Katherine Jenkins

On the advice of the original Forces Sweetheart, Dame Vera Lynn, in December 2005 and 2006, she travelled to Iraq to sing to the soldiers for Christmas. On her first visit to Iraq in 2005, when travelling to Shaibah, the largest British base in Southern Iraq, the helicopter she was travelling in was targeted by missiles. Anti-missile flares were deployed and the group landed safely.
She signed the biggest classical recording deal in history, for $10 million (£5.8 million), with Warner Music.
Her father, Selwyn, died of lung cancer at age 70 when she was 15. She has remarked on missing him in her album liner notes and has dedicated any award she has received to him.
After entering a modelling competition, she became the Face of Wales 2000.
Classical-crossover singer, who was the biggest-selling classical star in the UK in 2004. She is sometimes erroneously referred to as an opera singer but she has never performed in an opera.

You learn your lessons from the mistakes you make, not the things you achieve.
I did once shatter a chandelier. I was singing with my college choir in Wales. I was the soloist and I hit the high note and there was this massive bang and all this glass came down from the ceiling. I'd like that to be my party trick if I can perfect it.
I'm over the moon to be involved in the Doctor Who (2005) Christmas special. I can't quite believe it as it's a part of the family tradition at the Jenkins household. I heard the news that I got the role on my 30th birthday and it was the best birthday present ever.
I would absolutely, definitely never sell my wedding pictures to a magazine. I'd like it to be a special day, not a photo shoot. And once you've done that, your marriage becomes everybody else's business.
I wasn't the best in my class at the Royal Academy. There was a really good soprano and baritone who were technically better and are doing really well in opera now. But I was definitely the best mezzo-soprano in my class, because I was the only one of those!