Sarah Brightman is an actress, songwriter, dancer, and singer from Berkhamsted, England. Brightman started her career as a dancer as a part of the Hot Gossip troupe, before beginning her career as an actress in Cats. While a part of the cast of Cats, she met Andrew Lloyd Webber. She and Lloyd Webber were married from 1984 until 1990. With the end of their marriage came the end of Brightman’s theater career as she transitioned into a solo music career.
Throughout the 1990s, Brightman released five studio albums, As I Came of Age, Dive, Fly, Time to Say Goodbye, and Eden. While Dive and Fly both achieved Gold status in Canada and Germany respectively, it was not until Time to Say Goodbye that true success arrived. Time to Say Goodbye reached the peak of the US Classical Music Billboard charts, and went Platinum in eight different countries. Success followed with Eden, which reached 65 on the Billboard 200, and once again took the top spot on the US Classical Music Billboard charts.
The 1990s also brought quite a few accolades to Brightman as she won a 1998 Taiwanese Grammy for Best Selling Record, a 1999 Czechoslovakian Grammy for Singer of the Year, as well as a number of other awards. 2000 brought Brightman’s first foray into acting in movies when she played a role in the German film Zeit der Erkenntnis. Brightman would go on to be in three other films: Repo! The Genetic Opera, Amarufi: Megami no hôshû, and First Night. La Luna, also released in 2000, was Brightman’s greatest success to date, charting at 17 on the Billboard 200 and charted on 13 different countries.
The rest of the 2000s saw Brightman try different things with her music. 2003’s Harem saw her introduce many different elements into her music including Middle-Eastern and Indian rhythms. Despite changing up her winning formula, Harem still performed well on the charts, charting at number 29 on the Billboard 200. Symphony performed even better, reaching number 13 on the Billboard 200, which was her highest charting record in the United States. A Winter Symphony is her first foray into Holiday music. This was also her first album since 1997’s Time to Say Goodbye that did not reach number one on the Classical chart.
