Sarah Brightman has teamed up with her former husband Andrew Lloyd Webber to create a song that she can perform 260 miles above the Earth. . . in space!
The 54-year-old British soprano said the two are trying to come up with a tune that "suits the idea of space," she revealed at a press conference in central London.
Brightman will be part of a three-person crew voyaging to the International Space Station and she said that she paid for her journey, but wouldn't tell reporters the exact cost.
She is training at Star City near Moscow and is due to head to space on a Russian rocket on September 1. Brightman will spend a total of 10 days aboard the ISS.
"The Phantom of the Opera" star said singing in space was a "very different" proposition to performing on Earth, according to BBC News, and a challenging one at that. Her team is working out the technical details to make the performance on the ISS possible.
"To sing in microgravity is a very different thing to singing down here," she said. "We use the Earth to ground ourselves when we sing and the air around us. This is going to be very different. I'm trying to find a piece that is beautiful and simple in its message, as well as not complicated to sing."
If this mission is successful, Brightman will be the first artist to accomplish the challenge of singing in space.
