Michael Ashley Ball was born on 27 June 1962 and is an English singer, presenter and actor.
72 Facts About Michael Ball
2.
Michael Ball made his West End debut in 1985 playing Marius Pontmercy in the original London production of Les Miserables, and went on to star in 1987 as Raoul in The Phantom of the Opera.
3.
Michael Ball played the role in London and on Broadway.
4.
Michael Ball's album Coming Home To You reached number one in the UK making it his 4th number one album to date.
5.
In 1992, Michael Ball represented the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest, finishing second with the song "One Step Out of Time".
6.
Michael Ball has twice won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical.
7.
Michael Ball won in 2008 for his role as Edna Turnblad in Hairspray, and then in 2013 for the title role in the revival of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
8.
Michael Ball was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2015 Birthday Honours for his services to musical theatre.
9.
Michael Ball was born in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, to a Welsh mother and an English father.
10.
Michael Ball was awarded an MBE for services to industry.
11.
Michael Ball has a brother, Kevin, four years his senior and a sister, Katherine, almost a decade his junior.
12.
Michael Ball moved to Dartmoor with his parents when he was three years old.
13.
Michael Ball has never had singing lessons, but as a boy he learned to sing by singing along to music, for example; songs by Ella Fitzgerald, Mahalia Jackson and Frank Sinatra.
14.
Michael Ball did join his fellow junior boarders on Sunday morning at the Pathfinder bible group in St Andrew's church.
15.
Michael Ball was interested in the theatre and his father took him to see shows in the school holidays, including a Royal Shakespeare Company production at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre of King Lear, which impressed him as a youngster of about 14 years' age.
16.
Michael Ball joined a youth theatre, which led to his studying drama at Guildford School of Acting, where he found an environment that suited him.
17.
In 1984, after he had left drama school, Michael Ball's first part was in Godspell at Aberystwyth Arts Centre, after which he worked for a few months in rep in Basingstoke, but his first major break was a star part in the production of The Pirates of Penzance at Manchester Opera House; at an open audition he was selected from about 600 applicants who formed a queue to do singing, acting, and dancing interviews, which were held in three separate rooms.
18.
Thames Television invited Michael Ball to sing during the Miss England contest, a live televised event, and he sang well enough despite suffering from anxiety.
19.
Michael Ball played Alex in Aspects of Love, both in London and New York, and Giorgio in the London production of Stephen Sondheim's Passion.
20.
In 1998 Michael Ball performed at three big concerts: The Fiftieth Birthday Concert of Andrew Lloyd Webber at the Royal Albert Hall, Sondheim Tonight at the Barbican Centre and Hey, Mr Producer: The Musical World of Cameron Mackintosh.
21.
Michael Ball sang three tracks from his latest album, Since You've Been Gone; "Home" and "One Voice", as well as two duets with Clark.
22.
In November 2005, Michael Ball returned to Broadway as Count Fosco in The Woman in White, which transferred from London's West End.
23.
Michael Ball was forced to leave the show because of a viral infection supposedly caused by the fat suit required for the role; this reportedly raised Ball's body temperature by several degrees during the show.
24.
In September 2005, Michael Ball made his New York City Opera debut as Reginald Bunthorne in Gilbert and Sullivan's Patience.
25.
Michael Ball spent the first quarter of 2006 on complete vocal rest, following the illness that caused him to leave The Woman in White on Broadway.
26.
Michael Ball then appeared as the solo artist in a controversial 'Musical Theatre' Prom on 27 August 2007 for the BBC at London's Royal Albert Hall.
27.
Michael Ball performed a wide range of musical theatre numbers, including several by Andrew Lloyd Webber.
28.
Michael Ball recently starred in a new production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street at the Adelphi Theatre in the West End, alongside Imelda Staunton as Mrs Lovett.
29.
Michael Ball starred as Mack in Mack and Mabel, which toured the UK in 2015.
30.
In 2021, Michael Ball reprised his role as Edna Turnblad in the new production on Hairspray at the London Coliseum, which opened on the 21st of June.
31.
Michael Ball is a concert artist: he tours frequently around the United Kingdom and has performed concerts in Australia and the United States.
32.
Michael Ball has had success in the charts with his recording work.
33.
Since reaching Number 2 in the UK Singles Chart with "Love Changes Everything" from Aspects of Love, Michael Ball had lesser success with follow up singles, but in the main has concentrated on releasing albums, all of which achieved gold status within weeks, and in the case of The Movies album in 1998, platinum in seven weeks.
34.
Michael Ball represented the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest 1992 held in Malmo, Sweden, singing the song "One Step Out of Time", which finished second.
35.
In July 2006, Michael Ball was a guest artist on Julian Lloyd Webber's album Unexpected Songs and in November of that year released a DVD containing all the best songs from his Live in Concert DVDs.
36.
The DVD included a brand new "Unplugged" session which Michael Ball recorded especially with four other musicians in the studio.
37.
Michael Ball took part in many promotional activities at the end of the 2006 to coincide with the release of his album One Voice.
38.
Towards the end of 2007, Michael Ball recorded his 15th solo album for release on 15 October of that year.
39.
In February 2013, Michael Ball released his album "Both Sides Now" featuring the song "Fight the Fight" from Tim Rice's new musical From Here to Eternity.
40.
In November 2014, Michael Ball released his new album, If Everyone Was Listening.
41.
The album reached number one in the UK Albums Chart and, although Michael Ball has had many hits, this is his first solo number one selling album in 26 years.
42.
Michael Ball has turned his hand to presenting both on TV and radio.
43.
Michael Ball has presented The National Lottery Draws and Children in Need.
44.
Michael Ball guest presented This Morning for a short period.
45.
Michael Ball co-judged the second series of ITV reality television show Soapstar Superstar in 2007.
46.
In 2010 Michael Ball took part in the BBC Cymru Wales programme Coming Home about his Welsh family history.
47.
In 2010, Ball presented 30 episodes of The Michael Ball Show, his own daytime series for ITV.
48.
In 2010 and 2011, Michael Ball guest presented six episodes of Lorraine for ITV Breakfast.
49.
On 10 April 2013, Michael Ball guest hosted The One Show for the first time as a stand-in presenter.
50.
Michael Ball has presented the show on several occasions since.
51.
On 18 November 2013, Michael Ball guest presented an episode of teatime chat show The Paul O'Grady Show after Paul O'Grady was taken ill.
52.
On 29 December 2013, Michael Ball was a contestant on a celebrity Christmas edition of Catchphrase.
53.
Michael Ball sang two songs on this show; the first was the song Born Free, which won the Academy Award for Best Original Song and was a hit for the British male singer Matt Monro in 1966.
54.
The second song Michael Ball sang during the programme was Love Changes Everything, a song that Black co-wrote with lyricist Charles Hart for the musical Aspects of Love, composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber.
55.
On 26 December 2014, Michael Ball starred in Victoria Wood's musical That Day We Sang, reuniting him with his Sweeney Todd co-star Imelda Staunton.
56.
Michael Ball hosted Michael Ball over Broadway and The Greenroom on BBC Radio 2 and several specials on subjects such as Nat King Cole, Cameron Mackintosh, and Cy Coleman.
57.
Michael Ball was a regular stand-in presenter for Ken Bruce until 2016 on the station.
58.
Michael Ball embarked on an extensive British tour during March and April 2007.
59.
Michael Ball then headed to Glasgow and Aberdeen before returning for shows in London, Birmingham and Northampton.
60.
Michael Ball took a trip to his old home in Plymouth before embarking on the final leg of his tour.
61.
Michael Ball appeared in the Royal Variety Performance at the Empire Theatre in Liverpool on 3 December 2007 singing "You Can't Stop the Beat" with the rest of the cast from Hairspray, the musical he was appearing in at the time.
62.
Michael Ball continued in the role of Edna Turnblad in the musical at the Shaftesbury Theatre until 29 April 2009.
63.
On 2 March 2008, Michael Ball appeared as the guest on the BBC Radio 4 show Desert Island Discs, during which he talked about his early life and his career, including his struggle with stage fright in his early career, and a little about his personal life.
64.
Michael Ball performed a number of summer concerts, including the Hampton Court Music Festival on 14 June 2008.
65.
Michael Ball won the 2008 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical, his first Olivier Award.
66.
Michael Ball appeared on a number of television and radio programmes to promote the album.
67.
Michael Ball performed in a "one-off" Christmas Concert on 12 December 2009 in aid of The Shooting Star Children's Hospice, which he supports.
68.
The Shooting Star Children's Hospice and CHASE Hospice Care for Children joined to become Shooting Star CHASE in 2011 and Michael Ball is a patron for this charity.
69.
On 14 February 2010, Michael Ball stepped in as a guest judge for Robin Cousins on ITV1's Dancing on Ice while Cousins was in Vancouver for the Winter Olympics.
70.
Michael Ball co-hosted the Olivier Awards with Imelda Staunton on 13 March 2011 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London.
71.
In 2013, Michael Ball was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of the Arts from University of Plymouth.
72.
Michael Ball returned to the Guildford School of Acting in April 2022 to deliver a speech to the graduating postgraduates of that year.