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The following biography
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Myleene Angela Klass
(born 6 April 1978) is a British classical pianist, television presenter, and
former member of the British 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 in Gorleston, Norfolk to an Austrian/English father
and a Filipino/Chinese mother.
****
A
musical family and education
Myleene comes from six
generations of classical musicians on her father's side: Myleene's grandmother
was an opera singer and her grandfather left his violin to her which she later
went on to play.
Klass began to learn
the piano and violin from the age of 4 and then the harp at 12. Myleene then
took all her Associated Board of Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) exams in violin,
piano and voice whilst still at school. She received an A grade in A Level
Music, and became a Norfolk County scholar.[1]
Myleene's education was
at Notre Dame High School in Norwich, before going to the Guildhall School of
Music and Drama followed by the Royal Academy of Music's Junior Academy.
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 1998, Myleene spent
a short period as part of a reality show for Bravo TV channel, called The Doll's
House. [2]
On 13 November 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 rapidly 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. [3]
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. Myleene attended the auditions and
successfully made it through several elimination rounds. She was then chosen as
1 of the 10 finalists and became a member of Hear'Say alongside Kym Marsh,
Suzanne Shaw, Danny Foster and Noel Sullivan. To do so, Klass had beaten 4,000
other hopefuls to a place in the group. The rejected 5 contestants from the
final 10 became the chart-topping Liberty X.
Hear'Say's first single
Pure and Simple was the fastest selling non-charitable record ever, selling 1.3
million copies. This record has since been beaten by Will Young, the first
winner of Pop Idol, and his debut single Anything is Possible/Evergreen.
Popstars, Hear'Say's
debut album (named after the TV show), went onto sell 1.2 million copies in the
UK.
Following on from the
success of their first album, the band were given their own TV show entitled
Hear'Say It's Saturday. During the show's run, the band had a chance to perform
with established artists such as Lionel Richie, Joe Pasquale, Bradley Walsh,
Blue and Atomic Kitten.
At the end of 2001,
such was the popularity of the group, Hear'Say were invited to appear on the
prestigious Royal Variety Performance.
Subsequently, the group
achieved a 37 date sell-out arena tour and performed numerous television guest
appearances. Klass made many appearances with Hear'Say on TV or at live
performance venues 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
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. The feud resulted in Marsh leaving the band in 2002 and
being replaced by Johnny Shental.
Playboy
Myleene was offered
£500000 to pose for playboy magazine.
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 Fauré's Pavane, Beethoven's
Moonlight Sonata and Satie's Gymnopedie No.2.
Moving On also included
music from a pair of popular Oscar-winning films, namely Now We Are Free (from
Gladiator) and the theme from The Piano by Michael Nyman. New arrangements for
piano of more contemporary works were also included on the album. The 'pop'
tracks recorded were Linkin Park's Crawling and Daniel Bedingfield's recent
chart-topping hit If You're Not The One.
In its first week of
release Moving On peaked at #2 in the Classical charts, behind Hayley Westenra.
By mid-December 2003, the album 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 (a 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 UCJ,
Universal Classics & 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 management
company (Mel Bush Organisation) specialised only in classical artists, so she
subsequently moved to a new management company Shalit Global, who continue to
manage her today.
In early 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. She is
now studying astronomy with the Open University[4].
Having appeared in a
shot for Maxim magazine in February 2006 [5], in April 2006 it was revealed that
Myleene charted at #78 in the FHM 100 Sexiest Females of 2006, after not being
included the previous year. Myleene had previously been featured at #84 in 2002,
#33 in 2003 and #43 in 2004.
Alongside her regular
media work, Myleene continues to make a variety of red carpet appearances.
Myleene is the new face
of Ortak Jewellery and features prominently on the Ortak Jewellery website [6]
and in their catalogue.
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 her fellow co-presenters had doubled the
viewing figures [citation needed] which resulted in all the hosts being offered
a further 3 month contract for the show. CD:UK was axed in March 2006 by ITV,
because of "poor ratings", it has since been long rumoured that the show will be
moved to five but nothing has yet been confirmed.
Presenting
On 27 November 2005,
beside Brian Dowling, Klass presented the Variety Club Showbusiness Awards which
were broadcast on LivingTV.
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 April to 17 April) introduced the programme on four
successive days. She was to be heard again on the 2 bank holidays in May 2006
and on the August bank holiday, also introducing the Early Breakfast show for
the rest of that week. Klass can now be heard on the radio station every Sunday
morning between 7am and 9am.
On 9 June 2006 Myleene
hosted City Showcase's [7] 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.[8]
With Andi Peters,
Myleene presented the Five Friday night series, The All Star Talent Show
broadcast between 8 September 2006 and 13 October 2006.
From 10 October 2006,
Klass co-presented LivingTV's Ghost Towns beside popular medium and ex-Most
Haunted star Derek Acorah.
As part of the Daily
Mirror Pride of Britain awards, broadcast on ITV1, Myleene visited Kabul in
Afghanistan to present troops with their prize. Klass's report of the trip was
then broadcast during the ceremony shown on 7 November 2006.
On 17 December 2006,
Myleene was part of the Outside Broadcast team for ITV1's extremely popular
talent show The X Factor. Klass was in Hackney, to report on the actions of
eventual winner Leona Lewis's supporters during the live Final.
Talking head
Klass is also a popular
'talking head' and is regularly featured in a variety of TV shows, many of which
focus on the changing nature of celebrity.
On 22 September 2006,
Myleene was seen discussing her own dramatic weight loss with Peaches Geldof in
a report on Tonight with Trevor McDonald concerning body image issues.
Other
TV appearances
During Christmas 2005,
Klass appeared in a celebrity version of the BBC's acclaimed quiz show
Mastermind. Myleene scored 20 points in round one on her chosen specialist
subject which was Series 1 of Sex and the City. However, during round two
(general knowledge), Klass failed to answer a single question correctly.
I'm A
Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here!
Myleene took part in
the 6th series of ITV1's highly successful reality television series I'm A
Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here!, which began on 13 November 2006 and ended on 1
December 2006. Myleene was paid a reported £100,000 to appear on the show,
making her the equal-highest paid female in history of the show (with Jordan).
Myleene was very
successful on the show, reaching the final and then coming in second place,
finishing narrowly behind Matt Willis. This was actually considered to be rather
surprising, as Myleene was 6-5 second favourite to win behind Jason Donovan, who
finished in third place, whilst Matt was an 8-1 outsider. Since her time on the
show, Myleene's popularity has sky-rocketed, particularly with male viewers as
Myleene's sex appeal in a bikini was a frequent focus on the show[9] [10][11].
Myleene's brother Dom, noticing his sister's popularity with the male audience,
suggested she auction off her now famous bikinis from the show on eBay [12].
Klass' newly found sex
symbol status was cemented further after Playboy offered her a significant 6
figure deal to pose nude for their magazine. The offer was sent to Myleene's
agent while she was still on the show, along with many offers for other
magazines, chat shows, movies, dramas, and more besides. So much has the demand
for Myleene increased that it is estimated she has enough offers to net her
several million pounds [13][14]. Within a week of leaving the jungle, Myleene
took her brother Dom's earlier advice and put her popular bikini from the show
on auction on eBay until 7 December 2006 (Link:[15]) [16]. Myleene pledged that
all the money raised from the auction will go to charity to help victims of the
Farepak savings scandal. The auction raised £7000.[17] [18]
Since her return to the
UK, Myleene has done several TV and press interviews about her time on the show.
Commenting on her famous showers, she said she never expected it to be such a
focus of attention and that the reason for her frequent cold showers was to help
cope with her sexual frustration, saying "Forget snakes and spiders - going
without sex was the hardest thing."' [19]. She also tried to end the widespread
debate among fans about whether or not her breasts are real, saying "They’re
absolutely real and natural, I can assure you." [20]. About her new offers, she
said she has been approached by several companies about doing bikini ranges with
them [21].
On 5 December 2006,
Myleene appeared as a guest on ITV1's morning show GMTV. Klass talked on the
show about her white bikini she wore during the series being auctioned off and
said to expect more music and TV presenting from her in the near future.
Internet popularity
After only 1 week on
I'm a Celebrity.., Myleene became the most searched for celebrity from the show
ever on the internet search engine MSN/Windows Live Search [22] and the 3rd most
searched for celebrity overall in the world. [23] This was mainly fuelled by
image searches of Klass; an unsurprising fact given that she was frequently
featured on the show in her bikini(see [24]). By the last week of the show,
Myleene became the number 1 most searched for celebrity in the world by UK users
[25]. On 1 December 2006, Klass finished second to Matt Willis on the show.
Myleene also gained
popularity on video site YouTube which now hosts many videos of Myleene from the
show (mostly showering and bikini videos which have the most views [26] )
Charity work
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. [27]. 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.
Part of this performance was recorded by MTV, who were following Myleene at the
time for a show called The Price Of Fame. The programme was later broadcast by
VH1 and also by ITV1, where it was only shown in the London region. The
recording by the music channel was acknowledged by Klass during the evening.
On 15 July 2006, as
part of BBC One's Sport Relief charity spectacular, 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 fundraiser 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.
In December 2006,
Myleene auctioned off her bikini which she wore during her appearance on TV show
I'm a Celebrity, Get Me out of Here! and donated all of the money to help
victims of the Farepak savings scandal. The auction on eBay raised
£7000.[28][29][30]
During December 2006,
Myleene also appeared on The Big Finish with Graham Norton, in which she
competed alongside Bill Oddie and Big Brother star Nikki Grahame for the
"Showbiz" team (against "Soap" "Sport" "News" and "Judges" teams) to compete to
win £10,000 for the winning teams chosen charities. However, the Showbiz team,
represented by Graham in the final round, were beaten by the Soap team
represented by former EastEnders actress Wendy Richard.
London
2012 National Lottery
Olympic champions
joined Myleene Klass December 13, 2006 to launch 'Lucky Dog', a new London 2012
National Lottery scratchcard. The stars, including Sir Steve Redgrave and Sally
Gunnell, put dogs through their paces on an agility course for the launch of the
latest 2012 lottery game. With a top prize of £5,000 available for the £1 card,
players have a better than one in five chance of a win. Sales of designated
lottery games in support of London 2012 have raised more than £53.9 million
since the first game, 'Go For Gold', was launched in July 2005.[31]
Personal life
Klass currently lives
in London, and 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 her over her
weight. However, in March 2006, Klass revealed that she and Quinn had become
engaged[1]
In December 2005, Klass
was attacked by a group of teenagers in a newsagent in Bermondsey. Klass had a
bag of chips dropped on her head, she was also pushed to the ground. The
teenagers attempted to take photos of Myleene on their mobile phones[2]
On 1 May 2006, Klass
was involved in a head-on go-karting crash at a Red Bull charity go-karting
event in Cardiff, South Wales [3]. In the event filmed for ITV2's Celebrity
Daredevils series, Myleene escaped with a badly bruised and strained leg.
On 20 October 2006,
Klass revealed during five's documentary From Gawker To Stalker, she had
previously been sent a wedding dress by an over-enthusiastic fan. It was also
revealed that the stalker had also set up a shrine to Myleene within their
house.
Discography
See Hear'Say for the
full Hear'Say Discography
Hear'Say Albums
Popstars
Everybody
Solo
Albums
“Moving On”
Solo Promotional
Singles
“Toccata and Fugue”
References
1. http://www.mirror.co.uk/dating/tm_objectid=16847243&method=full&siteid=94762&headline=myleene-klass--i-had-given-up-on-men--now-i-m-getting-married-name_page.html
2. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4506998.stm
3. http://uk.news.launch.yahoo.com/dyna/article.html?a=/01052006/344/klass-injured-kart-crash.html&e=l_news_dm
****
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