Rita Wilson - "Music brings people together"

Virgin Radio

28 Nov 2022, 10:34

It brought the actress and Graham together this weekend!

American actress, singer, and producer Rita Wilson is returning to music for the time being... no, scratch that, she - with new album Now & Forever: Duets - is allowing music to come back into her life.

"I don't really see it as a return to music," says an actor whose appeared in everything from Sleepless in Seattle, to The Story of Us, to My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2, which she also produced - "but it's sort of like allowing the music to come back in a way. As a kid, it was always music for me, but at fourteen I started working and that was acting. And that sort of took the path of least resistance I should say. Also, I didn't play an instrument and I didn't read music and I didn't know how people did it, so it made sense to favour acting."

But the LA born entertainer has long managed to balance the two arts, and since 2012 Rita has released five albums under her own name. Her newest sees her duetting with a litany of stars, including Keith Urban ('Crazy Love'), Smokey Robinson ('Where Is the Love'), Willie Nelson ('Slip Slidin' Away) and Elvis Costello ('Fire').

Many of those classic songs weren't written as duets, but that's what Rita has done in her presentation of them on Now & Forever.

"Only one, which I do with Smokey Robinson was originally a duet," she says. "But when I started conceiving of the album and thinking, "How can I see these songs I love differently?", that's where I ended up. It was finding songs that could be conversations between lovers. That's what the inspiration was. How do we have these these conversations?"

And how did Rita access all of these talents? Does she have a magic phonebook?

"Not at all," she laughs. "I didn't know Smokey Robinson. I didn't know Willie Nelson. I didn't know anyone other than Leslie Odom. Jr, and I had only met him briefly when he was doing Hamilton. I think people responded to the idea and the concept of what we were trying to say and do. Because that's the thing with music - it brings people together..."

Now & Forever: Duets is available to buy and stream now.

Listen to The Graham Norton Radio Show every Saturday AND Sunday from 9:30 am on Virgin Radio or catch up on-demand here.

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