Katie Melua
Katie Melua was born in Kutaisi in Georgia, moved to Belfast at eight and then to London, and was signed at eighteen by Mike Batt, who wrote most of her early material. Call Off the Search sold well over a million copies in the UK and made her the country's best-selling female artist within three years. She has since taken far more control of the writing, and the later records are quieter and better for it. She holds a record for the deepest underwater concert ever performed.
TV (2)
Music (4)
Where to start with Katie Melua
Call Off the Search is the debut that sold enormously and the one most listeners know. Piece by Piece is the better-made follow-up. The House is the 2010 record produced by William Orbit and the point at which she stopped sounding like a Mike Batt project, which makes it the interesting one.