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Myleene Angela Klass (born 6 April 1978)
is an English classical pianist, commercial model,
television and radio presenter, and former member of the
UK pop group Hear'Say. Her pop success achieved 4 Top 10
singles, 2 of which were UK Number Ones. Hear'Say also
released 2 albums, Popstars and Everybody.
Early life: Klass was born in Gorleston, Norfolk,
England to an Austrian father and a Filipino mother. She
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 four and then the harp at 12. She then took
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.
Klass was educated at Cliff Park High School in
Gorleston, before going to Notre Dame High School,
Norwich for a short time. Myleene then went to the
Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and followed this
with a postgraduate degree at the Royal Academy of
Music.
Pre-Popstars: Before finding fame via Popstars,
Klass provided backing vocals on tour with the likes of
k.d. lang, Michael Crawford and Robbie Williams. She has
also toured with Cliff Richard.
In 1998, Klass spent a short period as part of a reality
show for Bravo, called The Doll's House.
On 13 November 1999, Klass was also a featured back up
singer for Cliff Richard's ITV1 An Audience With TV
special, appearing on stage with him for a rendition of
the recent number-one single The Millennium Prayer.
In July 2000, Klass was included in the programme of
Stagecoach Theatre Arts Little Performers Holiday
Workshop's presentation of Mini Grease as one of three
dance and drama coaches.
More high profile work followed as Klass rapidly made
her West End theatre debut in the hit show Miss Saigon.
After her run in Saigon was completed, Klass then first
auditioned for the first pop reality show which would go
on to make her a household name.
Popstars/Hear'Say: Klass's 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 made it through
several elimination rounds. She was then chosen as one
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 five
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), sold 1.2 million copies in the UK.
Following 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
that 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 and 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 two #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.
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: Klass'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 five new
tracks. This was later confirmed by Klass herself,
although no new information was given. It was later
revealed that the re-release had been pushed back
because of conflicts between Klass's new management
company (Mel Bush Organisation) and her previous (Safe
Management) regarding royalties.
Finally the plan was scrapped, the only
remnant being the Asian release of Moving On, which
includes three new tracks: Trouble (a Coldplay cover
with Myleene's vocals), Sahara and Le Onde. It was then
revealed by Klass 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.
EMI Classics: On the 28th 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 inlcude Alfie Boe, Natasha Marsh and
Natalie Clein. The deal includes the release of a series
of albums on which Myleene performs two exclusive tracks
and chooses a number of her favourite classical pieces
from the EMI Classics back catalogue. The first album
Myleene's Music for Romance, is to be released on 2nd
July 2007. A music video to accompany the lead track
Cinema Paradiso was shot at the Bucharest Opera House,
Romania in April. The photo session for the album was
shot by Mitch Jenkins.
Non-music career: Klass'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.
Actress: In early 2006, Klass was cast as one of
the 3 women starring in the long running play The Vagina
Monologues and performed in Bromley, Richmond and
Brighton. Her run was then extended to include all dates
in Nottingham.
Television presenter: In August 2005, Klass was
signed as a presenter for the ITV1 music show CD:UK
alongside Lauren Laverne and Johny P, with her first
appearance shown on 17 September 2005. By the end of
2005, 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. However, CD:UK was axed in March 2006 by
ITV, because of "poor ratings".
On 27 November 2005, beside Brian Dowling, Klass
presented the Variety Club Showbusiness Awards which
were broadcast on LIVINGtv. In 2005, Klass appeared as a
guest panellist on the topical discussion show The
Wright stuff on a number of occasions. During December
2005, Klass helped present the E4 spin-off from Channel
4's hoax television show Space Cadets. During Christmas
2005, Klass appeared in a celebrity version of the BBC's
acclaimed quiz show Mastermind. Klass 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.
On 9 June 2006 Klass hosted City Showcase's 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, Klass was as a guest reporter on BBC
One's popular Sunday morning religion and ethics show
show Heaven & Earth with Gloria Hunniford. Klass's
report, billed as the feature of the week, was on the
Pope's astronomer.
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.
Since 2006, Klass has been seen an occasional reporter
and sometime guest on the LK Today section of GMTV. With
Andi Peters, Klass 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, Klass 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,
Klass 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.
On 13 January 2007, Klass appeared on the BBC One quiz
programme Your Country Needs You, featuring in the
England team alongside EastEnders star Perry Fenwick. A
week later, on 20 January 2007, Klass was a guest on
ITV1's Saturday night prime time entertainment show, Al
Murray's Happy Hour. In February 2007, Klass presented
the red carpet coverage of the BAFTA Awards 2007 for
Orange Mobile and its online services. In March 2007,
Klass began presenting a Sunday evening show on London's
popular Capital Radio. Since March 2007, Klass has
hosted a new movie show The Screening Room on CNN
International, which reaches a global audience of over
200 million people.
In 2007, Klass became a questioner on the new National
Lottery show The People's Quiz.
Radio Presenter: In February 2006, Klass 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, on the August bank holiday (also
introducing the Early Breakfast show for the rest of
that week) and on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
Klass can now be heard on the radio station every Sunday
between 7am and 9am and on Saturdays between 6am and
9am. Myleene also has her own show called The Myleene
Klass Show on Fox FM, the local radio station of
Oxfordshire and West Buckinghamshire.
In addition to Classic FM, she can also be heard on
London's Capital Radio on Sunday evenings from 8-10pm.
This show is also networked on various local commercial
radio stations around the UK.
I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here!: Klass 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. Klass 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).
Klass 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 Klass 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, Klass's popularity
has sky-rocketed, particularly with male viewers as
Klass's sex appeal in a bikini was a frequent focus on
the show. Klass'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.
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 Klass'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 Klass increased that it is estimated she has enough
offers to net her several million pounds. Within a week
of leaving the jungle, Klass took her brother Dom's
earlier advice and put her popular bikini from the show
on auction on eBay until 7 December 2006. Klass pledged
that all the money raised from the auction will go to
charity to help victims of the Farepak savings scandal.
The auction raised £7,500.
Since her return to the UK, Klass 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."'. 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.". About her new offers,
she said she has been approached by several companies
about doing bikini ranges with them.
On 5 December 2006, Klass 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. ., Klass became the most searched for
celebrity from the show ever on the internet search
engine MSN/Windows Live Search and the 3rd most searched
for celebrity overall in the world. This was mainly
fueled by image searches of Klass; an unsurprising fact
given that she was frequently featured on the show in
her bikini. By the last week of the show, Klass became
the number 1 most searched for celebrity in the world by
UK users. On 1 December 2006, Klass finished second to
Matt Willis on the show. Klass also gained popularity on
video site YouTube which now hosts many of her videos.
mostly showering and bikini
Charity work: As part of World Vision's 24 hour
Famine appeal, Klass visited Sierra Leone to see how
World Vision was working to help villages build up their
lives. 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 phone lines.
At St John the Baptist Cathedral, Norwich on 24 June
2005, Klass 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
Klass 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, Klass 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
panelists 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, Klass 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.
During December 2006, Klass 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 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.
Modelling: Having appeared in a
shot for Maxim magazine in February 2006, it was
revealed in April 2006 that Klass charted at #78 in the
FHM 100 Sexiest Females of 2006, after not being
included the previous year. Klass had previously been
featured at #84 in 2002, #33 in 2003 and #43 in 2004.
Klass was chosen as the new face of Ortak Jewellery.
In January 2007, it was announced that Klass had signed
a multi-million pound deal with Marks and Spencer to
model clothes and swimwear for the new season. As the
new face and body of Marks and Spencer's Spring and
Summer Collection, Klass now appears in both print and
television advertising, includng one modelled on Ursula
Andress's first appearance in Dr No.
Test Card: In May 2007, Klass appeared on Sky
HD's Test Card, in a nod to the famous Test Card F,
where she is dressed exactly like Carole Hersee, the
eight-year-old girl who is featured on Test Card F.
Unlike Test Card F, Klass steps out of the frame to give
viewers a guide to high-definition TV.
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
Ireland for fleeing a drugs dealing charge - he was
later fined €1,500. 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.
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
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. 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 set up a
shrine to Myleene within their house.
On 1 April 2007 she announced she was pregnant, with the
baby due on 6th September. She is expecting a baby girl.
She resultantly delayed her wedding to 2008. She later
announced that she got pregnant the night she got out of
the jungle after starring in I'm a Celebrity.
Her interest in astronomy and space: Klass has
been an amateur astronomer for most of her life, having
been taught the basics by her father. She was one of
only a handful of celebrities, engineers and scientists
who were at the UK London "control centre" for
the touch-down of the UK Mars probe Beagle 2 in the
early morning of Christmas Day 2003. Unfortunately she
and the rest of the guests waited in vain for the signal
which would confirm the landing - but it was never
heard. Since then she has been a keen supporter of the
UK Space Programme.
In March 2006, Klass publicly criticized the proposed
closure of the London Planetarium and explained 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, and in 2007 attended the
televised party on BBC1, held at the home of Sir Patrick
Moore in Selsey to mark the 50th anniversary of the
Moore's monthly programme, The Sky at Night. Klass is
now studying astronomy with the Open University. |
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