The songs Cate Blanchett couldn’t live without
Born and raised in Melbourne in 1969, Cate Blanchett is one of Australia’s most revered actors. She graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art in 1992 and has since appeared in over 70 films, including Peter Jackson’s Lord of The Rings, Todd Haynes I’m Not Here and Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth. Here, Blanchett names the songs she couldn’t live without.
Blanchett’s big break came in 1998 when she won the titular role in Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth. Her performance earned an Oscar nomination and the Golden Globe for ‘Best Actress in a Drama’. Her star continued to rise throughout the 2000s, with starring roles in Bandits, The Shipping News, Charlotte Gray and The Lord of The Rings, in which she played the Elf Queen Galadriel.
After a turn as Katherine Hepburn in Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator, Blanchett was nominated for another Oscar for her portrayal of Bob Dylan in Todd Haynes’ I’m Not There. She then took a job as the co-artistic director of the Sydney Theatre Company, at which point her film work became increasingly sporadic. She was later cast in Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine, for which she won the Academy Award for ‘Best Actress’ and returned to Hollywood full-time. She has since starred in a wealth of Oscar-nominated projects, including Carol and Tár, the latter of which sees her play revered conductor Lydia Tár.
One of the things Lydia and Blanchett share is a penchant for orchestral music. During her conversation with Lauren Laverne for BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, Cate named Gustav Mahler’s ‘Symphony No. 5 in C-Sharp Minor’ and Richard Wagner’s ‘Pilgrims’ Chorus’ as two of the seven records she’d bring with her to a desert island. Introducing the latter, Blanchett said: “I got to sing this in the choir at school with Jane Elton Brown in a hideous blue dress – I hope they’ve changed the dresses – at the Melbourne Festival Hall, I think it was. It was one of the most transporting experiences of my life. Every time I listen to it, I weep with joy.”
As well as ‘Go Tell the Women’ by Grinderman and ‘Proof’ by I Am Kloot, Blanchett selected Molly Drake’s hauntingly beautiful ‘The Little Weaver Bird’, recorded sometime in the 1950s. Molly was, of course, the mother of English singer-songwriter Nick Drake. “She was making music inside her home – for herself really,” Blanchett said. “Because apart from her husband recording a few discs, it wasn’t really recorded and certainly not heard by anyone outside her family circle. She gives me quiet courage, you know, for the times when you’re making something, and you think this is just for me, and maybe, one day, I can share it with other people.”
You can see Blanchett’s full selection below.
The songs Cate Blanchett can’t live without
- Mahler: Symphony No. 5 in C-Sharp Minor – Gustav Mahler, performed by Berlin Philharmonic and conducted by Claudio Abbado
- ‘Bésame Mucho’ – Trio Los Panchos
- ‘Tannhäuser: Pilgrims’ Chorus’ – Richard Wagner and performed by Norman Luboff Choir, New Symphony Orchestra of London, conducted by Leopold Stokowski
- ‘Go Tell the Women’ – Grinderman
- ‘Proof’ – I am Kloot
- ‘Blow the Wind Southerly’ – Kathleen Ferrier
- ‘The Little Weaver Bird’ – Molly Drake
- ‘Lil’ Darlin’ – Count Basie And His Orchestra
