Sarah Brightman

Sarah Brightman is an English actress, singer and dancer. She was born on August 14, 1960 in Hertfordshire, England and has five siblings. Brightman took ballet as a child. In 1976, she joined the dance group "Pan's People" and appeared on the BBC show Top of the Pops where the group performed. She later led the dance act "Hot Gossip." The group released the hit track I Lost My Heart to a Starship Trooper in 1978. She later began recording solo and went on to release several successful disco singles. When Brightman was just 18 years old, she married music manager Andrew Graham Stewart. They later divorced. Brightman remarried in 1984 to composer Lloyd Webber, a marriage that attracted much tabloid attention. The couple divorced six years later in 1990, but Brightman and Webber remain friends. Brightman is currently romantically linked to music studio technician Louis Oberlander.

Brightman began her acting career in theater. Her Broadway debut was in Cats as Jemima. She later went on to appear in The Pirates of Penzance, Masquerade, Nightingale, Song and Dance, Requiem, The Merry Widow. She is best known, however, for originating the role of Christine Daae in Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera. Lloyd Webber wrote the part, which requires her to sing up to a high E, expressly for Brightman.

After retiring from the stage, Brightman focused on her music career until appearing in the 2008 horror/musical film Repo! The Genetic Opera as Blind Mag.

Before pursuing her theater career, Brightman had several disco hits. Later on, she released a few solo albums: The Trees They Grow So High (1998), a folk song compilation, The Songs That Got Away (1989), a compilation of songs cut from musical theater productions, and As I Came Of Age (1990), a pop album. None of these, however, became very successful.

Brightman met Enigma producer Frank Peterson in 1991 after retiring from the stage. With him, she recorded most of her successful albums including Dive (1993), Fly (1995), Eden (1998), La Luna (2001), Harem (2003) and Symphony (2008) and became renowned worldwide as a classical crossover soprano.

• Topix: Sarah Brightman News
• CBS News: Brightman Gives Symphony After 5 Years (January 29, 2008)
  • "In "Symphony," her first collection of new material in five years, the Berkhamsted, England native reunites with Andrea Bocelli, and collaborates in other tracks with Spanish countertenor Fernando Lima, Italian tenor Alessandro Safina, and rock superstar Paul Stanley, of KISS."

• Daily News: Sarah Brightman Conducts Another Airy, Bittersweet Symphony (January 29, 2008)
• VH1.com: "Appalachian Journey Continues Reign At #1" (2000)