Katie Melua was born September 16 1984, in Georgia, the former USSR, growing up in the capital Tbilisi and later the seaside town of Batumi. In 1993, when Katie was 8 years old she, her younger brother and her parents moved to Belfast, Northern Ireland, due to her father’s profession as a heart surgeon at the Royal Victoria Hospital. She learned to speak English at St Catherine's Primary School in Belfast's Broadway and at Dominican College, Fortwilliam. The family moved again to London in 1998.

When Katie was fifteen she entered a TV talent competition called Stars Up Their Nose - singing Mariah Carey's "Without You". Despite just entering for fun, she won the competition (the prize was a bedroom makeover and an arm chair for her dad) and also gained valuable experience by performing live on ITV three times.

Shortly afterwards Katie joined the BRIT School for Performing Arts & Technology in Croydon, Surrey. She began playing the guitar and writing her own material during this period and came to the attention of producer Mike Batt, an English songwriter and producer who was looking for an artist capable of singing ‘jazz and blues in an interesting way’, when he visited the school. After playing the UK music veteran a tribute song she had written for the late Eva Cassidy, Katie was signed to Batt's Dramatico label on a five-album recording contract. Katie signed to Batt’s record label Dramatico but stayed at the Brits to complete her studies – she graduated with distinction in July 2003.

The end of 2003 was a very exciting time for 19 year old Katie. She was invited to perform at the Royal Variety, where she met the Queen who said ‘I have heard your record on the radio, it is very nice’. In November 2003 Katie headlined her own gig at the Shepherds Bush Empire ("Melua stunned the audience into silence with warm pure jazz vocals" - The Times), it was here that her new fans really could see her natural talent for performing.

Her first album Call off the Search was released in the UK on November 3, 2003. It became an immediate hit reaching number-one on the UK album chart in January 2004 and the top twenty of the Australian album charts in June 2004. In the UK, the album sold 1.2 million copies making it four times platinum, and spent six weeks at the top of the charts.

Her second album, Piece by Piece, was released on September 26, 2005. The album contains four more songs written by Katie herself, four more by Mike Batt, one cooperation between the both and three more songs are new versions of ‘great songs’.