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Heather Small
Heather Marguerita Small MBE (born 20 January 1965) is an English soul singer and lead vocalist of the band M People. Her subsequent debut solo studio album, Proud, was released in 2000. Her second and third studio albums, Close to a Miracle and Colour My Life, were released in 2006 and 2022, respectively.
Heather Small was born in London to parents who came from Barbados in the early 1960s. She was brought up on a council estate in Ladbroke Grove, West London, and attended a local state school, where she excelled academically despite the lack of encouragement from teachers. She was a shy child and kept her passion for singing private, not even sharing it with her close family. At 18, she attended her first audition without telling anyone, reflecting the challenges of pursuing a creative career in a community with few role models in music.
Small joined her first group, Hot House, as a singer while she was still a teenager. She was the studio singer voice of the re-recorded version of "Ride on Time" by Black Box. She had a chance meeting with Manchester DJ Mike Pickering, formerly of Quando Quango, which led to sales of more than 10 million albums worldwide with the group M People. They had considerable success with songs such as "Moving On Up", "One Night in Heaven" and "Search for the Hero".
In 1997, Small performed in "Perfect Day", the official 1997 Children in Need charity release, alongside a broad range of artists, including Tom Jones and Lou Reed. It sold more than a million copies and was the UK's number-one single for three weeks.
In 1998, Small and M People took some time off to pursue solo projects after The Best of M People was released.
In 2000, Small released her debut solo album, Proud, and a single of the same name, closely affiliated with the British Olympic team of the time. The single, which was used for the first season and the last episode of the final season of Queer as Folk, is Small's signature song, with which she achieved international success. When Oprah Winfrey was looking for a song to sum up the work she had been striving to achieve over her twenty-year career, she contacted Small, and "Proud" became the theme song to The Oprah Winfrey Show; in 2005, Small made her American television debut on the show. Later the same year, "Proud" became the theme song for the American reality weight-loss show The Biggest Loser.
"Holding On" was released as the next single, followed in November 2000 by a duet single with Tom Jones, called "You Need Love Like I Do".
Small took time off to look after her newborn son, and record her second solo album. She occasionally appeared on various TV programmes such as Parkinson and Songs of Praise. She also sang three songs at the Tsunami Relief Concert at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.[citation needed]
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Heather Small
Heather Marguerita Small MBE (born 20 January 1965) is an English soul singer and lead vocalist of the band M People. Her subsequent debut solo studio album, Proud, was released in 2000. Her second and third studio albums, Close to a Miracle and Colour My Life, were released in 2006 and 2022, respectively.
Heather Small was born in London to parents who came from Barbados in the early 1960s. She was brought up on a council estate in Ladbroke Grove, West London, and attended a local state school, where she excelled academically despite the lack of encouragement from teachers. She was a shy child and kept her passion for singing private, not even sharing it with her close family. At 18, she attended her first audition without telling anyone, reflecting the challenges of pursuing a creative career in a community with few role models in music.
Small joined her first group, Hot House, as a singer while she was still a teenager. She was the studio singer voice of the re-recorded version of "Ride on Time" by Black Box. She had a chance meeting with Manchester DJ Mike Pickering, formerly of Quando Quango, which led to sales of more than 10 million albums worldwide with the group M People. They had considerable success with songs such as "Moving On Up", "One Night in Heaven" and "Search for the Hero".
In 1997, Small performed in "Perfect Day", the official 1997 Children in Need charity release, alongside a broad range of artists, including Tom Jones and Lou Reed. It sold more than a million copies and was the UK's number-one single for three weeks.
In 1998, Small and M People took some time off to pursue solo projects after The Best of M People was released.
In 2000, Small released her debut solo album, Proud, and a single of the same name, closely affiliated with the British Olympic team of the time. The single, which was used for the first season and the last episode of the final season of Queer as Folk, is Small's signature song, with which she achieved international success. When Oprah Winfrey was looking for a song to sum up the work she had been striving to achieve over her twenty-year career, she contacted Small, and "Proud" became the theme song to The Oprah Winfrey Show; in 2005, Small made her American television debut on the show. Later the same year, "Proud" became the theme song for the American reality weight-loss show The Biggest Loser.
"Holding On" was released as the next single, followed in November 2000 by a duet single with Tom Jones, called "You Need Love Like I Do".
Small took time off to look after her newborn son, and record her second solo album. She occasionally appeared on various TV programmes such as Parkinson and Songs of Praise. She also sang three songs at the Tsunami Relief Concert at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.[citation needed]