PETER Andre does not have many regrets in life, but having now having reached the grand old age of 53, he is thinking – as a good Aussie boy – he really should have learned to surf.
“I never surfed and I wish I did; it is the one thing I regret not learning,” says the Mysterious Girl singer, sounding wistful. “I grew up in Australia on the Gold Coast and on the weekends we used to go to the beach – they used to have speakers on the beaches and they would play the radio.
“I remember hearing Frankie Valli songs that were so synonymous with surfing and that lifestyle – they were the songs from my childhood, so it definitely makes me feel a little nostalgic, singing them all in these new shows.”
He is referring to the second tour of The Very Best of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons – returning due to “phenomenal popular demand” with an extended UK and Ireland visit during spring 2026.
A celebration of the music of one of the biggest selling groups of all time, Andre pays vocal tribute to the four original ‘Jersey Boys’ who started singing under a street lamp and went on to become one of the most-loved boy bands in America’s musical history.
I still get messages from people all around the world about<i> </i>Mysterious Girl
— Peter Andre
“We’ve added a couple of songs and made it a slightly bigger production and it’s just fantastic, enthuses the now Surrey-based father-of-five (he has three children with his doctor wife, Emily MacDonagh, and two with former wife, Katie Price).
“I hadn’t realised how huge the Frankie Valli catalogue actually was until I started singing the songs I had heard on the beach all those years ago – they are songs that parents know and their kids now know, thanks to musicals like Grease and The Jersey Boys…it is an inter-generational thing and it is just amazing to see everyone dancing together at the end of the night.”
The reality TV star “cannot wait” to visit Belfast again as part of the new tour and has been extra-excited following the discovery of some Irish roots – via his in-laws.
“I think my love for Ireland in general comes from marked similarities between the Greek and Irish cultures – the way everyone is with their families, with their food and with their music,” he says. “My brother, Chris, is a phenomenal musician and when he picks up the violin and plays Irish music – which we had played at our wedding – I feel an instant connection to it.
“So, you can imagine how excited I was to discover that Emily’s father’s family are from Donegal. I didn’t know that until we were in this beautiful hotel in Donegal and I sent a photo to Emily’s dad. He messaged me back to say that is where his whole family are from there and that they all love the Irish surf.”
In addition to the Frankie Valli tour, 2026 will be marked by a couple of special anniversaries for Andre who celebrates 36 years in show business this year. New album, Legacy, is also being released in April to mark three decades of his multi-platinum breakthrough with Mysterious Girl and chart-topping second studio album, Natural.
“I still get messages from people all around the world who are still playing and listening to Mysterious Girl, so I feel very blessed,” says the singer who was born in London and brought up in Australia. “To mark this 30-year milestone, I’ve made this new album and it’s the first music I’ve done in years.
“I’ve brought in all my friends to join me on it, people like Kenny Thomas and Montell Jordan. It’s a 13-track collection – including three former number ones – which have all been all re-imagined and presented in the way I always heard them in my head when I first wrote and recorded them.”
More than just a greatest hits project, he says the album – which heralds a new Legacy tour – is both a “reflection and reinvention”, as well as a return “to the heart of songwriting” for the artist who first began writing music at 13 years old.
Leading the new material is Rock You Right, an original track written by Andre and setting the tone for the album’s concept – “honouring where I’ve been while celebrating where I am now” – and Island Girl, taken from his new film, Jafaican which is, he says, “exactly as it sounds – about a fake Jamaican”.
A heist comedy movie, it is, he says, “very funny”, adding that he did acting as a child and “always knew” that one day he would return to it. “My first film was a short called The Inheritance and it was never released, but it was nominated for some awards in America” the singer recalls. (Andre was nominated for ‘Best Actor’ at the North Hollywood Film Festival for his role as lead character, ‘Harry’.)
“But, I have to say, when it comes to highlights, over and above films, record sales or massive arena tours, there is no doubt in my mind that having my children is my greatest achievement. Everything else comes and goes, but your children are your life and that is the truth.”
In an attempt to stay around as long as he can for them, the former party boy who grew up as a “strict Jehovah Witness” leads a healthy life, cooking dishes from scratch, exercising daily and avoiding alcohol – “unless it’s for cooking”.
“Emily and I stopped drinking about 10 years ago,” he says, “so doing a ‘dry’ January doesn’t really mean anything anymore. When I left the faith [Jehovah Witness] at about 16, I drank enough to last me a lifetime. A lot of my twenties are a blur, so I did enough of all that.
“Then, as time went on, even though I’m not a Witness, I became a bit more spiritual as I’ve grown older and I just didn’t want to have that lifestyle any more.”
Turning 53 in February has also had a sobering effect and although he doesn’t worry about ageing per se, image remains important in his line of work. “I think, though, image is important to everyone to some extent,” he muses, “and I’m trying to see how far I can go before the hair starts falling out, before it goes grey, and before my wrinkles really start to show.
“I’ve been through stages in the past where I’ve done the odd Botox and stuff, but I haven’t done it for so long now. I’ve not rebelled against it, but I just want to see how far I can go without it.”
Instead, he exercises daily with HITT – High Intensity Interval Training – which he believes is easier on ageing joints. “I like doing what they call HITT training which is what I have done all my life and is just little stop-start bursts of exercise,” he adds.
“I do that for about 45 minutes most days and it keeps me feeling good. I say to people now that I used to train to look good, or look a certain way; now I do it to feel a certain way – and that is the difference.”
:: The Very Best of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons will play at the Millennium Forum, Derry, on April 5 and at the Belfast Waterfront on April 6.
