Katie Melua 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 European female artist.
42 Facts About Katie Melua
2.
Katie Melua released her third studio album Pictures in October 2007.
3.
Ketevan Katie Melua was born on 16 September 1984 to Amiran and Tamara Katie Melua in Kutaisi, Georgia, which was then part of the Soviet Union.
4.
Katie Melua spent her first years with her grandparents in Tbilisi before moving with her parents and brother to the town of Batumi, where her father worked as a heart specialist.
5.
In 1993, when Katie Melua was eight, the family moved to Belfast, Northern Ireland, in the aftermath of the Georgian Civil War.
6.
In 2008, Katie Melua moved out of her parents' home in Maida Vale to an apartment in Notting Hill, where she transformed the spare bedroom into a recording studio.
7.
Katie Melua is fluent in English and speaks some Russian; despite still speaking her native Georgian fluently she has admitted that she cannot write songs in the language.
8.
When living in Belfast, Katie Melua attended the Roman Catholic schools St Catherine's Primary School and Dominican College, Fortwilliam, while her younger brother attended State schools.
9.
On 10 August 2005, just before she turned 21, Katie Melua became a British citizen along with her parents and brother.
10.
Katie Melua has been referred to as an 'adrenaline junkie' because she enjoys roller coasters and funfairs and often paraglides and hang glides.
11.
In November 2009, Katie Melua nearly drowned while diving in a lake near Heathrow Airport.
12.
In September 2010, Katie Melua was ordered by her doctors to stop working for a few months after suffering a nervous breakdown, resulting in her hospitalisation for six weeks.
13.
Katie Melua opened up about the breakdown years later in an interview with The Independent, saying that it ended up being one of the best things that had ever happened to her, as she said it helped to quash a feeling of superiority she felt by being a successful musician in the music industry.
14.
In January 2012, Katie Melua confirmed her engagement to World Superbike racer and musician James Toseland.
15.
When studying at the school, Katie Melua began to write songs and met her future manager and producer, Mike Batt.
16.
Katie Melua would collaborate again with Orbit over a decade later on Orbit's 2022 album, The Painter, on the opening track "Duende".
17.
On 30 September 2005, Katie Melua came under criticism in The Guardian from writer and scientist Simon Singh for the lyrics of the track "Nine Million Bicycles".
18.
Katie Melua said that she "should have known better" because she used to be a member of the astronomy club at school.
19.
Katie Melua embarked on a concert tour in support of Piece by Piece, the UK leg of which started in Aberdeen, Scotland on 20 January 2006.
20.
Towards the end of 2006, Katie Melua released the single, "It's Only Pain", which was written by Mike Batt.
21.
Katie Melua collaborated with Andrea McEwan on the album, who wrote the lyrics for "What I Miss About You" and "Dirty Dice".
22.
Katie Melua debuted a full orchestral version of the first single, "I Will Be There", during the Coronation Gala for Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace in July 2013.
23.
Ketevan entered the UK charts at number 6, and with this accomplishment, Katie Melua joined a very small group of female artists, which includes Madonna and Kate Bush, who have scored six consecutive UK top 10 studio albums.
24.
Katie Melua revealed during an interview with The Guardian that her partnership with Mike Batt had come to an end after her last album, as it was a six-album deal with Batt's Dramatico records.
25.
In June 2020, Katie Melua supported the Georgian Red Cross Society in their efforts to assist the vulnerable population in Georgia during the COVID-19 pandemic by performing a live charity concert featuring songs that were requested by her followers on her social media accounts.
26.
Katie Melua released her eighth studio album, Album No 8, on 16 October 2020.
27.
Katie Melua appeared in a segment of the 2007 film Grindhouse, written by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez.
28.
The segment in which Katie Melua appeared, entitled "Don't", was a faux trailer, directed by Edgar Wright and produced in the style of a 1970s' Hammer House of Horror film trailer.
29.
In 2009, Katie Melua was named as the new face of the leading French cashmere designer, Eric Bompard.
30.
On 2 October 2006, Katie Melua entered the Guinness Book of Records for playing the deepest underwater concert 303 metres below sea level on the Norwegian Statoil's Troll A platform in the North Sea.
31.
Katie Melua later described achieving the record as "the most surreal gig I have ever done".
32.
Katie Melua's concert is commemorated in the DVD release Concert Under the Sea, released in June 2007.
33.
Later in 2005, through her role as a goodwill ambassador to the charity Save the Children, Katie Melua went to Sri Lanka where she observed the work the charity was doing for children in the area after the civil war and Indian Ocean tsunami.
34.
In 2006 Katie Melua donated all the proceeds from her single "Spider's Web" to the charity.
35.
On 7 July 2007, Katie Melua performed at the German leg of Live Earth in Hamburg and in December of that year, Katie Melua released a cover of the Louis Armstrong song "What a Wonderful World" in which she sang with a recording of the late Eva Cassidy.
36.
Katie Melua has visited Oxfam charity shops for many years, using them frequently to buy her clothing.
37.
Katie Melua has stated that this is related as much to her dislike of spending and glamour as it is to her support for the charity, and admits that she looks "like a tramp" and that her hairdresser playfully calls her look "the Romanian window cleaner".
38.
Katie Melua is a patron of Fair Trees, the organisation that is trying to stop exploitation of cone pickers in Ambrolauri, Georgia, by the European Christmas tree industry.
39.
Katie Melua is a patron of the Manx Cancer Help charity, which offers support to cancer sufferers and is based on the Isle of Man.
40.
Katie Melua attended the 2013 fundraising ball for the charity.
41.
Katie Melua performed with Queen at the 46664 concert in South Africa in March 2005.
42.
Katie Melua appeared on the BBC's The Culture Show in November 2006 advocating Paul McCartney as her choice in the search for Britain's greatest living icon.