Sarah Brightman

About Sarah Brightman

Who is it?: Soprano
Birth Day: August 14, 1960
Birth Place: Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, England, British
Occupation: Singer-songwriter actress dancer musician
Years active: 1972–present
Spouse(s): Andrew Graham-Stewart (m. 1979; div. 1983) Andrew Lloyd Webber (m. 1984; div. 1990)
Relatives: Amelia Brightman (sister)
Origin: Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, England
Genres: Classical crossover trip hop operatic pop world music ambient baroque pop Arabic pop symphonic rock folk pop rock electronica musical theatre
Instruments: Vocals marimba
Labels: A&M (1993) East West (1995–2001) Angel/EMI (1997–2007) Manhattan/EMI (2008–2010) Simha LLC (2012–present)
Associated acts: Hot Gossip
Website: www.sarahbrightman.com

Sarah Brightman

Sarah Brightman was born on August 14, 1960 in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, England, British, is Soprano. Sarah Brightman is a celebrated British soprano, actress, songwriter and dancer. From the age of three, she began taking dance and piano classes and started performing in local competitions, contests and festivals. She made her first on-stage debut at the age of thirteen with the musical drama I and Albert at London Piccadilly Theatre. Brightman began her career as a member of the dance troupe Hot Gossip and went on to star in several Broadway musicals. After her retirement from stage, she began the second innings of her music career as a classical crossover artist. She has established herself as the world's best-selling soprano of all time. Brightman is the lone artist to have been invited to perform at two Olympic Games - first at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games and later at 2008 Beijing Olympics. She has also starred in a few notable movies including ‘Brokedown Palace’, ‘Granpa’, and ‘First Night’, which made her a household name in England. She is the Brand Ambassador of UNESCO as Artist of Peace.
Sarah Brightman is a member of Singers

Does Sarah Brightman Dead or Alive?

As per our current Database, Sarah Brightman is still alive (as per Wikipedia, Last update: May 10, 2020).

🎂 Sarah Brightman - Age, Bio, Faces and Birthday

Currently, Sarah Brightman is 64 years, 3 months and 26 days old. Sarah Brightman will celebrate 65rd birthday on a Thursday 14th of August 2025. Below we countdown to Sarah Brightman upcoming birthday.

Days
Hours
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Popular As Sarah Brightman
Occupation Singers
Age 64 years old
Zodiac Sign Virgo
Born August 14, 1960 (Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, England, British)
Birthday August 14
Town/City Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, England, British
Nationality British

🌙 Zodiac

Sarah Brightman’s zodiac sign is Virgo. According to astrologers, Virgos are always paying attention to the smallest details and their deep sense of humanity makes them one of the most careful signs of the zodiac. Their methodical approach to life ensures that nothing is left to chance, and although they are often tender, their heart might be closed for the outer world. This is a sign often misunderstood, not because they lack the ability to express, but because they won’t accept their feelings as valid, true, or even relevant when opposed to reason. The symbolism behind the name speaks well of their nature, born with a feeling they are experiencing everything for the first time.

🌙 Chinese Zodiac Signs

Sarah Brightman was born in the Year of the Rat. Those born under the Chinese Zodiac sign of the Rat are quick-witted, clever, charming, sharp and funny. They have excellent taste, are a good friend and are generous and loyal to others considered part of its pack. Motivated by money, can be greedy, is ever curious, seeks knowledge and welcomes challenges. Compatible with Dragon or Monkey.

Some Sarah Brightman images

Famous Quotes:

What is amazing about Sarah is that she has two voices, really. She can produce a pop, contemporary sound, but she can also blossom out into a light lyric soprano. The soprano part of her voice can go up to a F6 above her known E6. She doesn't sing it full out, but it is there. Of course, she has to dance while she is singing some of the time, so it's all the more extraordinary.

Awards and nominations:

Brightman has received over 180 Gold and Platinum sales awards in over 40 different countries.

Brightman was awarded the decoration 'Cavaliere' in the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic on 2 June 2016.

Biography/Timeline

1934

Brightman is the eldest of six children of businessman Grenville Geoffrey Brightman (1934–1992) and Paula (Hall) Brightman. Her younger siblings are Nicola, Claudia, Jay, Joel, and Amelia (aka Violet). She was brought up in Little Gaddesden near Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, England. At the age of three she began taking dance and piano classes and went on to perform in local festivals and competitions. At age 11, she successfully auditioned for the Tring Park School for the Performing Arts, a school specialising in performing arts.

1973

In 1973, at the age of 13, Brightman made her theatrical debut in the musical I and Albert at the Piccadilly Theatre, London, playing one of Queen Victoria's daughters (Victoria). In 1976 she was recruited into Arlene Phillips' troupe Hot Gossip in 1977. The group had a disco hit in 1978 with "I Lost My Heart to a Starship Trooper", which sold half a million and reached number six on the UK charts. She was also briefly with Pan's People after they parted with their host show Top of the Pops in 1976. Brightman, now solo, released more disco singles under her own label, Whisper Records, such as "Not Having That!" and a cover of the song "My Boyfriend's Back". In 1979, Brightman appeared on the Soundtrack of the film "The World Is Full of Married Men" and sang the song "Madam Hyde".

1981

In 1981, Brightman auditioned for the new musical Cats, by Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, and was cast as Jemima. After a year in Cats, Brightman took over from Bonnie Langford as Kate in The Pirates of Penzance at the Drury Lane Theatre, London, and appeared as Tara Treetops in Masquerade, a musical based on Kit Williams's book of the same title. In that year she left to play the title role in Charles Strouse's children's opera, Nightingale.

1984

At age 18, in 1979, Brightman married Andrew Graham-Stewart, who then managed the German band Tangerine Dream. She later met Andrew Lloyd Webber when she performed in Cats. In 1983, Brightman divorced Graham-Stewart and later that same year, Lloyd Webber divorced his first wife, Sarah Hugill, with whom he had two children. Lloyd Webber and Brightman married on 22 March 1984 and their relationship quickly became the subject of intense media and tabloid scrutiny until their divorce in 1990. Brightman acknowledged the marriage in a 1999 interview as a "difficult time" but also one of much creative output. They are currently on friendly terms; in 2006, at the 20th London anniversary of The Phantom of the Opera, Lloyd Webber called Brightman a "wonderful woman" and "absolutely beloved mentor", and she performed at the 25th anniversary of the play in 2011. He appeared as a special guest in her 1997 concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

1985

In 1985, Brightman's recording of "Pie Jesu" was a strong commercial success, selling 25,000 copies on the first day of release and peaking at number 3, despite the lyrics being in Latin. With classical music permeating the Lloyd Webber household (Brightman was in heavy operatic training at the time), Lloyd Webber was moved to write the Requiem Mass as a tribute to his father. Its Manhattan premiere, starring Plácido Domingo and Brightman, was filmed by the BBC and PBS for later broadcast. The LP eventually became UK's top selling classical album of the year and earned Brightman a Grammy nomination as Best New Classical Artist."

1987

Her original London Cast Album of the musical was released in CD format in 1987 and sold 40 million copies worldwide, making it the biggest-selling cast album of all time.

1988

After leaving Phantom, she performed in a tour of Lloyd Webber's music throughout England, Canada and the United States, and performed Requiem in the Soviet Union. Studio recordings from this time include the single "Anything But Lonely" from Aspects of Love and two solo albums: the 1988 album The Trees They Grow So High, a collection of folk songs accompanied by piano, and the 1989 album The Songs That Got Away, a compilation of obscure musical theatre songs from shows by such composers as Irving Berlin and Stephen Sondheim. Brightman also sang the song "Make Believe" during the credits of the children's film Grandpa; Howard Blake composed the music and wrote the lyrics.

1989

She was a subject of the television programme This Is Your Life in 1989 when she was surprised by Michael Aspel.

1990

By 1990, Brightman and Lloyd Webber had separated. After their highly publicized divorce, Brightman played the lead in Lloyd Webber's Aspects in London opposite Michael Praed, before transferring to Broadway. Her subsequent solo album, As I Came of Age, was an eclectic collection of folk-rock and musical theatre songs that Brightman herself chose.

1992

Brightman has suffered several personal crises. In February 1992, her 57-year-old father committed suicide by asphyxiation in his car in Hertfordshire after divorce and financial problems.

1995

Brightman and Peterson's second collaboration yielded the pop rock album, Fly (1995). The album catapulted Brightman to fame across Europe, and she unveiled its hit track "A Question of Honor"—a mélange of electronic, rock, classical strings and excerpts from the Alfredo Catalani opera La Wally. The song and the video were introduced at the World Boxing Championship match between Germany's Henry Maske and Graciano Rocchigiani.

1996

Brightman's 1996 duet with the Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, "Time to Say Goodbye", topped charts all over Europe and became the highest and fastest selling single of all time in Germany, where it stayed at the top of the charts for 14 consecutive weeks and sold over 3 million copies. It subsequently became an international success selling 12 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling singles of all time. She has now collected over 180 gold and platinum sales awards in 38 different countries. In 2010 she was named by Billboard the 5th most influential and best-selling classical Artist of the 2000s decade in the US and according to Nielsen SoundScan, she has sold 6.5 million albums in the country.

1997

In 1997, Brightman released the album Timeless/Time to Say Goodbye. It remains as Brightman's biggest-selling album. It went gold, platinum and/or multi-platinum in 21 countries, selling over 1.4 million copies in the U.S. alone, and topped the Billboard Top Classical Crossover Albums chart in the U.S. for 35 weeks. The lead single from the album, "Time to Say Goodbye", was the second song that Brightman debuted at the World Boxing Championship in Germany. This duet with tenor Andrea Bocelli became an international hit and sold more than 3 million copies in Germany alone, became Germany's best-selling single, and was successful in numerous other countries; the album eventually sold over 12 million copies worldwide.

1998

With the success of Timeless, Brightman released her next album, Eden in 1998. She hand-selected each song and convinced the Academy Award-winning Italian Composer Ennio Morricone to let her set lyrics to one of his film compositions, "Gabriel's Oboe" from the film The Mission resulting in the now classic piece "Nella Fantasia". The album, unlike Time to Say Goodbye, incorporated more pop music elements. Reviews were mixed – LAUNCHcast deemed Eden "deliriously sappy", while Allmusic called Eden "a winning combination". Eden reached No. 1 on the US Billboard Top Classical Crossover Albums chart and No. 65 on the Billboard 200 chart and was certified Gold in the United States.

2000

Brightman's music is generally Classified as classical crossover. According to Manhattan Records GM Ian Ralfini, she is largely responsible for the popularity of the genre. In a 2000 interview with People, Brightman dismissed the classical crossover label as "horrible" but stated she understood people's need to categorise music. Her personal influences include 1960s and 1970s Musicians and artists such as David Bowie and Pink Floyd, and she incorporates aspects of genres from pop/rock to classical. Her work has also been compared to that of Madonna, Cher and Celine Dion. The material on her albums ranges from versions of opera arias from composers such as Puccini (on Harem, Eden, and Timeless), to pop songs by artists such as Kansas ("Dust in the Wind" on Eden), Dido ("Here with Me" on La Luna), and Procol Harum ("A Whiter Shade of Pale" on La Luna). She sings in many languages which are English, Spanish, French, Latin, German, Italian, Russian, Hindi, Mandarin Chinese and Japanese.

2001

In 2001, Brightman released Classics, an anthology including highlights from three of Brightman's chart-topping releases along with seven new tracks; this was released worldwide except Europe. In the U.S. the album peaked at No. 66 on the Billboard 200 chart and went Gold. In Canada it peaked at No. 9 and was certified Platinum; and in Japan, Classics became Brightman's most successful release at the time with 300,000 units sold and reaching Platinum status.

2003

Her 2003 album Harem represented another departure: a Middle Eastern-themed album influenced by dance music. On Harem, Brightman collaborated with artists such as Ofra Haza and Iraqi singer Kazem al-Saher. Nigel Kennedy contributed violin tracks to the songs "Free" and "The War is Over" and Jaz Coleman contributed arrangements.

2004

In 2004 the Harem World Tour grossed $60 million and sold 700,000 tickets, $15 million and 225,000 sales of which came from the North American leg, although with ticket prices raised 30% from previous tours, average sales per venue were up 65%. In North America, Harem tour promoters Clear Channel Entertainment (now Live Nation) took the unusual step of advertising to theatre subscribers, in an effort to reach fans of Brightman's Broadway performances, and also sold VIP tickets, at $750 each, that included in-stage seating during the concert and a backstage pass. Tour reviews were mixed: one critic from the New York Times called the La Luna tour "not so much Divine but post-human" and "unintentionally disturbing: a beautiful argument of emptiness." In contrast, a reviewer from the Boston Globe deemed the Harem tour "unique, compelling" and "charmingly effective."

2006

Brightman released a DVD collection of her music videos on 3 October 2006 under the title of Diva: The Video Collection. The Singles Collection is the accompanying CD, released on the same date. The album marked the first time Brightman released a greatest hits album in the United States; it reached No. 1 on the Billboard Top Classical Crossover Albums chart. In Japan, the album debuted and peaked at No. 2 with 77,000 copies sold on its first week of release, and became Japan's biggest-selling classical album of 2007. By 2008, the album achieved a Double-Platinum certification. With Diva, Brightman was also South Korea's best-selling international Artist of 2010 as the album topped the international charts all throughout the year. Although the original 2006 release experienced limited success, the album charted in 2009 and 2010 when Brightman toured South Korea with the Symphony World Tour and Sarah Brightman in Concert With Orchestra. Diva was certified Quintuple Platinum and its digital single, "Nella Fantasia" sold over 2 million units. Other releases in Europe were The Very Best of 1990–2000 and Classics: The Best of Sarah Brightman.

2007

In the United Kingdom, On May 2007, Brightman sang along Soprano Lesley Garrett at Wembley Stadium the anthem "Abide With Me" before the FA Cup final between Chelsea and Manchester United, and participated as well in a dinner held at the Mansion House, where the Prince of Wales highlighted the urgent need for action to halt tropical deforestation. Brightman sang at the event to engage the financial community in the task of finding a solution to the Problem of making rainforests "worth more alive than dead". The music performed was Nella Fantasia and was further declared hymn to the rainforests.

2008

In response to persistent calls for a global release of the Symphony: Live in Vienna concert, EMI Music launched worldwide the PBS special which featured Brightman's performance at Vienna's St. Stephen's Cathedral on 16 January 2008, in both audio and visual formats. The Symphony—Live in Vienna television special debuted on PBS in March 2008 during the network's spring pledge drive and aired throughout the month. Symphony: Live in Vienna was listed as the thirteenth best-selling album of the year in Mexico.

2009

Brightman performed a concert tour called Sarah Brightman in Concert during October 2009. It covered South America with 13 performances in Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Argentina and Brazil. The last venue of the tour, "The Concert of the Pyramid" featured Brightman performing a concert at the archaeological site of Chichen Itza, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the New Seven Wonders of the World. One year later, in 2010, Brightman continued touring Asia with five performances in Tokyo alone, followed by presentations in Kanazawa, Nagoya, Osaka in Japan, Macau in China and Seoul in South Korea.

2010

On 3 November 2010, Brightman was invited to sing at the Tōdai-ji Buddhist temple complex located in the city of Nara, Japan. The temple is a listed UNESCO World Heritage Site as one of the "Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara". The concert was recorded and later broadcast nationwide by TBS network.

2011

On 1 and 2 October 2011, Brightman made a special appearance during the finale of The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall; a fully staged production performed at the famous London venue—marking 25 years since the musical received its world premiere. Introduced as his "Angel of Music" by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Brightman performed the title song backed by five past, present, and Future Phantoms. The production front of an audience of 5,500 was broadcast live into cinemas around in Australia, Canada, Europe, Japan and the US.

2012

In 2012, in conjunction with Virgin Galactic, the Brightman STEM Scholarship program (science, Technology, engineering and mathematics) was launched. It will help young women in the US pursue STEM education across their four-year college careers.

2013

On 30 October 2013, Brightman announced through the media that she was honoured to be part of the Advisory Council for the Challenger Center, the non-profit science, Technology, engineering and maths (STEM) education organisation. Brightman also announced that she will be joined on the council. "Through my partnership with the Challenger Center, I hope to inspire in children the same wonder and excitement for space exploration that I feel myself", she commented. Challenger Center and its network of more than 40 Challenger Learning Centers engage students in hands-on experiences that strengthen knowledge in science, Technology, engineering and maths (STEM) and inspire students to pursue careers in these important fields.

2014

In April 2014, Brightman participated as an orchestra Director in Parkinson's UK Symfunny at the Royal Albert Hall 4 June, with the aim of finding a cure for the disease.

2015

In July 2015, the inaugural Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation Sarah Brightman Music Scholarships were also awarded to their first recipients. The scholarships will support students in their postgraduate studies at the Royal Northern College of Music on the two-year Master of Music Programme.

2016

Brightman was awarded the decoration 'Cavaliere' in the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic on 2 June 2016.

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