Myleene Klass
Born Myleene Angela Klaas[1] on 6 April 1978 in Gorleston, Norfolk. Myleene is a classical pianist, broadcaster and former member of the British manufactured pop group Hear'Say. Her pop success achieved 4 Top 10 singles, 2 of which were UK #1s. Hear'Say also released 2 albums Popstars, and Everybody. She was born to an Austrian/English father, and a Filipino/Chinese mother.
Myleene currently lives on the outskirts of Colchester, Essex.
Education
Myleene was educated at Notre Dame High School, Norwich and Great Yarmouth College, before going to the renowned Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Pre-Popstars
Before finding fame via Popstars, Myleene toured providing backing vocals with the likes of k.d. lang, Michael Crawford and Robbie Williams.
Myleene has also toured with Cliff Richard. In 1999, Klass was also a featured back up singer for Cliff's ITV1 An Audience With TV special, appearing on stage with him for a rendition of the recent #1 single The Millennium Prayer.
More high profile work followed as Klass raplidly made her West End theatre debut in the smash hit show Miss Saigon. After her run in Saigon was completed, Myleene then first auditioned for the first pop reality show which would go on to make her a household name. [2]
Popstars/Hear'Say
Klass' big break came when in 2001 the ITV1 show called Popstars, gave an opportunity for contestants to become part of a newly formed pop band. Klass attended the auditions and successfully made it through several elimination rounds. She was chosen as one of the ten finalists and became one of the members of Hear'Say,along with Kym Marsh, Suzanne Shaw, Danny Foster and Noel Sullivan, having in total beaten off 4,000 other hopefuls. The rejected 5 contestants from the final 10 became the pop group Liberty X.
Hear'Say's first single Pure & Simple was the fastest selling non-charitable record ever; selling 1.3 million copies (since beaten by Will Young's debut single). Their album, Popstars, went on to sell 1.2 million copies in the UK, followed by their own television show entitled Hear'Say It's Saturday, perfoming with established artists such as Lionel Richie, Joe Pasquale, Bradley Walsh, Blue and Atomic Kitten.
Subsequently, the band achieved a 37 date sell-out arena tour and performed numerous television guest appearances. Klass made many appearances with the band in TV and live performance venues, including in 2002 Hear'Say: A New Chapter In Full, The Hear'Say Story, Hear'Say It's Saturday! and the Royal Variety Performance for television in 2001. They had 2 #1 singles, a #3 single and a #6 single in the British charts, before splitting among a blaze of media headlines after a reported long term feud between Klass and Marsh resulted in Marsh leaving the band in 2002, and being replaced by Johnny Shental.
After Hear'Say
Almost a year after the Hear'Say break-up on 13 May, 2003, Myleene signed a 5 album deal with Universal Classics and Jazz. The first promotional single for the album had been recorded, and Myleene stated that she would be going into the studio to finish the album off for release in October. Promotion started with the release of the main promotional single Toccata and Fugue to TV channels and was the first ever classical piece to appear on British music television channel The Box.
"Moving On"
Myleene's album, titled Moving On, was launched on the 20 October at Harrods, London. The launch included two performances (Toccata and Fugue and Moonlight Sonata), as well as a press photoshoot and a signing for fans who had come along. The album was described as "a refreshing collection of beautiful classical pieces" and included reworked versions of popular classical pieces such as Faure's Pavane, Now We Are Free (from the film Gladiator), the theme from The Piano by Michael Nyman, Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata and Satie's Gymnopedie No.2. It also included new arrangements for piano of more contemporary works including Daniel Bedingfield's recent chart-topping hit If You're Not The One, and Crawling by Linkin Park. After a week of release it peaked at the #2 spot in the Classical charts being beaten by Hayley Westenra, and by mid-December 2003 it had been certified Gold and has since gone Double Platinum.
Classical Brits
On 15 May 2004, Moving On was nominated as Peoples' Album Of The Year in the Classical Brit Awards. The award went to Bryn Terfel's platinum-selling record Bryn.
Follow Up
Rumours started appearing of a re-release of Moving On with a predicted 5 new tracks. This was later confirmed by Myleene herself, although no new information was given. It was later revealed that the re-release had been pushed back due to conflicts between Myleene's new management company (Mel Bush Organisation) and her previous (Safe Management) regarding royalties. Finally the plan was scrapped and the only reminisce of the plans is the Asian release of Moving On, which includes three new tracks namely Trouble (Coldplay cover, with Myleene's vocals), Sahara and Le Onde. It was then revealed by Myleene herself that she would be working on a new album, which would include a number of tracks in which her vocals appeared. However, on 23 October 2004 it was announced that Myleene would not be releasing any further material through her current label Universal Classics and Jazz. In a statement through her official fansite, she revealed that she had plans to move toward a pop career, as many people had been wondering why she was not singing. However little information has been heard about such an album.
Non-Music Career
Myleene's then management company (Mel Bush Organisation) specialised only in classical artists, Myleene moved to a new management company Shalit Global, who continue to manage her today. Myleene has made various appearances at premieres and store openings as well as an appearance on Queen Mania performing the Queen classic Too Much Love Will Kill You.
In 2006 Myleene was cast as 1 of the 3 women starring in the long running play The Vagina Monologues and will perform in Bromley, Richmond and Brighton. Her run was then extended to include all dates in Nottingham.
In March 2006, Myleene revealed herself to be an amateur astronomer, deploring publicly the proposed closure of the London Planetarium and explaining on television how to view Venus in the early morning. She also appeared on Channel 4's Richard & Judy to discuss the book Moondust, which follows the lives of the first men on the moon.
Having appeared in a shot for Maxim magazine in February 2006 [3], in April 2006 it was revealed that Myleene charted at #78 in the FHM 100 Sexiest Females of 2006, after not being included last year. Myleene had previously been featured at #84 in 2002, #33 in 2003 and #43 in 2004.
CD:UK
In August 2005, Myleene was signed as a host for the ITV1 music show CD:UK alongside Lauren Laverne and Johny P, with her first appearance shown on 17 September 2005. 4 months on, and since her debut on CD:UK , Myleene and co-presenters have doubled the viewing figures and have been offered further 3 month contracts for the show. CD:UK was axed in March 2006 by ITV, because of "poor ratings". It has been rumoured that the show will be moved to five but nothing has yet been confirmed.
Presenting
During December 2005, Myleene helped present the E4 spin-off from Channel 4's hoax television show Space Cadets.
In February 2006, Myleene began presenting the Sunday Breakfast programme on Classic FM, taking over from Aled Jones. In this role she appeared to come into her own, and over the Easter weekend (14 to 17 April) introduced the programme on 4 successive days. She was to be heard again on the 2 bank holidays in May 2006.
On 9 June 2006 Myleene hosted City Showcase's [4] Classical Night, supporting the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra at Rochester Castle Gardens along with the Opera Babes on 22 July, and appearing at Music On Fire at Sandhurst on the 22 September.
On 6 August 2006, Myleene was as a guest reporter on BBC One's popular Sunday morning religion and ethics show show Heaven & Earth with Gloria Hunniford. Myleene's report, billed as the feature of the week, was on the Pope's astronomer.[5]
Myleene has recently been announced as the presented of a new five show, which sees celebrities in a TV talent contest, with judges Julian Clary and Andi Peters.
Charity
As part of World Vision's 24 hour Famine appeal, Myleene visited Sierra Leone to see how World Vision was working to help villages build up their lives. [6]. She has also been the face of various charity campaigns such as stop text bully and ChildLine, and most recently help aid the Niger famine appeal by manning the phonelines.
At St John the Baptist Cathedral, Norwich on 24 June 2005, Myleene performed a selection of tracks from her Moving On album, as well accompanying some local school children in a concert of classical standards. The Cathedral summer concert was organised to raise funds for an extension of the church building.
On 1 May 2006, Myleene was involved in a head-on go-karting crash at a Red Bull charity go-karting event in Cardiff, South Wales [7]. Myleene escaped with a badly bruised and strained leg.
As part of the BBC charity spectacular Sport Relief, on 15 July 2006, Myleene appeared as a special guest in the Question of Sport Relief segment. Klass' appearance involved her playing a variety of TV sport theme tunes on a grand piano. This part of the show was based on the BBC's popular A Question of Sport quiz show and was hosted by Sue Barker. Guest panellists on the show included Nancy Dell'Olio and Zara Phillips who played alongside the regular team captains Ally McCoist and Matt Dawson.
Personal Life
Klass has had a 4 year on/off relationship with Graham Quinn, whom she met while in Hear'Say - he was part of the security team. Klass dumped Quinn the first time after it was revealed he was wanted in his native Irish Republic for fleeing a drugs dealing charge - he was later fined 1500 Euros. She dumped him a second time after she suggested in the media that he had bullied he over her weight. However, in March 2006, Klass revealed that she and Quinn had become engaged.[8]
Happy Slapping
In December 2005, Myleene was attacked by a group of teenagers in a newsagent in Bermondsey. She had a bag of chips dropped on her head, and was pushed to the ground. The teenagers attempted to take photos of her on their mobile phones. [9]
Discography
Albums
- Moving On
Promotional Singles
- Toccata and Fugue