Sarah Brightman

The eldest of six children, Sarah Brightman – born August 14, 1960 in Hertfordshire, England - took dancing lessons from an early age and went on to win a place at a performing arts school. She studied dance under choreographer Arlene Phillips and in 1976 joined the dance troupe Pan's People, who became cult heroines with weekly appearances on UK pop TV show Top of the Pops. Brightman subsequently left to lead Hot Gossip - Arlene Phillips' dance troupe - and had a major disco hit in 1978 with 'I Lost My Heart to a Starship Trooper'. She then went on to release several disco singles, but in 1981 changed course by joining the cast of the musical Cats, ending up marrying its creator, Andrew Lloyd Webber and subsequently starring in various Lloyd Webber musicals including The Phantom of the Opera and Requiem. After splitting with Lloyd Webber Brightman collaborated with Frank Peterson on electronic dance albums Dive (1993) and Fly (1995), became a Euro-pop superstar and performed duets with operatic tenor Andrea Bocelli. Subsequent albums included collaborations with Israeli singer Ofra Haza and violinist Nigel Kennedy on Middle Eastern and opera-themed collections and in 2008 she released two albums, Symphony and the Christmas collection A Winter Symphony. In 2012, after working with the charity for several years, Brightman received the UNESCO Artist for Peace Award for her commitment to the cause and contribution through music. She also revealed her intention to join an orbital space mission, reportedly putting up millions of pounds of her own money to take part. Her next album, Dreamchaser, was inspired by the prospect of her space mission, and became her seventh Number 1 on the Billboard Top Classical Albums Chart. She embarked on her Dreamchaser World Tour in 2013 and, shortly after, withdrew from her place on the space mission citing family reasons. In 2016, after releasing Gala - The Collection in Japan, she performed An Evening With Sarah Brightman across Asia. This tour was completed in March 2017 and she went on to co-headline the Royal Christmas Gala across Europe. She joined a judging panel for a Chinese musical theatre show searching for the first Chinese Phantom to perform in a Chinese production of The Phantom of the Opera. She released her 15th studio album, Hymn, in 2018 and announced another world tour for 2018/19. In 2020, Brightman released the album France.