Heather Small's Biography

Heather Small was born on 20 January 1965. Her father was a bus conductor from Barbados, and her mother was a waitress, who lived in Ladbroke Grove in West London.

Heather's parents divorced, after which she did not have much to do with her father.

After leaving school, Heather Small worked for Wandsworth council for two years.

She became the lead singer of Hot House, which were not that successful, but the group brought her into contact with Mike Pickering, a DJ at the Haçienda. As a result she met Paul Heard and M People was established.

M People, with Heather Small singing, sold millions of records, mainly in the 1990s, and won a variety of awards.

M People's hits included Moving On Up (which reached number 2 in 1993), One Night In Heaven and Search For The Hero.

M People's musical director was saxophonist Snake Davis who also joined Heather Small when she went solo.

As a solo artist, Heather Small released Proud, which became an 'anthem', being played when London won the Olympic bid, was the theme for a series of Oprah, and was performed by Heather at the opening ceremony of the Gay Olympics in Chicago.

Heather Small had a boy James Tacuma Small-Edwards with her husband the rugby star Shaun Edwards, however they split up not long after, and although Edwards remained on good terms it was Small who brought up James.

In 2006, Heather Small resumed her music career with the solo album, Close to a Miracle.

After her break-up with Shaun Edwards, Heather Small started going out with the lawyer David Neita.

The Telegraph reported how Heather Small goes to the gym for 75 minutes every weekday, is vegan, and does not smoke or drink.

She explained: "Anything that is addictive and wants to control me, I don't want to be part of."

In the 2008 series of Strictly Come Dancing, Heather Small partnered Brian Fortuna.

In week four of Strictly Come Dancing, Heather and Brian survived a dance-off against Jessie Wallace and Darren Bennett.

Heather and Brian would continue to survive dance-offs, but in week 8 were eliminated when up against the strong pairing of Rachel and Vincent.

In August 2017, the BBC announced that Heather Small would be one of the celebrities in a three-part series The Pilgrimage, joining thousands of pilgrims on their way through the Spanish landscape.

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