Celestina Warbeck

Celestina Warbeck
Biographical information
Born	18 August 1917 Wales
Blood status	Half-blood
Marital status	Married
Nationality	Welsh
Also known as	The Singing Sorceress
Title(s)	Madam Club president
Physical information
Species	Human
Gender	Female
Hair colour	Dark (formerly) Grey
Eye colour	Brown
Skin colour	Dark
Relationship information
Family members	Father Mother First husband Second husband Irving Warble (third husband) Son Warbeck family
Romances	First husband Second husband Irving Warble (third husband)
Magical characteristics
Wand	10½", Larch, phoenix feather
Affiliation
Occupation	Singer
House	Gryffindor
Loyalty	Warbeck family Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry Gryffindor Wizarding Wireless Network Witching Hour Puddlemere United Social club

"And now, a live performance direct from Diagon Alley, featuring that musical marvel, that delectable diva, the spectacular Singing Sorceress herself: Celestina Warbeck!"

— A Wizarding Wireless Network broadcaster announcing one of Celestina Warbeck's performances

Madam Celestina Warbeck (b. 18 August 1917) was a Welsh half-blood witch and popular singer in the wizarding world, often known as "The Singing Sorceress". She attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and was sorted into Gryffindor. She was often featured on the show called Witching Hour, which ran on the Wizarding Wireless Network.

Biography

Early life

Celestina Warbeck was born on 18 August 1917 in Wales to a wizard father and a Muggle mother. Her father, a minor functionary in the Department of Muggle Relations, met her mother, a failed actress, when the latter was attacked by a Lethifold disguised as a stage curtain.

Celestina's musical talent was apparent even at an early age; in 1927, the wizarding magazine Spellbound published an article about her talents when she was around ten years old, referring her as a child prodigy.

Disappointed to learn that there was no such thing as a wizarding stage school, Mrs Warbeck reluctantly let her daughter go to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (which she attended from 1928-1936 and was sorted into Gryffindor House), but frequently bombarded the school with letters to form a theatre club, choir and dancing class to showcase and grow her daughter's innumerable talents and provide more wizards with opportunity to act, sing, and dance.

Career as a singer

Celestina Warbeck as depicted on a bronze Chocolate Frog Card

Frequently appearing with a chorus of backing banshees, Celestina's concerts and songs were justly famous. Three devoted fans were involved in a three-broom pile-up over Liverpool on the last night of her 'Flighty Aphrodite' tour. Her tickets often went on sale in the black market for vastly inflated prices (one reason why Molly Weasley, who listened to her songs every Christmas, could never see her favourite singer live).

Celestina's personal life provided much fodder for the gossip columns of the Daily Prophet. Warbeck became romantically involved with one of her backing dancers early in her career. They married, but ended up divorcing after only a year. Some time later, she married her manager, and they had a son together. However, after ten years of marriage, Warbeck left him in order to marry Irving Warble, a music composer.

Celestina sometimes lent her name and talents to good causes, such as raising funds for St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries with a recording of Puddlemere United's anthem Beat Back Those Bludgers, Boys, and Chuck That Quaffle Here. More controversially, Celestina was vocal in her disagreement when the Ministry of Magic sought to impose restrictions on how the wizarding community was allowed to celebrate Hallowe'en.

Some of Celestina's best-known songs include You Charmed the Heart Right Out of Me and A Cauldron Full of Hot, Strong Love. Her fans are usually older people who love her grandstanding style and powerful voice. The late 20th-century album You Stole My Cauldron but You Can't Have My Heart was a massive global hit. She also featured heavily on shows at the Wizarding Wireless Network, one such being the Witching Hour hosted by Glenda Chittock.

Celestina Warbeck had a fan club, established as early as the 1986–1987 school year.

Celestina Warbeck disguised in a feather boa

During the 1988–1989 school year, Celestina visited Hogwarts in order to host a special concert on the Hogwarts Quidditch pitch. Albus Dumbledore tasked Jacob's sibling with escorting her from Hogsmeade station without her drawing the attention of the many witches and wizards present, like Rita Skeeter. She disguised herself with glasses and a feather boa. Jacob's sibling met her at the train station and escorted her to Hogwarts without anyone else realising her identity, for which she was thankful for.

Celestina revealing herself to Hogwarts students

Celestina was looking for student singers to perform with her onstage during her concert. Jacob's sibling held auditions in the Great Hall for which Andre Egwu, Badeea Ali Diego Caplan and Jae Kim attended, but she was in fact most impressed with Barnaby Lee's singing voice when she heard him sing "Do the Hippogriff". She revealed her identity to the students by removing their glasses, and they were all amazed to see her.

In 2003, she allowed a Muggle dog-walker who accidentally took a Portkey to one of her concerts to join her on the stage for a duet of A Cauldron Full of Hot, Strong Love; while the Memory Charm cast on him by a harassed Ministry official appeared at first to have erased his memory of the incident, he afterwards wrote a popular song that greatly resembled Warbeck's hit, something she was not amused about.

In the summer of 2014, Celestina Warbeck travelled to the Patagonian Desert to watch the games of the 427th Quidditch World Cup. Her presence, alongside other wizarding celebrities, was noted by reporter Rita Skeeter to have caused "flurries of excitement", with crowd members scrambling for autographs and even attempting to cast Bridging Charms to reach the VIP boxes.

Celestina's latest album was entitled You Stole My Cauldron But You Can't Have My Heart. The promotional tour included a show in Liverpool; fans desperate to arrive at this concert were involved in a three-broom crash.

Warbeck scheduled concerts in Exmoor, sponsored by The Sorcerer's Saucepot. Tickets were on sale for five Galleons each, and fans had to book their Portkeys early.

During the Calamity in the late 2010s or early 2020s, Neville Longbottom contacted a Calamity Investigator working for the Statute of Secrecy Task Force to inform them that stroking, talking, and singing to plants encouraged their growth, with the investigator later using this information to discover that singing Warbeck's greatest hits to Dittany greatly increased its potency, decreasing the brewing time for their Healing Potions.

Magical abilities and skills

• Care of Magical Creatures: In her free time, Celestina enjoyed breeding crups, meaning she had a level of talent in the handling of magical creatures.
• Singing skills: Celestina was a highly popular and talented vocalist, having had a very lucrative career as a pop singer with an impressive discography, along with a huge fan base throughout the wizarding world, proving her abilities as a singer to have been quite legendary.

Known songs

A Celestina Warbeck performance at Diagon Alley

• A Cauldron Full of Hot, Strong Love
• You Charmed the Heart Right Out of Me
• Beat Back Those Bludgers, Boys, and Chuck That Quaffle Here
• You Stole My Cauldron But You Can't Have My Heart (album & title track)
• Nothing Like a Holiday Spell (album & title track)
• Accio Christmas
• My Baby Gave Me a Hippogriff for Christmas
• A Witch and Wizard's Wintry Wondrous Land

Etymology

Celestina possibly comes from the word celestial, meaning "pertaining to the sky or visible heaven." Warbeck may come from warbler, which is a singing bird.

Behind the scenes

• Celestina Warbeck was played by American actress Shaullanda Lacombe at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
• A Celestina Warbeck concert is featured at Carkitt Market, in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. She sings her never-before-heard songs. The lyrics also contain never-before-revealed information about Celestina's wand, written by J. K. Rowling.
• Warbeck is Rowling's favourite off-stage character; the author imagined her to look and act like Shirley Bassey. Rowling took the name "Celestina" from a friend with whom she had worked at Amnesty International in London many years, stating that the name was simply begging to be attached to a glamorous witch.

Rowling's comments

"Celestina is one of my favourite 'off-stage' characters in the whole series, and has been part of the Potter world ever since its inception, making an early appearance in the short-lived 'Daily Prophet' series I produced for members of the equally short-lived fan club run by my British publisher, Bloomsbury. Although we never lay eyes on Celestina during the whole seven volumes of the Potter books, I always imagined her to resemble Shirley Bassey in both looks and style. I stole her first name from a friend with whom I worked, years ago, at Amnesty International's Headquarters in London; 'Celestina' was simply begging to be scooped up and attached to a glamorous witch."

Appearances

• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (video game) (Appears on a Famous Wizard Card)
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (video game) (First appearance) (Appears on a Famous Wizard Card)
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (First mentioned)
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Mentioned only)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Mentioned only)
• Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (Mentioned in a magazine)
• Quidditch Through the Ages (Mentioned only)
• Daily Prophet Newsletters (Mentioned only)
• J. K. Rowling's official site
• The Wizarding World of Harry Potter
• Pottermore
• Harry Potter (website)
• The Archive of Magic: The Film Wizardry of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (Mentioned in a magazine)
• Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery
• Harry Potter: Wizards Unite (Mentioned only)
• Harry Potter: Magic Awakened (Mentioned in History of Magic classes)