West End & Broadway Star Kerry Ellis Joins ENCORE RADIO

The award-winning star of Wicked, Rent and Les Miserables will host her own 3-hour show every Saturday afternoon.

She has conquered the West End and Broadway, winning awards on both sides of the Atlantic as Elphaba the green-faced star of Wicked.

Now Kerry Ellis, who originated the role of Meat in Queen's We Will Rock You and starred as Nancy in Oliver! at Drury Lane, Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady, Ellen in Miss Saigon, Maureen in RENT and Fantine in Les Miserables, has signed to new radio station ENCORE RADIO to present her own weekly show, starting Saturday 5 November.

"I am so excited to announce this," said Kerry. "It's going to be such a buzz to play three hours of my favourite musical theatre songs every Saturday afternoon and I'll also be talking to some very special West End guests. When I was growing up, I listened to Barbra Streisand, Liza Minnelli, Celine Dione and Michael Ball, which we both giggle about now when we do concerts together! But as well as playing tracks from my own stage heroes I'll be playing some less well know musical theatre gems. If you love musicals as much as I do then you won't want to miss a show - we are going to have so much fun every week!"

Head of Content Jamie Crick, said: "We are thrilled to welcome Kerry, the First Lady of the West End, to the ENCORE RADIO family. With Kerry on air every Saturday between 1pm and 3pm and "Hollyoaks", Blue and West End star Duncan James hosting his own show on Sundays between 10am and 1pm, ENCORE RADIO is unmissable. Make sure you make a date every week with the biggest stars of the West End."

ENCORE RADIO is a brand new 24-hour 7-day-a-week radio station playing hits from musicals and films. It launched on October 24, and presents a non-stop mix of West End and Broadway favourites from shows loved by millions of theatregoers across the UK. ENCORE RADIO is available through its free app for tablet, iphone and android smartphones, online via www.encoreradio.co.uk, and on DAB digital radio across London and the South East.

ENCORE RADIO's weekly schedule includes several stand alone programmes featuring in-depth interviews with West End stars, broadcasts from opening nights and backstage news and gossip and reviews of the reviews of the shows.

ENCORE RADIO is now the no1 destination for theatre lovers and people who enjoy music from the stage and films. It is backed by major radio group UKRD, which owns and operates 14 local commercial radio stations with a further 8 services delivered via DAB, the station has studios in London and Guildford.

Kerry Ellis

Kerry Ellis has fast become recognised as the leading lady of West End musicals from her starring roles in London and on Broadway. She has also achieved chart-topping success as a recording artist signed to Universal Decca with her debut album Anthems.

Kerry originated the role of Meat, in Queen's We Will Rock You and was the first British Elphaba in the West End smash, Wicked, for which Kerry won the 2008 Whatsonstage.com Award for 'Best Takeover in a Role'. She then immediately transferred to Broadway and played Elphaba at the Gershwin Theater for six months, where she won the Broadway.com Audience Award for Favourite Female Breakthrough Performance, before returning to London for six months in 2009.

Her many other leading role credits include Nancy in Oliver! at Drury Lane, Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady, Ellen in Miss Saigon and Fantine in Les Miserables.

Kerry's first major CD release was the amazing Wicked in Rock, a collaboration with long time friend and Queen guitarist, Brian May. This led to her being signed to Universal as a solo recording artist and her debut album Anthems was released in 2010 on Decca Records.

The success of the album, which reached No.15 in the UK album chart, and No.10 in the UK pop club charts (for Defying Gravity), led to a major tour Anthems: The Concert throughout 2011, which kicked off at the Royal Albert Hall.

Other performances include singing the National Anthem for the FA Cup match at Wembley Stadium, a sold out tour of Champions of Rock in Sweden, and playing Svetlana to critical acclaim in Chess at the Royal Albert Hall opposite Idina Menzel and Josh Groban.

In 2012 Kerry joined forces with Brian May again and performed a new arrangement of I Who Have Nothing at the Sanremo Festival in Italy, which was screened, live across Europe, The pair recently recorded a new version of the well known song Born Free and shot a documentary in South Africa to accompany the track highlighting the charity work of the Born Free foundation.

At the end of 2012 she starred in the Arena tour of Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds alongside Jason Donavan and Ricky Wilson of the Kaiser Chiefs.

Kerry's dream of performing her first solo concert at the London Palladium materialised in May 2013. The concert was such a huge success that it sparked a desire for her to reach out o all her fans by taking it up and down the country. Kerry did 13 dates across the UK finishing at The Cadogan Hall. The concert celebrated her theatre career to date, singing songs from all the roles she has created and played.

Kerry took over from Nicole Scherzinger as the role of Grizabella in Cat's in 2015 at the London Palladium. In June last year continuing her long term working relationship with Brian May she performed to a 12,000 seat Arena in Verona which was televised across Italy. Kerry & Brian have just completed an extended tour of Italy and Eastern Europe called 'One Voice'. They are currently in the studio recording a new album, Anthems II, due for release in March 2017.

Kerry has recently returned to the West End to star in a new musical, Murder Ballad, for which she has garnered rave reviews.

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