Arlene carried out the opening speech for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee
Photograph by Norman Adams – Aberdeen City Council
A Fresh New Face in Country Music
Arlene was born in the Granite City of Aberdeen, Scotland, and grew up in a household consumed with music through the years and plenty of Country. Songs old and new from the legendary artists were continually reverberating from the family home along with the iconic pop sounds of the 70s.
For 25 years, Arlene explored the world working as Airline Cabin Crew, however music was her first love and it was inevitable she would concentrate on that.
Following a 10-year spell working as a duo with Doug Stewart where they appeared on Britain’s Got Talent, and were also Residential Guest Act onboard an international Cruise Liner, Arlene went onto concentrate on Country music as a solo artist, and her first solo recording project was an EP which she released in 2018. She was invited to be supporting act during a mini Scottish Highlands and Islands tour with Scottish Country star Ruby Rendall and her band, which gave her valuable experience and exposure performing to an all Country audience.
Arlene’s breakthrough song released in 2019 was written by former heart-throb and ex New Seekers group member Marty Kristian. ‘Right Time Right Place’ gave Arlene her first number 1 hit placing on the prestigious British & Irish Hotdisc Country chart as well as a high placing on the Hotdisc European Top 40. This was a springboard to fulfil a life-time long ambition to record in the hometown of Country music, Nashville, Tennessee, at the end of 2019. This venture brought about the recording of six songs with some of the best musicians in the business, and the first three singles all went to Number 1 on the Hotdisc charts.
Bring The Curtain Down, (one of the songs from her Nashville recording sessions) was another composition written by Marty Kristian. After returning to the UK and a few calls later with the legend himself, Marty’s vocals were added to the track which turned the song into a duet with both Arlene and Marty. (How did that happen? a girl from Aberdeen on a record with a Global Icon from the 70s and group member of one of the world’s top bands from back then!) ‘Bring The Curtain down’ not only reached No 1 in the Hotdisc British & Irish chart but was now also Arlene’s very first European top 40 No 1. Arlene and Marty took part in an extensive National radio campaign promoting the single. Many radio presenters chose the song as their featured record of the week. This venture brought a whole new fan base to the Scottish songstress. Arlene has since released further songs from her Nashville sessions as well as newer compositions.
During 2022, Arlene embarked on a ‘project with a difference’, where she wrote the lyric and melody line for a song, specially for Wake Up, Rise Up, LIVE 4 Peace, (an altruistic organisation based in Philadelphia, USA,) where their mission is to raise awareness of violence, particularly unlicensed gun violence around the world. Friends Paul Emerson and Roddy Scott also collaborated on the project. Paul created the music for this piece and Roddy added bass interpretation. Many artists from around the world came together to show their support for this worthy cause and performed at a virtual worldwide concert in September of that year which was viewed by millions. Writing a song on the said subject was a whole new challenge for Arlene, and a complete contrast from her usual Country music world, but whilst a temporary genre swerve, it was the first song she had self-penned completely from scratch which she was super proud of, especially as the aim was to raise awareness for anti-violence.
Arlene’s most recent single ‘One More Time’ was released in Jan 2023 and charted at No2 position in the Hotdisc Country charts. The beautiful smooth Country ballad was written by Ian St James and John Albert Griggs.
The music video for ‘One More Time’ showcases two very elegant championship dancers (Michael Kedzierski and Yuliia Rohut,) who specially choreographed a dance to fit the song and illustrated their wonderful interpretation. This can be viewed along with all of Arlene’s music videos in the Video section.
All songs are available on iTunes/Spotify and all major digital download platforms.
There is no doubt about it, Arlene has arrived onto the Country Music Scene and the future looks very rosy indeed with forthcoming recordings in production.