Myleene Angela Klass (born 6 April 1978 ) is a British 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 the 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 firstly at S.t Mary's Roman Catholic Primary School then she went to Cliff Park High School in Gorleston, before going to Notre Dame High School, Norwich for a short time. She 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

Main article: 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. Klass 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, Celine Dion, Bradley Walsh, Blue and Atomic Kitten.

At the end of 2001, Hear'Say appeared 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, Klass signed a five-album deal with Universal Classics and Jazz. The first promotional single for the album had been recorded, and Klass 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 Klass 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 28 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 Klass 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, was released on 2 July 2007 and went straight to number 1 in the classical chart. 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, Klass 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 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, Klass 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.

On the 4 July 2007 episode of the BBC's The Daily Politics programme, Klass presented a segment criticising the British Government's multicultural policies and in particular the provision of translation services by public bodies. Citing her own mixed race background she accused current policies of stifling ethnic minorities and the natural desire of children to integrate.

Since 9 July 2007, Myleene has been co-presenting the daily BBC One programme The One Show with Adrian Chiles.

Myleene has now quit The One Show as she doesn't want to commit herself and wants to concentrate on her baby.

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 every Saturday also between 7am and 9am.

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.

Modelling

In November 2004 Myleene posed for loaded magazine. After this she appeared in a shot for Maxim magazine in February 2006,[14] 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, including one modelled on Ursula Andress's first appearance in Dr No.