Sarah Brightman

Cavaliere
Sarah Brightman
Brightman at the World Athletics Championships in Osaka in 2007
Born (1960-08-14) 14 August 1960 (age 64)
Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, England
Occupations
  • Singer
  • actress
  • dancer
Years active1978–present
Spouses
  • Andrew Graham-Stewart
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1979; div. 1983)​
  • ​
    ​
    (m. 1983; div. 1990)​
RelativesAmelia Brightman (sister)
Musical career
Genres
Instrument(s)Vocals, piano
Labels
Formerly ofHot Gossip
Websitesarahbrightman.com

Sarah Brightman (born 14 August 1960)[1] is an English classical crossover soprano singer and actress.

Brightman began her career as a member of the dance troupe Hot Gossip and released several disco singles as a solo performer. In 1981, she made her West End musical theatre debut in Cats and met composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, whom she later married. She went on to star in several West End and Broadway musicals, including The Phantom of the Opera, where she originated the role of Christine Daaé. Her original London cast album of Phantom was released in CD format in 1987 and sold 40 million copies worldwide, making it the biggest-selling cast album ever.[2]

After retiring from stage acting and divorcing Lloyd Webber, Brightman resumed her music career with former Enigma producer Frank Peterson, this time as a classical crossover artist. She has been credited as the creator and remains among the most prominent performers of this genre, with worldwide sales of more than 25 million albums and two million DVDs, establishing herself as the world's best-selling soprano.[3][4][5][6]

Brightman's 1996 duet with the Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, "Time to Say Goodbye", topped the 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 three million copies.[7][8] It subsequently became an international success, selling 12 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling singles of all-time.[9][10][11] She has collected over 200 gold and platinum record awards in 38 countries.[12] In 2010, she was named by Billboard the fifth most influential and best-selling classical artist of the 2000s decade in the US[13] and according to Nielsen SoundScan, she has sold 6.5 million albums in the country.[14]

Brightman is the first artist to have been invited twice to perform the theme song at the Olympic Games, first at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games where she sang "Amigos Para Siempre" with the Spanish tenor José Carreras with an estimated global audience of one billion people, and 16 years later in 2008 in Beijing, this time with Chinese singer Liu Huan, performing the song "You and Me" to an estimated four billion people worldwide.[15]

In 2012, Brightman was appointed as the UNESCO Artist for Peace for the period 2012–2014, for her "commitment to humanitarian and charitable causes, her contribution, throughout her artistic career, to the promotion of cultural dialogue and the exchanges among cultures, and her dedication to the ideals and aims of the Organization".[16] Since 2010, Brightman has been Panasonic's global brand ambassador.[17]

  1. ^ Sarah Brightman filmography, British Film Institute; Sarah Brightman, Playbill; Gänzl, Kurt (2001). The Encyclopedia of the Musical Theatre: A–Gi. Schirmer. p. 248. ISBN 9780028649702.
  2. ^ "Phantom of the Opera Original Cast Recording sales". Newyorktheatreguide.com. Retrieved 7 July 2011.
  3. ^ "Sarah Brightman & Jackie Evancho on America's Got Talent". Today24News. Retrieved 7 July 2011.
  4. ^ "Success comes to soprano Sarah Brightman". Reading Eagle. Archived from the original on 29 June 2019. Retrieved 10 October 2019.
  5. ^ "Soprano Sarah Brightman to sing in Japanese for NHK drama " Japan Today: Japan News and Discussion". Japantoday.com. 25 October 2009. Retrieved 7 July 2011.
  6. ^ "World's Best-Selling Soprano Sarah Brightman Joins Multi-Million Classical Crossover Comeback". Forbes. 6 November 2018. Retrieved 22 February 2019.
  7. ^ "Bocelli on". Decca.com. Archived from the original on 30 April 2011. Retrieved 7 July 2011.
  8. ^ "Andrea Bocelli Biography". Classicsandjazz.co.uk. Archived from the original on 8 February 2009. Retrieved 7 July 2011.
  9. ^ [1] Archived 28 August 2013 at the Wayback Machine[title missing]
  10. ^ [2] Archived 17 July 2012 at the Wayback Machine[title missing]
  11. ^ "Angel records". Early-sarah-brightman.com. Retrieved 7 July 2011.
  12. ^ "Official Website Sarah Brightman/About/Awards". Sarah-brightman.com. 4 January 2008. Archived from the original on 27 November 2013. Retrieved 7 July 2011.
  13. ^ "Best of 2000's / Classical Artists". Billboard. 6 February 2012.
  14. ^ "Ask Billboard: The Twitter-Sized Edition". Billboard. 20 October 2012.
  15. ^ "Sarah Brightman moved to tears upon hearing Olympic theme – The Official Website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games". En.beijing2008.cn. Archived from the original on 7 July 2011. Retrieved 7 July 2011.
  16. ^ "United Nations News Centre – British singer and actress Sarah Brightman becomes UNESCO Artist for Peace". Un.org. 6 February 2012. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
  17. ^ "Panasonic and UNESCO Sign Strategic Partnership Agreement". Panasonic News Portal.