Ketevan "Katie" Melua (Georgian: ქეთევან "ქეთი" მელუა, surname pronounced IPA: /ˈmeluˌɑː/; born 16 September 1984) is a British-Georgian singer-songwriter and musician. She was born in the Georgian S.S.R., but moved to Northern Ireland at the age of eight and then relocated to England at the age of 14. Melua is signed to the small Dramatico record label, under the management of songwriter Mike Batt, and made her musical debut in 2003. In 2006, she was the United Kingdom's biggest-selling female artist and Europe's highest selling European female artist. ...show more

Ketevan "Katie" Melua (Georgian: ქეთევან "ქეთი" მელუა, surname pronounced IPA: /ˈmeluˌɑː/; born 16 September 1984) is a British-Georgian singer-songwriter and musician. She was born in the Georgian S.S.R., but moved to Northern Ireland at the age of eight and then relocated to England at the age of 14. Melua is signed to the small Dramatico record label, under the management of songwriter Mike Batt, and made her musical debut in 2003. In 2006, she was the United Kingdom's biggest-selling female artist and Europe's highest selling European female artist.

In November 2003, at the age of 19, Melua released her first album, Call Off The Search, which reached the top of the United Kingdom album charts and sold 1.8 million copies in its first five months of release. Her second album, Piece by Piece, was released in September 2005 and to date has gone platinum four times. Melua released her third studio album Pictures in October 2007, which has been announced to be the last of her albums in collaboration with Mike Batt. According to the Sunday Times Rich List 2008, Melua has a fortune of £18 million, making her the seventh richest British musician under thirty.

In the summer of 2003, aged just 18 and still studying at the Brit School of Performing Arts in leafy Surrey, no-one, least of all Katie, would have predicted what the next few years would hold for the teenager. Four years later, Katie has sold more than 7.5 million albums becoming, in 2006, the year's best selling British female in the world along the way. Georgian born Katie relocated from Tbilisi to Belfast at the age of 8 due to her father's profession as a heart surgeon and 5 years later moved to South East London. After her GCSEs Katie joined the Brit School for Performing Arts where she undertook a BTEC and Music A-level and discovered different styles of music including Queen, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Irish folk music and Indian music. ...show less