Anthony Hopkins, 88, Releases His First Single Ever

Two-time Oscar winner Sir Anthony Hopkins has fulfilled, at the age of 88, a dream he kept quiet for decades. The legendary actor has signed with the label Decca Classics and, on July 10, released his debut single “Bracken Road”. Music, not film, he says, was his first love.

He told an Irish newspaper that “music was my first desire, my first wish”. This is a man who won two Oscars for playing Hannibal Lecter and a pope, and now, at an age when most people think about slowing down, he is opening an entirely new chapter. And not timidly, but with a full orchestra behind him.

An album sixty years in the making

The single heralds his first studio album, “Life Is a Dream”, out on August 21. This is no collection of songs written overnight. Hopkins composed this orchestral music over six decades, between shoots, in hotel rooms, at home at the piano. He gathered it patiently, like someone who knows the right moment arrives when it arrives.

Serious musicians are behind the performances. Gustavo Dudamel, one of the biggest names in contemporary classical music, took the podium, and the Philharmonia Orchestra plays. When an actor of that stature receives this kind of backing, it is clear the label treats his music not as a celebrity hobby but as a genuine artistic project.

The single “Bracken Road” carries a story of its own. Hopkins wrote it back in 1963, while he was a young actor in Liverpool, and the piece is inspired by memories of his childhood in the Welsh town of Margam. The melody, then, is older than most of his films. He carried it with him through his entire career, waiting for the moment to finally share it with the world.

Why did the actor turn to music only now?

The answer is simpler than it seems. Hopkins never stopped playing, he just never did it in front of an audience. A self-taught composer, his talent had not gone entirely unnoticed before. In 2012 he won the prestigious Classic Brit Award for album of the year, the first real sign that a musician stood behind the actor.

What was once a private passion has now become a public statement. Instead of retreating, Hopkins chooses to open up in the most intimate way possible. The music he wrote for himself, in silence, now gets a hall, an orchestra and audiences around the world.

There is something moving about a man making his debut at 88. This is not the move of someone with something to prove, but of someone who has finally decided not to postpone what he loves. The story of “Bracken Road” is really a story of patience, of a dream that never faded even after sixty years of waiting.

Fans across the Balkans remember the actor above all for the hypnotic gaze and quiet voice of Hannibal Lecter. Now they get the chance to hear what he sounds like when Hopkins speaks through notes instead of lines. And would you rather watch him on the screen or hear him in a concert hall?