Sarah Brightman
Born on August 16th 1960 Sarah Brightman is one of the UK’s best known Soprano singers and actresses. She was born and raised in Hertfordshire, England by her parents Paula and Grenville Brightman and was the oldest in a large family of six children.
Sarah had an avid interest in ballet and took lessons from the age of three, but soon found her dreams of becoming a professional dashed when she failed to be accepted to London’s Royal Ballet. She continued to focus on her dancing skills and in 1976 joined the dance group ‘Pan’s People’ before moving on to lead the mixed dance group ‘Hot Gossip’ who soon became extremely well known for their hit song ‘I lost my heart to a star ship trooper’. She married young; at the age of 18 to music manager Andrew Graham Stewart but the couple soon divorced leaving Sarah more determined than ever to get her life back on track.
In 1981 Sarah decided to turn her attention to the world of theatre, and auditioned for a role in the hit London musical ‘Cats’ by Andrew Lloyd Webber. After winning the role of Jemima she became close to Andrew and the two later married in 1984. Clearly besotted with Sarah, he wrote several musicals directly for her, such as ‘Requiem’ for which she earned her first Grammy nomination and the starring role of Christina Daae in the much loved classic ‘The Phantom Of The Opera’ alongside actor Michael Crawford. After a hugely successful run in the show she went on to tour England, Canada and the US with a variety of Andrew Lloyd Webbers music and released two solo albums of her own: ‘The Trees They Grow So High’ and ‘The Songs That Got Away’.
By 1990 Sarah Brightman and Andrew Lloyd Webber had decided to separate but remained close friends with Andrew giving Sarah the lead role in his latest musical ‘Aspects’ on Broadway shortly after their divorce had become official.
Sarah’s next big career move took her to LA where she decided to pursue her singing career further and met with producer Frank Peterson who helped her in the release of two albums: ‘Dive’ in 1993 and ‘Fly’ in 1995.
One of her most successful moments came when she performed a duet with fellow opera singer Andrea Bocelli titled ‘Time to say Goodbye’ (Con Te Partirò) the song sold more than 3 Million copies in Germany alone becoming the largest selling single to date. Her next album ‘Timeless’ or ‘Time to say Goodbye’ as it was titled in the United States contained various different duets and classical inspired tracks and has proved to be Sarah Brightman’s best selling album to date.
She went on to release several more albums over the coming years such as ‘Eden’ and ‘La Luna’ which received mixed but generally positive reviews from critics.
Sarah continues to have a strong career in the classical music world and has many new projects lined up for the future, including taking part in the popular UK TV show ‘Just the two of us’ in which professional singers are partnered with someone from in the Entertainment industry and must compete against fellow stars to win the show. This is due to start on January 2nd 2007.