Feb. 21: Welsh singer-songwriter & actress Charlotte Church is 25 today.

Charlotte Church was born Charlotte Maria Reed Cardiff, Wales. She rose to fame as a classical singer when she was a child before branching into pop music in 2005. By 2007, she had sold more than 11,000,000 albums worldwide.

Charlotte's big break came at 11 when she sang "Pie Jesu" over the telephone on the television show This Morning in 1997, followed by her performance on ITV's Big, Big Talent Show in 1997. This led to concerts at Cardiff Arms Park, the Royal Albert Hall and opening for Shirley Bassey in Antwerp. She also received a vocal scholarship to Howell's School Llandaff in Cardiff.

Church was then introduced to the Cardiff impresario Jonathan Shalit, who became her manager and negotiated a contract with Sony BMG. Her first album, Voice of an Angel, was a collection of arias, sacred songs, and traditional pieces that sold millions worldwide and made her the youngest artist with a No. 1 album on the British classical crossover charts.

Church appeared on PBS specials. Her self-titled second album also included operatic, religious and traditional tracks. 

In 2000, she released Dream a Dream, an album of Christmas carols. It included Church's first foray into a more pop-influenced style in the title track "Dream a Dream," borrowing the melody from Fauré's Pavane and featuring young American country singer Billy Gilman. Church also sang with Gilman in "Sleigh Ride" on his CD Classic Christmas.

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In 2001, Church added more pop, swing, and Broadway with her album Enchantment. That year, Church made her first film appearance in the 2001 Ron Howard film A Beautiful Mind. Celine Dion was beginning a concert engagement in Las Vegas and was not available to perform the film's end title song, "All Love Can Be," so composer James Horner enlisted Church and the song was rewritten for her vocal range.

In 2002, at 16, she released a 'best of' album called Prelude, and took part in the Royal Christmas tour alongside Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, concluding her classical music career.

In 2005, Church issued her first pop album Tissues and Issues. Four singles were moderately successful in the UK with "Crazy Chick" reaching no. 2, "Call My Name" number 10, "Even God Can't Change the Past" number 17, and "Moodswings (to Come at Me like That)" number 14.

In November 2006, it was announced that she and Sony had parted ways. There was some speculation that Church had decided to take a break from her singing career, in order to focus on her television show.

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Church's new album, Back to Scratch, was released in the UK in November 2010. The 14-track set has been produced by Martin Terefe. The LP's title track - 'Back To Scratch' was originally inspired "by problems facing a family member," but Church admitted that the song now has resonance to her own personal life following her split from Gavin Henson.

Church has made a number of cameo appearances on television. She appeared in the CBS series Touched by an Angel, starred in the 1999 Christmas special of Heartbeat, and in 2002 and 2003 she appeared on episodes of Have I Got News For You.

In the summer of 2006, Church began work on her own entertainment TV show, The Charlotte Church Show. After a pilot episode which caused some controversy and which was never released to the public, the series began on September 1, 2006. The show, hosted by Church and featuring two celebrity guests each week, involved a mixture of sketches, reality TV, interviews, extremely foul language, and music, as well as a recurring Welsh theme.

Church won a British Comedy Award for "Best Female Comedy Newcomer" in 2006, and the 'Funniest TV Personality' award at the 2006 Loaded Magazine's 'LAFTA' awards. In 2008 she was nominated for the Rose d'Or Special Award for Best Entertainer.




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