Katie Melua Biography
Melua: Did You Say “Ketevan”?
Thank goodness for easy to memorize names like “Katie.” Ketevan would be harder to remember, but with the talents of British singer “Katie” Melua, fans won’t have a hard time remembering her at all. Ketevan was born in September 1984 and grew up in Ireland and England since she was 9 years old.
The title of Katie’s first album was “Call Off the Search” which hit it big in the UK album charts. “Piece by Piece” was her second album and was also commercially successful.
Katie is probably one of those few fortunate celebrities who didn’t start out in life impoverished and out of luck. Her father was a heart specialist and was affiliated with the Royal Victoria Hospital in Northern Ireland. Katie attended a private school in Fort William. When she was 15, she auditioned and won a talent show on British TV. In 2001, she started composing songs. At that time, she was dating Luke Pritchard who sang with the rock band, The Kooks. That same year and only 16 years old, she worked in the Research and Development Department Surrey branch of the BBC. Her BBC colleagues goaded her to pursue university studies but her mind was made up: she was going to sing! Mike Batt, a British composer, was looking for someone who could belt out jazz and blues songs in a different way and he noticed Katie. He signed her up immediately under his Dramatico label.
Her Call Off the Search album was released in the UK in 2003 and songs by John Mayall, Batt, James Shelton and Melua’s were featured. It attained # 1 position in the UK in 2004 and made its way to the Australian charts that same year.
Melua performed in “Love Cats” at the British Awards in February 2004 and did a duet with Jamie Cullum. She also gave her time to Band Aid 20 and joined a group of British stars to raise funds for Africa. She sang, “”Do They Know It’s Christmas?” – this was the 20th anniversary of Band Aid.
Last year, one of her dreams came true. She sang “Too Much Love Will Kill You” in South Africa and took up British citizenship in 2005.
Melua’s second album “Piece by Piece” was released in September last year, and her third one is scheduled for sometime in the fall 2007