Kate Ryan
Biography
Katrien Verbeeck, known as Kate Ryan, was born on 22 July 1980 in Tessenderlo, Belgium.
Born into a musical family, she learned piano and guitar from the age of eight and took singing and piano lessons from her aunt, a conservatory teacher. As a teenager she frequently performed in bars and cafés and was discovered by a manager.
At sixteen she joined the pop group Melt, active for two years without commercial releases. Her meeting with producer Andy Janssens led her to leave the group to write music with him.
Their first single, Scream For More (2001), achieved unexpected chart success. Her international profile was established by her cover of Désenchantée, which became a hit on European pop charts.
Signed to EMI Belgium, she released her debut album Different in 2002 exclusively in Europe; the album was certified gold with over 250,000 copies sold across the continent and found an audience in the United States as an import.
Her second album, Stronger, was released in Europe in 2004 and in North America in 2005; it includes Another Day and The Rain and performed well on the dance charts.
In 2006 she won the Belgian national final and represented Belgium at the Eurovision Song Contest with Je t'adore; unexpectedly she did not qualify for the grand final, finishing 12th in the semi-final.
A winner of a World Music Award in 2008 in the category “World’s Best Selling Benelux Artist”, she has sold around 3.5 million records during her career.