Michaela Sydney's Biography

Michaela was born Michaela Sydney Walters in Birmingham, England on Columbus Day (that's October 12th, in case you didn't know) ... a little later than 1492.

We don't think Columbus ever sailed to Birmingham, but Michaela and he do share something else in common, having both spent some entertaining times in the Canary Islands.

Michaela showed her inclinations to musical talent when she was just pint-sized. According to her mother, she was about 18 months old, singing along to Tom Jones' "Delilah" on the radio. Then she began entertaining the family, watching TV and "pretending to be whatever superstar was on", she adds.

Throughout school she was always in productions, she sang in the school choir and played classical guitar. As the only non-woodwind member of the woodwind band, she was the drummer.

Michaela got into Gospel music at the age of 13, singing at festivals and entering competitions ... and winning. When she wasn't actually singing in choirs, she was conducting them ... and still winning.

This led her to work for a Christian record company, doing sessions and backing vocals, then moving on to do more solo work. Michaela also performed in a live Gospel concert, broadcast by the Midland's radio station, Radio WM and she sang twice on the BBC's Songs of Praise.

The transition from Gospel to mainstream happened pretty much by accident while she was on holiday in Tenerife.

"One of the bars there was a pianist, who asked people to get up and sing, so I did. A few nights later I was booked to sing in the bar." says Michaela.

After hearing her, the compere also gave her contacts back in Birmingham, from where she went on to do more competitions, showcases and cabaret spots. "I sang the circuit of working men's clubs, pubs - on weekends off from being a Traffic Warden.", she once explained in an interview for Tenerife's, Waves FM.

Michaela had gone to live and work in Tenerife in April 1997, wowing the cabaret circuit on the south of the island for around two years with sets such as her lively Gloria Estefan show. At other times, she'd be found muck-shovelling for the local animal charity K9 or otherwise giving her services freely for causes.

Marriage to Mark Crumpton, who she met in Tenerife while he was on holiday, brought Michaela back to the UK to Gloucestershire. The couple have since appeared on Michael Barrymore's "My Kind of Music"

Still entering contests, talent shows and, maintaining a busy schedule of cabaret dates in the South, West and Midlands, Michaela has also appeared at London's West End, Shaftesbury Theatre in 125TH STREET and can often be found undertaking thespian persuits in and around Bristol.