| Katie Melua was born in 1984 in Tbilisi-Georgia and has been living until her
8th in Batumi. The family left Georgia when her father accepted a job as a
heart surgeon in Ireland and the whole family moved to roary Belfast.
Katie didn’t seem to have a problem at all with the situation there and
followed her education firstly at St. Catherine’s Primary School and later at
The Dominican College.During her stay in Ireland as a teenager Katie gets
the feeling she wants to change the world. Not especially as a musician but
more as a politician. 5 Years later the family moves to London.
| When she is 14 she enters a talent show on TV called ”Stars Up Their Nose ". She sings ”Without You” ,a song
from Mariah Carey, and wins the contest. The price she gets is a bedroom makeover and a chair for her father.
After this she does 3 more TV shows for ITV and this way she gets some more experience in performing.
From that point on she's hungry for more and starts to write her own songs. She starts a music study on The
Brit School For Performing Arts where she learns all different styles of music. The music that inspires her the
most at that time is that of Joni Mitchel and Bob Dylan. But it is after hearing the music of Eva Cassidy that she
decides which way to go with her own music. Soon she finds out that her idol is no longer living and as a tribute
to Eva she writes ”Faraway Voice”.
Composer and producer Mike Batt is looking for new talent when Katie draws his attention. He's completely
surprised by her talent and offers her a record deal at his own label Dramatico. Before she starts recording she
first successfully finishes her study in July 2003.
Together with Mike Batt she records some of her own material and that of Mike and some covers as well.
All this is the basis for her first debut album.
Her first single ”The Closest Thing To Crazy” was released in the summer of 2003. Also BBC presenter
Terry Wogan, the man who also promoted Eva Cassidy in the UK, picks up the talent of Katie. It’s him who makes
that this single gets a lot of airplay and in a short amount of time the single enters the Top 10.
In November 2003 she releases her first album which is called ”Call Of The Search”. This album reaches the
number 1 position in the UK on January 2004. From that moment on her career starts to break free and her talent
soon reaches a lot of European countries.
A reasonable amount of different single releases and a DVD is the result and in September 2005 she releases
her 2nd album ”Piece by Piece”.
In 2007 the success continues. Lots of prizes for her that year like the Golden Camera and a Echo Award. By then
she also has a tulip named after her and even a concrete tile on the Walk of Fame amongst other great stars.
Her third cd "Pictures" is released in 2007 as well and hits the charts in a record breaking tempo. It even entered
the Dutch Charts at #1.
2008 is again a successful year.
Apart from various concerts in Europe she is the guest on all sorts of radio and television shows a.o Max en Loretta
and Life & Cooking. Not only European concerts during this tour but even some in South-Africa.
For a new cd+dvd with the name 'The Katie Melua collection' she decides that the Ahoy in Rotterdam is the right place
to shoot the dvd which is part of this release.
Various single releases see the light of day such as 'If the lights go out' which has the extra track of the Robert
Palmer song 'Looking for clues'. Unfortunately for the real single collectors most of these singles as digital download only.
The year 2009 has a good start because early that year Katie visits our country again.
At the show of Giel Beelen she donates a award for the auction of Serious request.
For the film Faintheart she records a special acoustic version of the song 'Toy collection'.
This song in the standard version was released earlier in 2008 amongst other new recordings on 'The Katie Melua collection'.
For the rest of this year Katie will be on tour again trough European countries and the USA.
May 2009
(Ruud den Ouden)
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