Myleene Klass
Myleene Angela Klass is a British musician, singer, television presenter, model, writer and designer. She was a member of the pop group Hear'Say, and later released a solo classical crossover album in 2003, followed by additional "lullaby" albums from 2022 onward. Klass then went into television and radio presenting, hosting series including Popstar to Operastar and BBQ Champ on ITV and The One Show on BBC One. She was a regular panellist on the ITV lunchtime chat show Loose Women in 2014 and again from 2024 onwards. In 2006, Klass was runner-up on the sixth series of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!, and returned in 2023 for the "all-stars" series I'm a Celebrity... South Africa, which she won.
Early life and education
Myleene Klass was born on 6 April 1978 in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, to an Austrian father and a Filipino mother.She attended Notre Dame High School, Norwich, but transferred to the closer Cliff Park High School in the Gorleston-on-Sea area of Great Yarmouth, to complete her secondary education.
Klass learned to play violin and piano as a child, and at the age of 15 she went to weekend studies at the Junior Department of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where she studied voice and harp. She gained A grades at A-Level, including music. She subsequently took a course at the Royal Academy of Music, University of London. At the age of 11, she won a school engineering contest, with a prize presented by Carol Vorderman.
Music career
After graduating, Klass spent a short period as part of a reality show for Bravo, called The Dolls' House. She sang backing vocals for Cliff Richard, with whom she had previously worked at age 10 when she sang in a choir featured in his 1988 single "Mistletoe and Wine", which was that year's Christmas number one on the UK singles chart, and made her West End theatre debut in Miss Saigon.Early television work came in 1998, when Klass sang soprano for the music of the Channel 4 film Alice through the Looking Glass.
Hear'Say
In 2001, Klass auditioned for the ITV reality show Popstars, which offered contestants an opportunity to become part of a newly formed pop band. Klass was chosen as one of the ten finalists and became a member of Hear'Say, with Kym Marsh, Suzanne Shaw, Danny Foster and Noel Sullivan. Following the success of their first album, the band was given its own TV show entitled Hear'Say It's Saturday. During the show's run, the band had a chance to perform with such established artists as Lionel Richie, Celine Dion, Bradley Walsh, Blue and Atomic Kitten. At the end of 2001, Hear'Say appeared on the Royal Variety Performance.The group undertook a 37-date sold-out arena tour and performed numerous television guest appearances. Klass made many appearances with Hear'Say on TV and in live performances during 2002. The pop act's many promotional appearances during the year were also broadcast as part of their own TV shows, entitled Hear'Say: A New Chapter in Full and The Hear'Say Story. In total, Hear'Say had four Top 10 singles including two number-ones in the British charts, before splitting up after a reported long-term feud between Klass and Marsh. The feud resulted in Marsh leaving the band in December 2001, to be replaced by Johnny Shentall in 2002. The band split up in October of that year.
Solo artist
On 13 May 2003, Klass signed a five-album deal with Classics and Jazz. Promotion started with the release of the main promotional single "Toccata and Fugue" to TV channels. She also appeared in the video for "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" with the Girls of FHM, which went to No. 10 in the UK singles chart.Klass's album, Moving On, was launched on 20 October 2003 at Harrods, London. The album included reworked versions of popular classical pieces such as Fauré's Pavane, Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata and Satie's Gymnopedie No.2. Moving On also included music from the Oscar-winning films Gladiator and The Piano. New arrangements for piano of more contemporary works were also included on the album, namely Linkin Park's "Crawling" and Daniel Bedingfield's "If You're Not the One". In its first week of release. Moving On peaked at No. 2 in the UK Classical Charts, behind Hayley Westenra. It peaked at No. 32 in the UK Albums Chart. By mid-December 2003, the album had been certified gold. In April 2004, Moving On was nominated as "Album of the Year" at the Classical BRIT Awards, but lost to Bryn Terfel's platinum-selling record Bryn.
Klass confirmed there would be a re-release of the album with five new tracks, but its release was pushed back. Ultimately, the release was cancelled, the only remnant being the Asian release of Moving On, which includes three new tracks: "Trouble", "Sahara" and "Le Onde".
On 28 March 2007, Klass signed a record contract with EMI Classics as both a recording artist and an ambassador for the EMI Classics UK roster of artists. These include Alfie Boe, Natasha Marsh and Natalie Clein. The deal included the release of a series of albums on which Klass performed two exclusive tracks and chose a number of her favourite classical pieces from the EMI Classics back catalogue.
Klass's second album in the EMI series, Myleene's Music for Mothers, was released on 18 February 2008, and has two tracks played by Klass. These two tracks are the popular "America" from West Side Story, written by Leonard Bernstein, and Ennio Morricone's "Chi Mai", known best as the theme to the 1981 BBC TV drama serial The Life and Times of Lloyd George. In March 2013, she helped to celebrate Andrew Lloyd Webber's 40-year work with her rendition of "Shakalaka- Baby" from the musical Bombay Dreams.
Television career
Presenting
In August 2005, Klass was signed as a presenter for the ITV music show CD:UK with Lauren Laverne and Johny P, with her first appearance shown on 17 September 2005. In 2005, Klass appeared as a guest panellist on the topical discussion show The Wright Stuff on a number of occasions. At Christmas 2005, Klass appeared on a celebrity version of the BBC's quiz show Mastermind.On 6 August 2006, Klass was a guest reporter on BBC One's Sunday morning religion and ethics show Heaven & Earth, with Gloria Hunniford. Klass's report, billed as the feature of the week, was on the Pope's astronomer. From 10 October 2006, Klass co-presented Living's Ghost Towns with the medium and ex-Most Haunted star Derek Acorah. In May 2007, Klass appeared on Sky HD's test card.
From July to August 2007, Klass co-presented the daily BBC One programme The One Show with Adrian Chiles, before leaving to concentrate on looking after her baby. On 31 December 2007, Klass presented the BBC One programme New Year Live for the countdown to the year 2008 at midnight.
Klass was announced as the new presenter of the Channel 4 series 10 Years Younger, replacing Nicky Hambleton-Jones, on 5 November 2008, and first hosted on 5 February the following year. She also co-hosted the American version of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me out of Here! in 2009 on NBC.
On 31 July 2015, Klass began presenting the new ITV series BBQ Champ.
Reality television
Klass took part in the sixth series of ITV's reality television series I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!, which began on 13 November 2006 and ended on 1 December 2006. After only one week on I'm a Celebrity..., Klass became the most searched for celebrity from the show on the Internet search engine MSN/Live Search and the third most searched for celebrity in the UK. She finished in second place, behind Matt Willis.Klass's brother Don, noticing his sister's popularity with the male audience, suggested she auction off her bikinis from the show on eBay. Within a week of leaving the jungle, Klass took his advice and put her white bikini from the show on auction on eBay until 7 December 2006. Klass pledged that all the money raised from the auction would go to charity to help victims of the Farepak savings scandal. The auction raised £7,500. Klass's newly found sex symbol status was cemented further after Playboy offered her a six-figure deal to pose nude for the magazine. The offer was sent to Klass's agent while she was still on the show, with many offers from other magazines, chat shows and TV work. The demand for Klass increased so much that it is estimated she received offers amounting to several million pounds. Returning to the UK, Klass did several TV and press interviews about her time on the show. Commenting on her famous showers, she said she never expected it to be such a focus of attention and that the reason for her frequent cold showers was to help cope with her sexual frustration, saying, "Forget snakes and spiders – going without sex was the hardest thing." She revealed that so great was her frustration and sexual urges after nearly three weeks without sex, that on her release from the jungle, she spent the first hours having unprotected sex with her boyfriend which resulted in her pregnancy with her first child. She also tried to end the widespread debate about whether or not her breasts are real, saying, "They're absolutely real and natural, I can assure you."
On 20 September 2020, it was announced that Klass would be a contestant on the thirteenth series of Dancing on Ice. She was paired with Łukasz Różycki. She became the first celebrity to be eliminated following a skate-off against Lady Leshurr and Brendyn Hatfield.
On 26 March 2023, it was announced that she would appear in I'm a Celebrity... South Africa. During the final episode aired on 12 May, Klass beat runner-up Jordan Banjo and was crowned the first "I'm a Celebrity Legend".
On 13 October 2023, Klass appeared as a guest panellist on the ITV talk show Loose Women before returning once again as a regular panellist from 19 January 2024.