Katie Melua

Ketevan "Katie" Melua (; Georgian: ქეთევან "ქეთი" მელუა, IPA: [kʰetʰevan melua]; born 16 September 1984) is a British singer. She was born in Kutaisi, Georgia and raised in Belfast and London. Under the management of composer Mike Batt, she was signed to the small Dramatico record label. She made her musical debut in 2003 and within three years, she was the United Kingdom's best-selling female artist as well as Europe's highest-selling female artist.

In November 2003, Melua released her first album, Call Off the Search, which reached the top of the United Kingdom album charts and sold 1.8 million copies in its first five months of release. Her second album, Piece by Piece, was released in September 2005, and to date has gone platinum (one million units sold) four times. She released her third studio album Pictures in October 2007.

According to the Sunday Times Rich List 2008, Melua had amassed a fortune of £18 million, making her the seventh-richest British musician under the age of 30.

She possesses a mezzo-soprano vocal range.

Early life

Ketevan Melua was born on 16 September 1984 to Amiran and Tamara Melua in Kutaisi, Georgia, which was then part of the Soviet Union. She is also partly of Canadian and Russian ancestry. She was baptised into the Georgian Orthodox Church. Melua spent her first years with her grandparents in Tbilisi before moving with her parents and brother to the city of Batumi, where her father worked as a heart specialist. During this time, she sometimes had to carry buckets of water up five flights of stairs to her family's flat and according to her, "Now, when I'm staying in luxurious hotels, I think back to those days".