Sept. 16: British singer Katie Melua, "Nine Million Bicycles," " Closest Thing To Crazy," is 26 today.

Singer, songwriter and musician Ketevan "Katie" Melua was born in Georgia, SSR, and moved to Northern Ireland at the age of eight and then to England when she was fourteen. After making her musical debut in 2003, by 2006, she was the UK's and Europe's bestselling female artist. 

In November 2003, at the age of nineteen, 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 has gone platinum four times.

(Press album cover for direct link to Amazon):

Melua released her third studio album Pictures in October 2007, and in 2010 she released her latest album, The House."

Melua has said on numerous occasions how Queen were a huge influence on her as a child/teenager, with one of her memories of music being her uncle playing records by Queen and Led Zeppelin. She performed with Queen at the 46664 concert in South Africa in March 2005.

On 10 August 2005, Melua became a British citizen with her parents and brother.

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