a computer virus for you—we have to trust that Microsoft have built in enough safeguards against misuse. It can be a genuinely useful tool though, helping you phrase and reword reports and papers, rather like a grammar checker on steroids.

Bear in mind that this is only the dawn of this kind of technology and it will only get better. Much better. Perhaps in ten years you will be able to ask the A.I. to write a song in the style of Bob Dylan and seconds later be provided with something that has no obvious indication that it wasn’t written by the man himself. It is mind-blowing but scary.

The question of whether this technology can ever replace a human is a very tricky one for which there is no definitive answer. There is no doubt that it is possible to get some very convincing results from ChatBot even today but you could argue that an A.I. will never be able to match the feeling that a human can express due to emotional experiences. As living, sentient, biological beings driven by chemical reactions, we interpret the world around us in a completely different way to ChatBot, which simply crunches massive amounts of digital data to grind out its results. ChatBot is able to write you a poem about the pain of loss but it has no understanding of the concepts of pain or loss. As of now, ChatBot could generate a bedtime story you could read to your daughter and she would have little clue you didn’t make it up yourself. But ask it to write you a new Dickens novel and that would be an entirely different story (pun intended).

The next few years will be interesting. I would not be surprised at all if at some point we see a hit song that uses ChatBot lyrics. I should stress however, that the music will be composed by a human and only the lyrics generated by the A.I., though at some point in the future maybe it could do the whole thing. There may be some things it can never handle. To me, the most obvious thing would be comedy. I would be hugely surprised and impressed if an A.I. could ever write a sitcom or a stand-up routine. But you never know.

At the moment, all this power seems controllable because of how it is presented. Typing queries into a browser does not seem that revolutionary—after all, we’ve been Googling things for years now (incidentally, Google is about to launch its own A.I. engine, Bard, so we will soon be seeing a battle of the A.I.s). But when you consider the growing popularity of voice assistants like Siri and Alexa we are not far away from a time when you can put your child to bed and ask Alexa to sing an original lullaby. As we edge closer to the days of personal robots, imagine one that has all this A.I. power at its disposal. We’ve all seen deep fake images and this can be applied to sound so in theory your robot could mimic any voice. Put all of this together and twenty years from now you could be asking your robot to write and sing a song in the style and voice of Katie Melua. Intriguing, certainly, but is that really where we want to go? For those that have witnessed the genuine article it would never be good enough but for the generation growing up with this technology, will they really care whether their content is created by a human or a machine? Artificial intelligence is a Pandora’s Box, and we just opened it.

Below, I’ve listed some of the queries I put to ChatBot and the responses it gave. See what you think and maybe go to the Edge browser and challenge ChatBot for yourself. It’s all good fun—for now….

> could you translate the lyrics to "Fields Of Gold" into Georgian?

Yes, I found a translation of the lyrics to Georgian on lyricstranslate.com. Here are the translated lyrics:
ველები ქართველისაა, მისი მეტად საყვარელი ადამიანისაა. მისი მეტად საყვარელი ადამიანისაა.
ველები ქართველისაა, მისი მეტად საყვარელი ადამიანისაა. მისი მეტად საყვარელი ადამიანისაა.
ველები ქართველისაა, მისი მეტად საყვარელი ადამიანისაა. მისი მეტად საყვარელი ადამიანისაა.
ველები ქართველისაა, მისი მეტად საყვარელი ადამიანისაა. მისი მეტად საყვარელი ადამიანისაა.
I hope that helps! Let me know if you have any other questions. 😊

(according to Google translate this actually is the phrase “The fields belong to Georgian, to his beloved person. It is his most beloved person.” repeated four times!)

> write me a limerick about bananas

Here’s a limerick about bananas:

There once was a fruit called banana,
It’s yellow and sweet, like a cabana,
It’s great in a pie,
Or just on the fly,
It’s a fruit that’s loved by both man and fauna.

What do you think? 😊

> do you dream?

As an AI language model, I don’t have the ability to dream. I’m just a computer program that processes and generates text based on the input I receive. Is there anything else I can help you with?

> do you know a recipe for khachapuri?

Yes, I can help you with that. Here’s a recipe for khachapuri that I found from simplyhomecooked.com:

Ingredients:

4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups warm milk
1 egg
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup crumbled feta cheese
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
Instructions:

Combine flour, salt, yeast, and sugar in a bowl. Then add warm milk. Using the hook attachment, knead the dough until it takes shape.
Cover the dough and let it rise for 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
Divide the dough into 4 equal parts and roll them out into circles.
In a separate bowl, mix together the mozzarella, feta, and ricotta cheese.
Add the cheese mixture to the center of each dough circle.
Fold the edges of the dough over the cheese mixture and pinch them together.
Brush the top of each khachapuri with beaten egg.
Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until golden brown.
I hope that helps! Let me know if you have any other questions. 😊

> could you write a song about a cat and his favourite tennis ball?

Sure, I can give it a try! Here’s a song I came up with:

Verse 1: There’s a cat that I know, he’s got a tennis ball, It’s his favorite toy, he loves it most of all, He’ll play with it all day, and never let it go, He’s got a special bond, with that ball, you know.

Chorus: He’s a cat with a tennis ball, he’s got a heart of gold, He’ll play with it all day, and never get too old, He’s got a special bond, with that little ball of fur, He’s a cat with a tennis ball, and he’s always ready to purr.

Verse 2: He’ll chase it up and down, and all around the house, He’ll pounce and jump and play, just like a little mouse, He’ll bat it with his paw, and then he’ll catch it too, He’s got a special talent, that’s for sure, it’s true.

Chorus: He’s a cat with a tennis ball, he’s got a heart of gold, He’ll play with it all day, and never get too old, He’s got a special bond, with that little ball of fur, He’s a cat with a tennis ball, and he’s always ready to purr.

Bridge: He’s a little ball of fur, with a heart so true, He’ll always be there for you, no matter what you do, He’s a cat with a tennis ball, and he’s always on the go, He’s a little ball of energy, and he’s always in the know.

Chorus: He’s a cat with a tennis ball, he’s got a heart of gold, He’ll play with it all day, and never get too old, He’s got a special bond, with that little ball of fur, He’s a cat with a tennis ball, and he’s always ready to purr.

I hope you like it! Let me know if you have any other requests. 😊

I think Katie is safe for a while yet.

Katie will be performing an acoustic set of songs from Love & Money on Wednesday, 22nd March at Pryzm, Kingston. I know Jamaica is a long way for you all to go... oh hang on, it's the one south of London isn't it? As you were. If you can make it there, I'm sure she won't disappoint.

The official video for Katie's latest single, "Quiet Moves" , is out now. The new album, "Love & Money", is out in less than three weeks so in the meantime why not entertain yourself with a portion of dubious chip-shop based dancing? Click the pic...

The third single from Katie's imminent new album, Love & Money, is out now. It is called "Quiet Moves". You can listen on Spotify or click the pic to listen on YouTube Music. You'll also find it on the other main streaming platforms.

The second single from Katie's upcoming album, Love & Money, is out now. It is called "Those Sweet Days". You can listen on Spotify or click the pic to listen on YouTube Music. You'll also find it on the other main streaming platforms.

This is a quote from Katie's blog back in October 2005. (Yes, she did blog on and off for a while in the days before social media ruled the world!). Hard to believe that is almost half her lifetime ago but she was a sassy lassy back then and well on her way to evolving into a warm, wise and wonderful woman. Be warned: if ever you meet Katie you will witness a strange phenomenon!

I'm aware that a lot of streaming music links are for Spotify. After all, it is considered the King of music streaming. However, I've never really liked it for various reasons. For me, YouTube Music is far more impressive. Why? Well, for one thing, you can upload your own music collection to your account if you can't find it already there, which does sometimes happen with obscure albums. There is also the killer feature–video. If you are listening to a song and there is a video available for it you can seamlessly switch to watching the video at the touch of a button without losing your place in the song. It is a very slick feature beautifully done. Like Spotify, there is a free version but if you are serious about your music you will want to subscribe to avoid annoying ads. Since one subscription gets you YouTube Music as well as YouTube Video it is well worth the money but subscribing to Spotify as well is probably overkill, especially in the current economic climate. But I recommend you give YouTube Music a trial and see what you think. If you are a die-hard Spotifan then that's fine–as you were. For the YouTubers though, I have created a playlist called The Complete Katie Melua. It does just What It Says On The Tin. It contains 263 songs (and counting...) so whether you want to have a serious Katiethon session or just hit shuffle for a daily Katie fix is up to you. And remember, if there is a video available for the song you can dive into it at any point by touching a button on the screen. Enjoy! (Click the pic to go to the playlist on YouTube Music.)

"Golden Record", the new single from the upcoming Love & Money album, is streaming now.

Click to listen on YouTube Music
Click to listen on Spotify
Click to watch the official video

Katie's new album, Love & Money, will be released on March 24th. You can pre-order NOW at Katie's online store.

Here is the track listing:

1. Golden Record
2. Quiet Moves
3. 14 Windows
4. Lie In The Heat
5. Darling Star
6. Reefs
7. First Date
8. Pick Me Up
9. Those Sweet Days
10. Love & Money

Check out the new single, Golden Record, on

Katie has been teasing us on social media again. She has set a challenge to guess the track names of her latest album, Love & Money, based on emoji clues. Now if you were a fan of Catchphrase this could be right up your street. Personally, I found the advice "say what you see" pretty unhelpful since I never seemed to be seeing what everyone else was seeing. Somehow I doubt that track 8 is entitled "Ice pick waving girl upwards". I'm sure you can do better than that so feel free to have a go. Or, just wait a bit longer until the album details are released 😃

Here are my guesses. I don't expect them all to be right.
1. DVD
2. Ponderous Jogger
3. One For Windows
4. Big Nose Into The Fire
5. Baby-faced Sheriff
6. Orange Squiggles
7. One Pair Of Lovers
8. Ice Pick Waving Girl Upwards
9. Toffee Calendar
10. Heart Ampersand Dollar

Tomorrow sees the release and first airing of "Golden Record", the new single from the upcoming Love & Money album. Click here for the link.

2022 may have been a fairly horrid year in global terms, for reasons I mentioned in my Christmas message, but for Ketefans it actually turned out to be a pretty good year. Katie is normally off the radar in January but this year we had something to keep us going in the form of The Detail, her podcast with friend Polly Scattergood. This weekly dose, which began late in 2021, was never less than fascinating to listen to. Series 2 was said to be in the works but so far there is no further word on when it will drop so all we can do is wait and hope.

February began with a lovely performance from Katie for BBC Radio 2’s Piano Room season. It was particularly noteable for her cover of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”. If you go to the blog entry for 5th February you can listen to her performances and her chat with Ken Bruce.

March was a quiet month as we were all digesting the awful events unfolding in Ukraine. In April though, there was more to keep us happy. Katie announced a project in collaboration with Oxford University, called The Silk Roads Project. It was a one-off musical performance involving students and young people as well as the BBC Concert Orchestra. Details also began to emerge of some welcome summer concerts in Europe, though the wait would have to go on for UK fans. On a personal level, mid way through the month I was elated to finally have my first “Katie Melua” tulips blooming in my garden after a search that had taken years. Katie had a lovely conversation with Vikas Shah for his ThoughtEconomics website. Then, towards the end of the month, we heard about a new album to arrive in the summer, Aerial Objects. It was to be a collaboration with Simon Goff, best known for his ambient violin music. This news was music to our ears even though it came with a warning of being unlike anything Katie had done before. We trust her enough that we were all excited anyway.

May was another quiet month before the beginning of June brought the first single from the new album. It was called Hotel Stamba (after a Hotel in Tbilisi) and fair to say it blew our minds. Any fears Katie may have had about fans not liking it were soon dispelled. We loved it. Katie also announced she would feature on a track for William Orbit’s new album, The Painter, slated for an August release. Orbit is something of a legend in the industry, and produced Katie’s fourth album, The House. His new album would also feature a collaboration with Polly Scattergood. The second track and video from Aerial Objects dropped towards the end of the month. Textures Of Memories did not disappoint either. Excitement was bubbling over for the full album release.

Meanwhile, Bad Katie was keeping a low profile this year but she did escape for a while for another episode of mayhem in July, entitled “When Bad Katie Met Bob”. Who knows when we shall see her again. But the big news of July was the release of Aerial Objects. It was every bit as wonderful as we’d hoped. Despite appearing in the seventh month of the year, it would go on to become my most listened to album of the year when Spotify released their annual reports in December.

August saw Katie on the road again at last, with a 6-date tour of Germany. It was so lovely for her to be playing live again after a couple of years of covid nightmare. And Germany won the jackpot again in September when Katie and Simon Goff gave a one-off performance of Aerial Objects in Berlin. Such a shame more fans couldn’t get to experience these wonderful songs live. Indeed, many fans are still waiting to hear songs from Album No. 8 live. It has been a difficult couple of years for all.

In September the world changed. The death of Queen Elizabeth II was so unexpected, despite her great age, and most of the population had never known another monarch. She was like the mother of the nation and her loss left the UK feeling like a rudderless ship. Her Majesty loved Katie and they met a number of times. I’m sure Katie and her family felt very proud of that and it must have been a source of comfort for Katie to know she gave so much pleasure to such a special lady.

October saw the 5th anniversary of AllAboutKatie. It was a personal project of mine for some time before that, keeping my web skills honed on a subject close to my heart, but eventually I realised that Katie didn’t have a good English fan site and she really deserved one so it was time to go online and share the site with the world. Five years have passed so quickly! There have been a few disruptive changes in my personal life but my desire to keep AAK going remains and as long as Katie keeps producing music I hope to keep supporting her through this web site.

November saw the second surprise album announcement of the year. Katie is spoiling us now! Love & Money will be released next spring along with her much-anticipated return to UK live shows in May. 2023 is already looking like a much better year just because of the announcement of that album and tour. Finally, we have something to look forward to amidst the general gloom and doom of news this year has brought.

Katie had one last piece of good news to share with us in December, announcing the birth of her first son, Sandro. I’m sure you will all join me in sending love and best wishes to mother and son but I want to take this opportunity to urge everyone to respect Katie’s private life and resist hounding her for more details on social media. She will share what she is inclined to and we should ask no more of her than that.

So, with 2023 now firmly under way and 2022 decidedly consigned to the past, I wish you all a wonderful New Year. Hope to see some of you at the live shows this year!