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Soprano in space: Sarah Brightman working on song to perform in space

LONDON – British soprano Sarah Brightman is aiming to perform where no professional singer has ever gone before: the International Space Station.

The 54-year-old said Tuesday she is working with composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, her ex-husband, to create a song she will sing in space after she blasts off Sept. 1 in a Russian Soyuz rocket.

Brightman, known to many for her role years ago in the musical The Phantom of the Opera and for a duet with tenor Andrea Bocelli, told reporters she felt “overwhelmed” and excited – but not yet nervous — as she prepares for her trip.

“I would like to sing something from space,” she said. “We’re trying to work out all the technical details, obviously it’s quite a complex thing to do.”

She said she and Lloyd Webber are working to find a song that “suits the idea of space” while scientists iron out how to make the performance work, possibly with a choir or another singer on Earth.

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“I’m trying to find a piece which is beautiful and simple in its message, as well as not too complicated to sing,” she said.

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Brightman would not disclose the cost of the trip — reportedly 35 million pounds — but maintained she is paying for it herself. She played the original lead in Phantom, was an original cast member in Cats, and has sold 30 million records worldwide.

BELOW: Sarah Brightman appears on Global News in Montreal in April 2013.

On the journey, arranged by the private space company Space Adventures, the singer will be part of a three-person team and spend 10 days aboard the space station.

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She began training in January at Star City near Moscow, spending hours every day learning Russian, becoming familiar with all the space equipment and training in high g-force launch simulators.

“It feels like you’ve got an elephant on your chest, that’s the only way I can explain it when you’re in centrifuge,” she said.

Brightman said she has wanted to go into space since she watched the first moon landing in 1969 as a 9-year-old.

“For me to have got this far and have a taste of what I felt at that time, to be part of the future, is an amazing thing,” she said.

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