Katie Melua

Ketevan Melua, more known as Katie Melua, was born in Georgian SSR, Kutaisi in 1984. She spent her early years with grandparents in Georgean capital Tbilisi and then moved to her parents and brother to Batumi. Sometimes she had to carry full bucket of water to their flat on the fourth floor. Such experience made her take no care for some aspects of prosperity and glory later. When the USSR collapsed the Meluas had to leave Georgia in the result of the severe national Civil War. They settled their foot on Belfast, Ireland, but aggression between Catholics and Protestants made the family move to a quieter place - Redhill in Surrey, the UK. By that moment Katie already knew three languages: Russian, Georgean and English. She thought of a historical or political career, but at the age of 15 won a TV young stars' competition and decided to go in for music. When her family moved to London, Katie entered the famous BRIT School for the Performing Arts.

Studying in the School inspired the girl for writing songs. There her talent was noticed by the well-known producer Mike Batt, who was in search of a young vocalits singing equally well Pop, Blues and Jazz. Batt took Katie under his guide and made her a star with the debut album Call Off The Search, conquering all British charts in November 2003. The disc had wonderful Pop-songs with jazzy vocals by the young singer. Some material was written by Melua and Batt, some tracks were amazing covers on famous jazzmen's works. In August 2005 Melua and her family got the British citizenship and this happy moment was followed by the release of the sophomore Katie's try Piece By Piece in September of the same year. This work had a more blues bios, catching the attention by whimsy and catchy melody of a pseudo-ethnical single Nine Million Bicycles. It was obvious that Melua was growing up as an artist and little by little Mike Batt was giving her more initiative.

Though the road to fame had dangerous corners, and in March 2005 it was announced that Miss Melua parted with her boyfriend Luke Pritchard, lead singer of The Kooks. They started dating at school and even had wedding talks. But it appeared unbearably difficult to Luke to see his girl's successful progress staying at one place. As it often happens to real talents, this parting only contributed to the deepness of Katie's lyrics. In 2006 the artist and her band's 303 metre underwater concert entered the Guinness Book. Actually, this was a typical step for Katie as she got a nickname of "adrenaline junkie" in press circles for her love of extreme kinds of sport. She also became interested in acting and played an episodical role in the famous project Grindhouse. In 2007 Katie released her third studio creation under the lead of Mike Batt, Pictures. This album is full of cinema thematics (may be due to the acting experience) and features beautiful pop ballads with blues vocals. The first single, the sweet romantic ballad If You Were A Sailboat, perfectly settles the mood of the whole work. The singer’s new album The House was issued in 2010. Katie presented a very solid work with a fascinating atmosphere - The House demonstrated an incredibly harmonic union of electronic music, blues and other genres. There is no doubt that this album will be a great addition to collections of music lovers, who enjoy the original and truly sincere creativity.