Who is Starstruck judge Beverley Knight?
BEVERLEY Knight is a household name thanks to her music.
The star has had a successful career, but who is she?
Who is Beverley Knight?
Beverley Knight was born in Wolverhampton in the West Midlands, and sang in a gospel choir from her early childhood.
She began writing songs at the age of 13 and started to perform at clubs in her hometown in her later teens. In 1994 she signed a record deal, releasing her first album The B-Funk a year later.
Although the record struggled commercially it was a critical hit, earning Beverley a Black Music Award in 1996 for Best R&B Artist.
She has a total of eight studio albums under her belt, and her 2016 Greatest Hits went Platinum in the UK charts.
What is Beverley famous for?
Beverley is widely labelled as one of Britain’s greatest soul singers, best known for her hit singles “Greatest Day”, “Get Up!”, “Shoulda Woulda Coulda” and “Come as You Are”.
She has won three MOBO Awards, twice scooping the Best R&B Act gong and winning Best Album in 1999 for Prodigal Sista.
Beyond music, Beverley has made forays into TV – most notably on BBC show Just the Two of Us – and has made four seasons of Beverley’s Gospel Nights on BBC Radio 2.
She has also broken into musical theatre, launching her stage career with a role in The Bodyguard in 2013 and going on to star in Memphis.
She has an estimated fortune of £2million.
What shows has Beverley been in?
Despite guest appearances on some of the UK’s most popular TV shows – including Big Brother and Strictly Come Dancing – Beverly has tended to shy away from appearances on screen.
However, from February 2022, it was announced that she would become part of ITV‘s Saturday night show Starstruck – a revived and and reformatted version of Stars in Their Eyes.
Is Beverley married and does she have children?
In 2010, it emerged that Beverley had got engaged to her long-term boyfriend, James O’Keefe.
The pair were married in 2012 with the singer describing her new husband as “the man of my dreams”. James is a production technician who met Beverley on the set of one of her music videos. The pair do not share any children together.