Alexander Armstrong is to pay tribute to the British Isles, with the release of his debut album.
The classically trained baritone and former choral scholar at Trinity College Cambridge, 45, has signed a record deal with Warner Music’s East West Records and will release his first solo record in the autumn.
Here's fun! I've just signed a record deal with Warners to make a classical album this summer. I've been waiting half my life to do this…
— Alexander Armstrong (@XanderArmstrong) May 8, 2015
Alexander – one half of the Bafta-winning comic duo Armstrong and Miller and the host of BBC’s game show Pointless – will start recording the album, which will be produced by Grammy winner Simon Franglen, in the summer. It will celebrate songs of the British Isles.
Paul O’Grady, Alexander Armstrong and Richard Osman (Dominic Lipinski/PA)
“I am so excited to be joining the illustrious stable at East West and to be working with this wonderful team,” he said. “Singing has had to take a back seat for the past 25 years of my life, but with this fabulous project I get to put that right.”
The comedian’s passion for music is well known. A former chorister at St Mary’s Cathedral in Edinburgh, he currently presents the Saturday afternoon programme on the classical radio station Classic FM and toured with The Alexander Armstrong Band in 2013.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQqRBVNyncc&feature=oembed
He surprised judges on ITV’s Your Face Sounds Familiar when he sang in falsetto to impersonate Susan Boyle’s Britain’s Got Talent rendition of I Dreamed A Dream from Les Miserables in 2013.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nC3v9hJw6Go&feature=oembed
Armstrong also sang during the celebrities’ Christmas special of Pointless, and performed No Rhyme For Richard from the musical Blondel in BBC Two show, Tim Rice: A Life In Song.
He will appear on BBC1’s VE Day 70 on Saturday May 9, and will perform alongside Josh Groban on Sunday Night At The Palladium on ITV on May 10.
Conrad Withey from East West Records added: “I am incredibly excited to welcome Alexander to East West. He is a fantastic performer, loved across the nation for his TV and comedy work, and we are about to embark on an artistic journey that will celebrate his lesser known, but just as impressive talents as a singer.”
