'I never really had a big plan,' explains one of the UK's biggest and most recognisable voices. 'I just knew I wanted to sing.'

And that's precisely what Heather Small did, selling several million records, winning two Brit Awards and the Mercury Music Prize, performing across the globe (most recently for Oprah's massive TV audience) and recording a track that has become an unofficial national anthem - international anthem even. She's now a gay icon, a black icon, an icon for sportsmen and women everywhere and a bit of a Forces' sweetheart after her appearance at the VE Day celebrations. Not bad for a woman supposedly taking time out to look after her nine-year-old son.

Born to a bus conductor dad and a waitress mum in Ladbroke Grove in 1965, Heather grew up on a musical diet of everything from calypso to the Clash. Always a natural dancer, she toyed with the idea of pursuing it, but after narrowly avoiding an audition in front of West End diva Arlene Philips ('My dance teacher said, "You've got a natural ability to dance, I want you to go along," but I was too shy!' remembers Heather), she set her sights firmly on singing.

So, while most teenagers were spending their free time as far away from school as possible, Heather was busy in the school library digging out copies of Melody Maker and poring over the Singers Wanted pages. 'My friends used to laugh,' she remembers. 'They'd say, "You're not going to reply to any of those ads," but I'd just say, 'When I see the right ad, I'll know".'

Heather finally 'knew' when she saw an advert for a group name-checking her childhood heroes Gladys Knight and Aretha Franklin. She was invited for her first ever audition, won the rest of the band over as soon as she opened her mouth, and became the lead singer in Hot House.

And although Hot House only had a short lifespan, her powerful vocals brought her to the attention of Mike Pickering, a DJ at Manchester's legendary Haçienda nightclub. The pair bonded so well that an initial lunch meeting turned into a lunch, dinner, then on-to-a-nightclub meeting, with Heather then heading over to Mike's studio to listen to the songs he'd written with her in mind. It was there that she met Paul Heard and M People was born.

'I don't know the figures of how many records we sold; I'm not interested,' shrugs Heather (it's over 10 million worldwide, by the way). 'What's important to me, when I look back, is did I enjoy it? Did I do the best I could? And I did.' Continued>