Eight things you may not have known about Katherine Jenkins

Ahead of Katherine Jenkins' outdoor concert at Herrington Country Park tomorrow night, we look at eight things you may not have known about the Welsh classical singer.
Katherine Jenkins is set to perform in Herrington Country Park tomorrow night.Katherine Jenkins is set to perform in Herrington Country Park tomorrow night.
Katherine Jenkins is set to perform in Herrington Country Park tomorrow night.

1) Katherine Maria Jenkins OBE was born in Neath, South Wales, on June 29, 1980, and started to sing when she was just four in her local church choir, where her mother ran a Sunday school.

2) Katherine achieved nine GCSEs at grade A as well as four A-levels, including Welsh. Alongside her academic studies, she passed her Grade 8 music exam in singing and piano, scoring distinctions in both.

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3) While she was working her way up to the top, she worked a music teacher, a guide on the London Eye and a model.

4) Katherine has performed many songs in different languages during her career - but more impressively, she understands every word she is singing. She studied Italian, German, French and Russian at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

5) Her first album Premiere was the fastest selling classical CD of all time, selling over 30,000 copies in the first week. She is also the only singer in musical history to simultaneously hold the top three positions in the classical charts. She did this in 2005 with albums Premiere, Second Nature and Living A Dream.

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6) The singer put on her dancing shoes in 2012 to take part in Dancing With The Stars, America’s version of Strictly. She came second in the competition, losing out to retired American football star Donald Driver in the final.

7) Katherine ran the London Marathon in 2013, raising £25,000 for her father, Selwyn, who died of lung cancer when she was just 15. She finished the course in five hours and 26 minutes.

8) When singing O Holy Night at Swansea's Brangwyn Hall, the mezzo-soprano shattered a chandelier. Speaking of the incident, Katherine said: "When I hit a high A there was this loud crack, like a gun going off. And then all this glass started falling on me."

Katherine's concert tomorrow night at Herrington Country Park, where she will perform alongside violin double act Vladimir and Anton Jablokov, starts at 8pm, with gates open from 5:30pm.