New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Acclaimed Welsh actor, known for his performances in
Clash of the Titans, Midway, Beauty and the Beast, The Alienist and more, Luke Evans today reveals another stellar duet - this time with
Nicole Kidman on "
Say Something"- taken from his stunning new album A Song For You - out November 4th on BMG.
The collaboration with Kidman is an adaptation for a song in which
Christina Aguilera and
A Great Big World won the 2015 Grammy for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance - and came after the pair met during the filming of Hulu mini-series Nine Perfect Strangersin Australia. They spent five months working together, bonding offset, along with Kidman's husband Keith Urban, in their shared love of music.
Evans recounts; "When we wrapped the show, we had dinner one night in
Nicole and Keith's house in Sydney. After dinner,
Nicole was like: 'Right, you're singing, Keith's gonna play the piano. He'll play anything, just tell him the song.' So everybody came around the grand piano in their living room and I sang Adele's 'Make You Feel My Love'. I knew that
Nicole loved to sing, so she was joining in."
Luke remembered that night when he was preparing to cover "Say Something." He felt Kidman would be the perfect duet partner - although, equally, he knew how busy she is. But she responded instantly and enthusiastically to his suggestion.
He continues; "I already had that song in my head, because I knew that it would fit Nicole's voice very well, that I could blend our voices. So I sent them the track, and Keith was like, 'genius - I couldn't have thought of a better track.'" The couple recorded Kidman's part in Urban's Nashville studio. "He sent me a little video of her in the booth recording. And she loved every minute of it. She was so grateful that I'd asked her. I was, like, 'grateful? You have no idea how grateful I am!' But she's a lovely woman, and a friend, and very generous with their time. To do something like this was really special."
A Song For You draws its title from the
Donny Hathaway song that's one of Evans' lifelong favorites and with which he opens the 14-song selection. They are all delivered in his transcendent tenor, with orchestral backing and additional glorious, full-voiced support on key tracks from the world-famous, 130-year-old Treorchy Male Voice Choir.
The Welshman is in huge demand as an actor, in the UK and internationally. From cinematic thrill-ride to prestige TV drama, classic big-screen animation to small-screen police procedurals, action to comedy to thriller. But give him half a chance and the star of The Hobbit, The Alienist, Fast and Furious 6, Dracula Untold and Beauty and the Beast will do what he's always loved first and foremost: sing.
"I just feel really lucky as a singer, my first love, to do it again," Evans concludes, "and to sing these magical songs on an album which I'll have for the rest of my life. I want everyone else to share that joy, too."
