Jane McDonald (born 4 April 1964) is an
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
singer, actress and media personality, who first became famous following her appearance on the
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation, usually referred to by its abbreviation as the "BBC", is the longest established and largest broadcaster in the world...
docusoap
The Cruise. Known for her strong Yorkshire accent, she has since co-presented a number of
daytimeDaytime television is the general term for television shows produced that are intended to air during the daytime hours. This article is about American daytime television, for information about international daytime television see Daytime television....
shows, including
The Wright StuffThe Wright Stuff is a British television chat show, hosted by Matthew Wright, andcurrently airing on Five each weekday at 9:15am. It is repeated later on at 11:00am on Fiver....
and
Loose WomenLoose Women is a British lunchtime television programme, which was first broadcast in 1999 on ITV. It consists of a panel of four women who interview celebrities and discuss topical issues, ranging from daily politics and current affairs, to celebrity gossip and sexism...
.
McDonald's parents are Peter and Jean. Her mother and grandmother ran a boarding house in Wakefield, and her
ScottishScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
father was a miner who did extra work as a chimney sweep.
Jane McDonald (born 4 April 1964) is an
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
singer, actress and media personality, who first became famous following her appearance on the
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation, usually referred to by its abbreviation as the "BBC", is the longest established and largest broadcaster in the world...
docusoap
The Cruise. Known for her strong Yorkshire accent, she has since co-presented a number of
daytimeDaytime television is the general term for television shows produced that are intended to air during the daytime hours. This article is about American daytime television, for information about international daytime television see Daytime television....
shows, including
The Wright StuffThe Wright Stuff is a British television chat show, hosted by Matthew Wright, andcurrently airing on Five each weekday at 9:15am. It is repeated later on at 11:00am on Fiver....
and
Loose WomenLoose Women is a British lunchtime television programme, which was first broadcast in 1999 on ITV. It consists of a panel of four women who interview celebrities and discuss topical issues, ranging from daily politics and current affairs, to celebrity gossip and sexism...
.
Early life
McDonald's parents are Peter and Jean. Her mother and grandmother ran a boarding house in Wakefield, and her
ScottishScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
father was a miner who did extra work as a chimney sweep. She is a
ChristianA Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, who Christians believe was the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, and the Son of God.The term "Christian" is also used adjectivally to...
Spiritualist, as she announced on
Loose WomenLoose Women is a British lunchtime television programme, which was first broadcast in 1999 on ITV. It consists of a panel of four women who interview celebrities and discuss topical issues, ranging from daily politics and current affairs, to celebrity gossip and sexism...
. McDonald spent her early years listening to the radio, her favourite pastime. As a little girl her favourite place was sitting in the rainbow coloured spotlight cast through her front door's stained glass window.
Career
McDonald toured many clubs in the north of England, with her father acting as her roadie. She provided all of her own equipment, which she had to replace after it was destroyed in a large bar-fight. McDonald's first position on a cruise ship was on the Black Prince, and following that, the Horizon. After her father's death, she returned to sea and began working on the Zenith. Later she was to work on the Century, where she met Henrik Brixen. Her time on the Century was not a happy one, due to pay delays, technical difficulties, and stressful working conditions. After this she took some time off with Henrik, but was eventually tempted back to sea as a headliner on the Century's sister-ship, the Galaxy. Shortly after accepting the position, Jane was contacted by
Chris TerrillChris Terrill is a film maker, cameraman, adventurer and writer born in Brighton in 1952. He attended Brighton College 1965-1970, and then went to Durham University where he gained a joint honours degree in Geography and Anthropology...
of the BBC, who asked her to be the star of his docusoap, The Cruise. The Cruise was watched regularly by 14 million viewers, and after years of hard work, she became a celebrity overnight. Her wedding to Henrik Brixen in 1998 was televised by the BBC and watched by a large audience, although the couple have since divorced.
After signing a major-label recording contract, McDonald began to carve out a mainstream
ShowbizShowbiz is the debut studio album by English alternative rock band Muse, released in the United Kingdom on 4 October 1999. Recorded between April and May at RAK Studios and Sawmills Studio, respectively, the album was produced by John Leckie and Paul Reeve in conjunction with the band...
career, first as a guest presenter on
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation, usually referred to by its abbreviation as the "BBC", is the longest established and largest broadcaster in the world...
's
National LotteryThe National Lottery is the largest lottery in the United Kingdom. It is operated by Camelot Group, to whom the licence was granted in 1994, 2001 and again in 2007. The lottery is regulated by The National Lottery Commission. The National Lottery undertook a major rebranding programme in 2002...
and subsequently with her debut album
Jane McDonald, which spent three weeks at Number 1 in the UK Album Chart.
In 2000, McDonald released her autobiography
Follow Your Dreams published by Harper Collins. In 2002, McDonald appeared in a run of
Romeo and Juliet - The Musical at the
Piccadilly TheatreThe Piccadilly Theatre is a West End theatre located at 16 Denman Street, behind Piccadilly Circus and adjacent to the Regents Palace Hotel, in the City of Westminster, England.Built by Bertie Crewe and Edward A...
in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
's glittering
West End. She has also performed in productions in
Kirkby LonsdaleKirkby Lonsdale is a small town in Cumbria, England, on the River Lune. It is situated thirteen miles south-east from Kendal along the A65. The parish of Kirkby Lonsdale had a population of 1771 recorded in the 2001 census....
and
BasingstokeBasingstoke is a town in northeast Hampshire, England. It lies across a valley at the source of the River Loddon. It is southwest of London, northeast of Southampton, southwest of Reading, and northeast of the county town, Winchester. In 2006 it had an estimated population of 80,477...
.
In November 2006 she began a UK tour, which featured a number of special guests including the massed voices of Sing Live UK. The tour ended on 2 November 2006. In 2007, McDonald commissioned Yorkshire fashion designer Haute Couture dress maker Kaye Heeley of
Angel Couture to help with the Jane McDonald Collection.
McDonald toured in 2008 beginning in
BlackpoolBlackpool is a seaside town in Lancashire, England. Situated along the coast of the Irish Sea, it has a population of 142,900, making it the fourth-largest settlement in North West England behind Manchester, Liverpool and Warrington...
on 1 August of that year to showcase new songs from her Number 7 (UK album charts) album,
Jane. The tour concluded on 2 August in
MorecambeMorecambe is a resort town within the City of Lancaster district of Lancashire, England. As of 2003 it has a resident population of about 45,000...
.
For the past 4 years Jane has been a regular presenter on the ITV show
Loose WomenLoose Women is a British lunchtime television programme, which was first broadcast in 1999 on ITV. It consists of a panel of four women who interview celebrities and discuss topical issues, ranging from daily politics and current affairs, to celebrity gossip and sexism...
- a daytime TV show.
Jane's first love is her music and in 2009 is doing around 60 concerts...increasing this to around 100 in 2010
Television career
As well as appearing on
The Cruise, McDonald presented the television programme,
Star For A Night, which helped launch the singer
Joss StoneJoss Stone is an English soul and R&B singer–songwriter and actress. Stone emerged to fame in late 2003 with her multi-platinum debut album, The Soul Sessions, which made the 2004 Mercury Prize shortlist...
. She is also a regular panellist on the afternoon TV talk show,
Loose WomenLoose Women is a British lunchtime television programme, which was first broadcast in 1999 on ITV. It consists of a panel of four women who interview celebrities and discuss topical issues, ranging from daily politics and current affairs, to celebrity gossip and sexism...
and briefly Five's
The Wright StuffThe Wright Stuff is a British television chat show, hosted by Matthew Wright, andcurrently airing on Five each weekday at 9:15am. It is repeated later on at 11:00am on Fiver....
. She has also appeared on the reality shows,
Have I Been Here Before and
Drop the CelebrityDrop the Celebrity is a British television game show broadcast in 2003, in which a group of British celebrities in an airplane wait for the audience on the ground to vote on who should be dropped from it by parachute...
. Jane also appeared in the
Wicked Women concert and sang "This Is The Moment" from the Broadway musical
Jekyll and Hyde. Jane appeared on one episode of
Never Mind The BuzzcocksNever Mind the Buzzcocks is a comedy panel game show with a pop and rock music theme, currently without a permanent presenter, but starring Phill Jupitus and from 2009 Noel Fielding as team captains. The show is produced by Talkback Thames for the BBC, and is usually aired on BBC Two...
.
McDonald joined
Loose Women in 2004, and is now a regular on the show. She frequently mentions her home town,
WakefieldWakefield is the main settlement of the City of Wakefield metropolitan district in West Yorkshire, England. Located by the River Calder, it had a population of 76,886 in 2001.Wakefield was dubbed the "Merrie City" in the Middle Ages.-Toponymy:...
, on the show for various reasons, usually when talking about her childhood.
McDonald appeared on a celebrity special of
Ready Steady Cook-Basic Format:Ready Steady Cook is a BBC daytime TV cooking programme first aired on 24 October 1994. The programme was hosted by Fern Britton from 1994 until 2000 when celebrity chef Ainsley Harriott became the new host...
. She and her fellow chef won over the audience with their dish of 'half baked carp' with a cheesy sauce, and claimed the cash prize. She donated all the money to Wakefield Hospice, a local charity of her home town.
McDonald appeared in a documentary called "Return to the Cruise", which celebrated the 10th anniversary of The Cruise finding out how much Jane enjoyed her fame and success. This was shown over several nights of the week beginning 11 August 2008 on BBC2. She was a special guest on
Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway on 22 March 2008, with
Christopher BigginsChristopher Biggins is an English actor and television personality.-Career:Biggins was born in Oldham, Lancashire and raised in Salisbury, Wiltshire, where he took elocution lessons and participated in local drama groups, leading to a job at the local repertory theatre.He is most famous for being...
in 'Grab the Ads' playing Tarzan and Jane. On 20 July 2008, she featured on
The Sunday Night ProjectThe Sunday Night Project is a British comedy-variety show by Princess Productions that first aired on Channel 4 in February 2005 under the title The Friday Night Project...
. She also appeared on the celebrity edition of
Are You Smarter Than A 10 Year Old?Are You Smarter Than A 10 Year Old? is a British quiz show, based on the US programme Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?, currently broadcast on Sky1. There are currently two editions, one broadcast weekly in primetime and one broadcast daily during daytime...
in September 2008.
Albums
- July 1998 - Jane McDonald - Number 1 (UK
The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled by The Official UK Charts Company and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website ; the full Top 200 is published exclusively in ChartsPlus.To qualify for the UK albums...
) *Double Platinum
- June 2000 - Inspiration - Number 6 (UK
The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled by The Official UK Charts Company and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website ; the full Top 200 is published exclusively in ChartsPlus.To qualify for the UK albums...
) (Produced by Ted Carfrae & Co-Produced by Djamel Badaoui Sony BMG)
- October 2001 - Love at the Movies - Number 24 (UK
The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled by The Official UK Charts Company and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website ; the full Top 200 is published exclusively in ChartsPlus.To qualify for the UK albums...
) (Co-Produced by David Sandcastle Sony BMG)
- February 2005 - You Belong to Me - Number 21 (UK
The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled by The Official UK Charts Company and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website ; the full Top 200 is published exclusively in ChartsPlus.To qualify for the UK albums...
)
- August 2008 - Jane - Number 7 (UK
The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled by The Official UK Charts Company and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website ; the full Top 200 is published exclusively in ChartsPlus.To qualify for the UK albums...
)
Compilation Albums/ Special Albums
- April 2003 - The Collection
- September 2006 - From Me To You Limited edition 4 track EP of Jane's own songs
- August 2007 - Because You Loved Me - 18 track, Best Of Collection
Singles
- Cruise Into Christmas Medley - Number 10 (UK) December 1998 (Includes the songs 'Winter Wonderland' & 'Santa Claus is Coming to Town')
DVDs
- Jane McDonald In Concert (1999) (Produced by Ted Carfrae)
- Jane McDonald Live in Las Vegas (2001)
- Being Jane (Special DVD only available at her concerts or via her management team, filmed 2005)
Misc
She has now appeared on stage in concert with the 60's group
The SearchersSearchers is a web search engine that was launched to the public in February 2005. It is a locally hosted web search engine with the largest web index in the United Kingdom. Searchers, previously named Searchers.com until 2008, belong with a handful of companies under the umbrella company Reach...
and it's rumoured The Searchers are appearing at her Wakefield show and the two acts are filming a live DVD together in time for release at Christmas!
External links