Katie Melua is a British singer and songwriter. She is one of Britain’s most successful artists having received 56 platinum awards across her career. She was born in 1985 in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia and moved to Belfast at the age of eight. She lived in Belfast for six years while her father worked as a doctor in the Royal Victoria Hospital. She then moved to London in 1999. She made her musical debut in 2003, age 19, releasing her first album Call Off the Search. In 2006 she became the UK’s best-selling female artist and Europe’s highest selling European female artist.

In 2012 Katie Melua returned to Belfast for a performance at the Grand Opera House to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of The Pushkin Trust (founded by the Duchess of Abercorn to provide educational programmes supporting creative learning to over 50000 pupils). Katie Melua says that Belfast remains very close to her heart and in 2014 Queen’s University honoured her for her services to music.