Hayley Westenra is among the top selling artists of the present century. Her début international album PURE went straight in at No. 8 in the UK pop album charts and No. 1 in the Classical Charts, making her the fastest-selling début classical artist of all time. The album turned Gold in the United Kingdom in one week and has since hit Double Platinum, with similar success elsewhere. She has performed for Her Majesty the Queen on a number of occasions, President Bush and Tony Blair, Prince Charles, Colin Powell, Condoleeza Rice, and New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark and in July 2007 was asked to perform for the Dalai Lama.

She is the youngest ever Ambassador for UNICEF, and her Bikes for Ghana campaign was a huge success and provided 6,000 bikes to help young Ghanaian girls attend school and find a better future. She has also been an Ambassador for Save the Children, Hong Kong, is a patron of the Raukatauri Music Therapy Centre in Auckland, and is Matron of WEN (Women’s Environmental Network). She has also recently been made Ambassador of Classic FM’s official charity, Music Makers. Hayley Westenra has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Sydney Opera House, Wembley Arena, Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Palace, and the White House, and has duetted with Andrea Bocelli, José Carreras and Bryn Terfel. She has also appeared as a special guest with the world’s leading orchestras. In February 2008 she received the Global Kiwis Young Achiever Award 2008, established to recognise a young Kiwi under the age of 35, at the start of their career, who has made remarkable achievements in their field of endeavour in the UK, achieving recognition on at least a national scale if not on a European or global scale.