Scottish singer KT Tunstall has revealed she never expected to write a musical – and only saw her first show a decade ago.
The award-winning star, 49, is behind the soundtrack to the new Clueless musical, which hits London’s West End next year and features a new set of original songs with a ’90s theme.
She is best known for her million-selling 2004 album Eye to the Telescope, with the worldwide single Suddenly I See, and for her outspoken nature, so she understands why some eyebrows have been raised about her move to theater land.
Speaking exclusively to MailOnline from her home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the singer says her career change is something she didn’t predict.
KT explained, “Oh my God, never. I didn’t even like musicals growing up.
‘I had a soft spot for films like Oliver and Bugsy Malone, but I didn’t like the stage films at all. I saw some of them as a child and thought they were really pretentious and not credible.’
Scottish singer KT Tunstall has revealed she never expected to write a musical – and only saw her first show a decade ago
The award-winning star is behind the soundtrack to the new Clueless musical, which hits London’s West End next year, and features a new set of original songs with a ’90s theme.
But her view of the genre quickly changed after seeing a particular production.
She explained, “I turned to the Book of Mormon and it completely and fundamentally changed my DNA as a musician. It’s just so much fun and a challenging use of songwriting.
‘And these kinds of shows are all about melody and that’s what I’m known for, so I’m actually very suited for that.’
KT has lived across the pond for over a decade and is now a US citizen.
She says one of the reasons she left LA for New Mexico is the traffic.
KT explained, “You can’t get anywhere. I tried to go to a baseball game and we missed the entire game because the traffic was so bad.
“I thought, what’s the point of living in a big city if you can’t get anywhere? And I’ve never really been a city person anyway. I like smaller towns like where I grew up, and Santa Fe is nice and small.”
The Edinburgh-born star still has a strong Scottish accent, which she is immensely relieved about, and regularly travels back to Britain to perform and work on exciting new projects such as Clueless, the most highly anticipated West End musical of 2025. based on the 1995 film starring Alicia Silverstone as high school student turned matchmaker Cher Horowitz.
She is best known for her million-selling album Eye to the Telescope from 2004, with the worldwide single Suddenly I See, and for her open-hearted character.
KT admits she found musicals ‘pretentious’ and ‘not believable’ until she watched the Book of Mormon, which completely changed her perception
She was brought in by Glenn Stater, a Tony Award-winning lyricist behind shows like School of Rock, who thought KT’s pop rock and rich ’90s sound could be the perfect soundtrack for the show.
KT said, “We had a conversation about how we could make the show stand out because there are a lot of musicals based on movies these days.
‘I had the idea to pay tribute to all those great hits of the nineties, so that every song in the musical will be reminiscent of a brilliant megahit from the nineties, such as N*SYNC, Radiohead, Green Day, Vanessa Carlton or Hansen. Actually, the soundtrack is the mixtape that comes in Cher’s Jeep.’
KT is still a ’90s girl and admits that this decade could be the last to be celebrated.
She explained: ‘The great thing about Clueless is that there is a big appetite for things from the nineties, like music and fashion.
“I read a funny post the other day that said, ‘What’s going to happen as we get closer to the 2000s?’ What will be the fashion for 2000?
‘It almost looks like he’s starting to eat himself, there’s not much you can put your finger on. So let’s celebrate the 1990s, as perhaps the last decade had its own atmosphere.’
KT says the transition from writing songs for her own albums to collaborating on large-scale musicals has been a steep learning curve, but admits she is finally using the skills she learned during her music course at university.
KT hinted that the soundtrack will pay tribute to 1990s classics from the likes of N*SYNC, Radiohead, Green Day, Vanessa Carlton and Hansen
The singer admits she’s still a ’90s girl and says this decade could be the last to be celebrated
Clueless, The Musical opens at the Trafalgar Theater on February 15 next year and tickets can be purchased at CluelessOnStage.com
She explained: ‘I studied music at university and learned it at school, and it was annoying.
‘I’ve always hated doing the theory side of it, but it’s finally come to the fore in my work, where I do large-scale arrangements and scores, and I’m really happy that I can read what’s being put on paper put. I’m finally happy that I did my theory.’
Clueless, The Musical opens at the Trafalgar Theater on February 15 next year and tickets can be purchased at CluelessOnStage.com.
But it won’t be KT’s only foray into the UK as she will also celebrate the 20th anniversary of Eye to the Telescope by performing a series of gigs, including at the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow.
The album catapulted her to stardom, winning Best British Female Artist at the 2006 BRIT Awards and Best Song Musically and Lyrically for Suddenly I See at that year’s Ivor Novello Awards.
Her global rise was helped by the single from the hit film Devil Wears Prada, starring Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway, and KT admits the song continues to pay the bills.
She said: “When I look at my accounts, Suddenly I See is over 50 percent of what I make as a songwriter. It’s just absolutely stratospheric.
“Not only was that song used in the movie, it’s the opening of the movie, it’s unedited, there’s no dialogue over the top, it’s like a music video with Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway in it.
“When that happened, it really expanded my presence in America, gave me a career as a musician in America, which is no mean feat, and also took me to Japan and South America. It just grew into something beautiful.”