Michael Ball
Michael Ashley Ball OBE (born 27 June 1962) is an English singer, presenter and actor. In 1985, he made his West End debut as Marius Pontmercy in the original production of Les Misérables. In 1989, he reached number two in the UK Singles Chart with "Love Changes Everything", from the musical Aspects of Love, where he played Alex Dillingham. He played the role in the West End and on Broadway. His album Coming Home To You reached number one in the UK making it his 4th number one album to date. On 24 April 2020, Ball and Captain Tom Moore entered the UK Singles Chart at number one with a cover of "You'll Never Walk Alone", with combined chart sales of 82,000 making it the fastest-selling single of 2020.
For other people named Michael Ball, see Michael Ball (disambiguation).
Michael Ball
In 1992, Ball represented the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest, finishing second with the song "One Step Out of Time". In 1995, he reprised the role of Marius in Les Misérables: The Dream Cast in Concert. His other West End roles include Raoul de Chagny in The Phantom of the Opera (1987), Giorgio Bachetti in Passion (1996), and Caractacus Potts in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (2002). In 2004, he played Jean Valjean in a concert performance of Les Misérables for the Queen at Windsor Castle. He has twice won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical. He won in 2008 for his role as Edna Turnblad in Hairspray,[1] and then in 2013 for the title role in the revival of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. In 2018, he played Anatoly Sergievsky in the West End revival of Chess, and he returned to Les Misérables in 2019 and 2020 as Inspector Javert. He reprised his role of Edna Turnblad in the 2021 revival of Hairspray and in 2023 played the other leading male role of Sir George Dillingham in a revival of Aspects of Love.[2] In 2024, Ball will reprise the role of Javert in Les Misérables: The Arena Spectacular World Tour.[3]
Ball was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2015 Birthday Honours for his services to musical theatre.[4]
Early life[edit]
Ball was born in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, to a Welsh mother and an English father. His father Tony, who originally wanted to be an actor, trained as an Austin apprentice at the Longbridge plant and progressed to become head of global sales at British Leyland.[5] He was awarded an MBE for services to industry.[6] Ball's maternal grandfather was a coal miner. Ball has a brother, Kevin, four years his senior and a sister, Katherine, almost a decade his junior. He moved to Dartmoor with his parents when he was three years old. He has never had singing lessons, but as a boy he learned to sing by singing along to music, for example; songs by Ella Fitzgerald, Mahalia Jackson and Frank Sinatra. When he was 11 years old he went to Plymouth College, an independent boarding school, because his parents thought this would give him a good education. However this made him unhappy, as he did not fit into the academic and sporting environment at the school at that time.[1] He did join his fellow junior boarders on Sunday morning at the Pathfinder bible group in St Andrew's church. One summer he went to Pathfinder camp on the isle of Jersey.
Ball was interested in the theatre and his father took him to see shows in the school holidays, including a Royal Shakespeare Company production at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre of King Lear, which impressed him as a youngster of about 14 years' age. He joined a youth theatre, which led to his studying drama at Guildford School of Acting, where he found an environment that suited him. As a student he went busking on Saturdays in Guildford town with a female student friend to earn a little extra money. He graduated in 1984. After his graduation, Ball's singing career rapidly got off the ground. His maternal grandmother, having a musical ear, was proud of Ball's early singing achievements; she died suddenly, however, of a heart attack about one week before his debut in The Pirates of Penzance.[1]
Recording work[edit]
Ball is a concert artist: he tours frequently around the United Kingdom and has also performed concerts in Australia and the United States. He has also had success in the charts with his recording work. Since reaching Number 2 in the UK Singles Chart with "Love Changes Everything" from Aspects of Love, Ball had lesser success with follow up singles, but in the main has concentrated on releasing albums, all of which achieved gold status within weeks, and in the case of The Movies album in 1998, platinum in seven weeks (released 26 October, confirmed platinum status on 12 December).
Ball represented the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest 1992 held in Malmö, Sweden, singing the song "One Step Out of Time", which finished second. The single reached number 20 in the UK, while an eponymous album released in the same year reached number 1.[9] This began a run of top 20 albums released over the next two decades. In July 2006, Ball was a guest artist on Julian Lloyd Webber's album Unexpected Songs and in November of that year released a DVD containing all the best songs from his Live in Concert DVDs. This is split into five sections: Musicals, Love Songs, Personal Favourites, Party Time, and Unplugged. The DVD also included a brand new "Unplugged" session which Ball recorded especially with four other musicians in the studio. It was released on 20 November 2006. Ball took part in many promotional activities at the end of the 2006 to coincide with the release of his album One Voice. This involved singing the song "Home" on ITV's GMTV, This Morning, and the BBC One programme The Heaven and Earth Show, hosted by Gloria Hunniford.
A new compilation album entitled Michael Ball: The Silver Collection was released in July 2007, along with the DVD version of his 1995 film England My England. Towards the end of 2007, Ball recorded his 15th solo album for release on 15 October of that year. The album features songs all written by Burt Bacharach and is entitled Back to Bacharach. It was released along with a performance DVD of his 2007 tour, One Voice Live, filmed at London's Hammersmith Apollo. Promotional activities took place throughout October and November 2007 for these releases including appearances on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross and Loose Women.
In February 2013, Ball released his album "Both Sides Now" featuring the song "Fight the Fight" from Tim Rice's new musical From Here to Eternity.[10]
In November 2014, Ball released his new album, If Everyone Was Listening. In March 2019, he released the album Coming Home To You. The album reached number one in the UK Albums Chart and, although Ball has had many hits, this is his first solo number one selling album in 26 years.
He has recorded three albums with Alfie Boe. Two reached number 1; Ball & Boe: Together in 2016 and Ball & Boe: Together Again in 2017. Their third album, Ball & Boe: Back Together in 2019 reached number 2 in the UK Albums Chart.
In April 2020, Ball recorded a duet with 99 year old World War II veteran Captain Tom Moore, in aid of the NHS during the COVID-19 pandemic. Their cover of "You'll Never Walk Alone" reached number one in the UK Singles Chart on 24 April, not only giving Ball his first chart-topping single at the age of 57, but also making Moore the oldest ever person in history to score a number one hit.
Television[edit]
As an actor, Ball briefly appeared as Malcolm Nuttall in Coronation Street in 1985. Ball has also turned his hand to presenting both on TV and radio. Ball had his own TV series, Michael Ball, in 1993 and 1994 a Christmas Special in 1995 and a three-part series in 1998 filmed by BBC Cymru Wales Ball in the Hall. These three episodes were combined to make a special which was then broadcast on BBC One. Ball has presented The National Lottery Draws and Children in Need. He guest presented This Morning for a short period.
Ball co-judged the second series of ITV reality television show Soapstar Superstar in 2007. In 2010 Ball took part in the BBC Cymru Wales programme Coming Home about his Welsh family history. In 2010, Ball presented 30 episodes of The Michael Ball Show, his own daytime series for ITV. In 2010 and 2011, Ball guest presented six episodes of Lorraine for ITV Breakfast.
On 10 April 2013, Ball guest hosted The One Show for the first time as a stand-in presenter. He has presented the show on several occasions since. On 18 November 2013, Ball guest presented an episode of teatime chat show The Paul O'Grady Show after Paul O'Grady was taken ill.[11] On 24 November 2013, he guest starred as a fictionalized version of himself in the British sitcom Toast of London. On 29 December 2013, Ball was a contestant on a celebrity Christmas edition of Catchphrase.
On 3 January 2014, BBC Four broadcast a special tribute programme to the lyricist Don Black called Diamonds are Forever: A tribute to Don Black which took place at the Royal Festival Hall in London. Ball sang two songs on this show; the first was the song Born Free, which won the Academy Award for Best Original Song and was a hit for the British male singer Matt Monro in 1966. Black wrote the lyrics for this song and the music was composed by John Barry for the film of the same name, Born Free. The second song Ball sang during the programme was Love Changes Everything, a song that Black co-wrote with lyricist Charles Hart for the musical Aspects of Love, composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber. This song was released as a single by Ball in 1989 and stayed in the British pop charts for fourteen weeks. The BBC Concert Orchestra provided the orchestral backing for Ball on both songs for this performance.
On 26 December 2014, Ball starred in Victoria Wood's musical That Day We Sang, reuniting him with his Sweeney Todd co-star Imelda Staunton.
Michael has fronted three ITV shows with Alfie Boe. They were broadcast in 2016, 2017 and 2019.
2016 - Ball and Boe: One Night Only
2017 - Ball and Boe: Back Together
2019 - Ball and Boe: A Very Merry Christmas
Radio[edit]
Ball hosted Ball over Broadway and The Greenroom on BBC Radio 2 and several specials on subjects such as Nat King Cole, Cameron Mackintosh, and Cy Coleman.
His first regular show on BBC Radio 2 was Michael Ball's Sunday Brunch in 2008, replacing Michael Parkinson whose show Parkinson's Sunday Supplement had ended the previous year. The show aired on Sunday mornings between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. until September 2011, latterly sharing its time slot with Weekend Wogan presented by Terry Wogan.
After a short break, in 2013 Ball returned to Radio 2 with a new show, Sunday Night With Michael Ball, airing on Sunday evenings between 7 pm and 9 pm. Following the death of Sir Terry Wogan, Ball returned to the Sunday morning slot on 10 April 2016, with the show now titled The Michael Ball Show.[12] Claudia Winkleman took over the vacant Sunday evening slot later that month.
He was also a regular stand-in presenter for Ken Bruce until 2016 on the station.
On 2 April 2024, it was announced that Ball would be moving from his 11am-1pm Sunday lunchtime slot in June to take over Sunday Love Songs between 9am and 11am, following the passing of long time host Steve Wright in February. He will be replaced by Paddy McGuinness.
Personal life[edit]
Ball lives with his partner, the former presenter of Ready Steady Go!, Cathy McGowan in Barnes, London.[22] They met around 1989 when she was an entertainment reporter for a BBC London magazine show and interviewed him during rehearsals for Aspects of Love. They have lived together since 1992. On 23 December 2000, she saved his life by dragging him out of a house fire.[1][23] McGowan was previously married to actor Hywel Bennett, the marriage producing a daughter, Emma. Ball is godfather to Emma's son .
Ball returned to the Guildford School of Acting in April 2022 to deliver a speech to the graduating postgraduates of that year. Whilst there, the University of Surrey awarded Ball with an honorary doctorate.[24]
Ball's step granddaughter Grace Crompton represents England at rugby sevens and was chosen for the 2022 Commonwealth Games.[25]
Bibliography[edit]
Ball's debut novel The Empire set in the 1920s about a fictional theatre in the north of England was released on 13 October 2022.
On 12 October 2023 he will release a memoir titled Different Aspects reflecting on his appearances in the original production and the 2023 revival of Aspects of Love.