Tony Henry (singer) facts for kids
Antony Garfield "Tony" Henry is a talented English opera singer. He comes from St Albans, a town in Hertfordshire, England.
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Tony Henry's Early Life
Tony Henry was born into a family of five children. His parents were originally from Ghana. Growing up, his family sometimes needed help, and they received clothes from a charity called Barnardo's. When he was 17, Tony was accepted into the Central School of Ballet. While learning ballet, he also worked for a builder and started to learn opera. He moved to London for ballet school, and later lived in Inverness, Scotland.
Tony Henry's Career Journey
Besides ballet, Tony Henry also worked as a stunt performer. He even did stunt work for the TV show The Bill. However, he soon realized that stunt work wasn't his main talent. He then performed for five years in a famous musical called Starlight Express in London's West End.
During a show called Carmen Jones with The Old Vic theatre, other professional opera singers noticed Tony's amazing voice. They encouraged him to focus on opera because they felt he had a truly special voice. After that, he performed in the opera Madama Butterfly at the famous Royal Albert Hall. He also sang at a restaurant in Covent Garden called Sarastro.
While performing at Sarastro, producers from Warner Music UK were so impressed that they signed him to their music label. They also suggested he try mixing opera with hip hop music. People even compared him to a combination of the famous opera singer Luciano Pavarotti and the hip hop artist Puff Daddy.
Singing for Football
Tony Henry has also performed before big association football matches. In 2003, he sang "Abide with Me" before the 2003 FA Cup Final at the Millennium Stadium. Fans of Arsenal F.C. loved his performance so much that they nicknamed him the "Voice of Arsenal".
In 2007, Tony sang the Croatian national anthem, "Lijepa naša domovino", before a match between Croatia and the England national football team at Wembley Stadium. During his performance, Tony made a funny mistake with some of the lyrics. He later apologized for the mix-up. However, Croatian fans thought his mistake was a good luck charm! They felt it helped their players relax and even saw them laughing after it. Some fans even asked the Croatian Football Federation to make Tony an official mascot and have him sing at their games for UEFA Euro 2008.
Tony Henry's Album
In 2003, Tony Henry released his album called Modern Arias. At first, the album's sales were slow. But by 2006, it became more popular and reached number 37 on the Belgian Albums Chart.
