In the course of her glittering career Katherine Jenkins has sung for the Queen, Pope John Paul II and even the Welsh rugby team. There was another, unexpected, career high in store for the talented mezzo soprano last Friday, when she was asked to sing for a fellow songbird - her icon, music legend Barbra Streisand.
Twenty-eight-year-old Katherine recounts how she received the surprise invitation while in LA making an album. She was getting ready for bed in her hotel when suddenly a call came in from her producer David Foster asking if she fancied going to Barbra's 67th birthday party.
The Welsh opera star got ready in a rush and hot-footed it down to the venue - a vast mansion in Bel Air. And that's where David sprang his biggest surprise – he wanted her to sing for Barbra.
"I was completely shocked and had nothing prepared. But David and I sat round the piano and quickly chose an aria to sing," says Katherine. By which time about 100 people had walked into the room including huge stars like Warren Beaty and Hugh Jackman, and of course Barbra."
She continues: "So I sang the aria, and then David asked me to sing Happy Birthday to Barbra too… It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. She is one of my heroines."
Katherine's starry tale is recounted by Britain's Got Talent judge Piers Morgan on his website.
