Myleene Klass

Biography

Myleene Angela Klass (born 6 April 1978) is a British musician, singer, television presenter, model, writer and designer. She was a member of the pop group Hear'Say, and later released a solo classical crossover album in 2003, followed by additional "lullaby" albums from 2022 onward. Klass then went into television and radio presenting, hosting series including Popstar to Operastar (2010–2011) and BBQ Champ (2015) on ITV and The One Show (2007) on BBC One. She was a regular panellist on the ITV lunchtime chat show Loose Women in 2014 and again from 2024 onwards. In 2006, Klass was runner-up on the sixth series of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!, and returned in 2023 for the "all-stars" series I'm a Celebrity... South Africa, which she won.

== Early life and education == Myleene Angela Klass was born on 6 April 1978 in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, to an Austrian father and a Filipino mother. She attended Notre Dame High School, Norwich, but transferred to the closer Cliff Park High School in the Gorleston-on-Sea area of Great Yarmouth, to complete her secondary education. Klass learned to play violin and piano as a child, and at the age of 15 she went to weekend studies at the Junior Department of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where she studied voice and harp. She gained A grades at A-Level, including music. She subsequently took a course at the Royal Academy of Music, University of London. At the age of 11, she won a school engineering contest, with a prize presented by Carol Vorderman.

== Music career == After graduating, Klass spent a short period as part of a reality show for Bravo, called The Dolls' House. She sang backing vocals for Cliff Richard, with whom she had previously worked at the age of 10 when she sang in a choir featured in his 1988 single "Mistletoe and Wine", which was that year's Christmas number one on the UK singles chart, and made her West End theatre debut in Miss Saigon. Early television work came in 1998, when Klass sang soprano for the music of the Channel 4 film Alice through the Looking Glass.

=== Hear'Say ===

In 2001, Klass auditioned for the ITV reality show Popstars, which offered contestants an opportunity to become part of a newly formed pop band. Klass was chosen as one of the ten finalists and became a member of Hear'Say, with Kym Marsh, Suzanne Shaw, Danny Foster and Noel Sullivan. Following the success of their first album, the band was given its own TV show entitled Hear'Say It's Saturday. During the show's run, the band had a chance to perform with such established artists as Lionel Richie, Celine Dion, Bradley Walsh, Blue and Atomic Kitten. At the end of 2001, Hear'Say appeared on the Royal Variety Performance. The group undertook a 37-date sold-out arena tour and performed numerous television guest appearances. Klass made many appearances with Hear'Say on TV and in live performances during 2002. The pop act's many promotional appearances during the year were also broadcast as part of their own TV shows, entitled Hear'Say: A New Chapter in Full and The Hear'Say Story. In total, Hear'Say had four Top 10 singles including two number-ones in the British charts, before splitting up after a reported long-term feud between Klass and Marsh. The feud resulted in Marsh leaving the band in December 2001, to be replaced by Johnny Shentall in 2002. The band split up in October of that year.

=== Solo artist === On 13 May 2003, Klass signed a five-album deal with Classics and Jazz. Promotion started with the release of the main promotional single "Toccata and Fugue" to TV channels. She also appeared in the video for "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" with the Girls of FHM, which went to No. 10 in the UK singles chart. Klass's album, Moving On, was launched on 20 October 2003 at Harrods, London. The album included reworked versions of popular classical pieces such as Fauré's Pavane, Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata and Satie's Gymnopedie No.2. Moving On also included music from the Oscar-winning films Gladiator and The Piano. New arrangements for piano of more contemporary works were also included on the album, namely Linkin Park's "Crawling" and Daniel Bedingfield's "If You're Not the One". In its first week of release. Moving On peaked at No. 2 in the UK Classical Charts, behind Hayley Westenra. It peaked at No. 32 in the UK Albums Chart. By mid-December 2003, the album had been certified gold. In April 2004, Moving On was nominated as "Album of the Year" at the Classical BRIT Awards, but lost to Bryn Terfel's platinum-selling record Bryn. Klass confirmed there would be a re-release of the album with five new tracks, but its release was pushed back. Ultimately, the release was cancelled, the only remnant being the Asian release of Moving On, which includes three new tracks: "Trouble" (a Coldplay cover, for which she also recorded vocals), "Sahara" and "Le Onde". On 28 March 2007, Klass signed a record contract with EMI Classics as both a recording artist and an ambassador for the EMI Classics UK roster of artists. These include Alfie Boe, Natasha Marsh and Natalie Clein. The deal included the release of a series of albums on which Klass performed two exclusive tracks and chose a number of her favourite classical pieces from the EMI Classics back catalogue. Klass's second album in the EMI series, Myleene's Music for Mothers, was released on 18 February 2008, and has two tracks played by Klass. These two tracks are the popular "America" from West Side Story, written by Leonard Bernstein, and Ennio Morricone's "Chi Mai", known best as the theme to the 1981 BBC TV drama serial The Life and Times of Lloyd George. In March 2013, she helped to celebrate Andrew Lloyd Webber's 40-year work with her rendition of "Shakalaka- Baby" from the musical Bombay Dreams.

== Television career ==

=== Presenting ===