Peabo Bryson, Ruben Studdard, und Sheena Easton

Best known for singing a range of soft-rock ballads, Peabo Bryson is an American R&B singer-song writer. I know him best for singing the Beauty and the Beast song with Céline Dion, a personal favourite of mine. If you're a Disney fan you're bound to love this guy like I do, just because of his performance. At only 14 years old, he made his first debut by singing backup for Al Freeman and the Upsetters. His name is actually Peapo, but due to people's difficulty in pronouncing his name, he decided to change it to Peabo. He has an enchantingly beautiful voice, I can't say many of his songs stick in my mine but I do love to listen to his music when I'm relaxing with a glass of wine. His greatest hits include 'Feel the Fire', 'I'm So Into You' and 'Crosswinds' and several more. He actually won a Grammy Award for his performance in Beauty and the Beast in 1992, including another one for 'A whole New World' from Aladdin, which he performed with Regina Belle. He's done several theater and opera productions throughout his career, which proves what a talented performer he is live. He can reach the hearts of everyone in an audience and would undoubtedly leave with a standing ovation at any of his performances. He is a very talented man that deserves a lot of appreciation from his fans.

‘Home’ is one of my favourite songs, and Ruben Studdard’s R&B twist on the song that opened the show was absolutely magical, and as his gospel voice rang out across the auditorium, he held every single member of the crowd in complete silence. After winning American Idol back some years ago, he was one of the lucky ones who rose to fame from the success, and has released many albums and singles with much success since his win.

He played through a great selection of his tracks, both covers and originals, and focused mainly on his 2009 album, Love Is. He was great at encouraging us all in the audience to sing and dance along to his music, and would shout out ‘if you know this one sing along and put your arms in the air’, which was awesome to feel so involved in his performances.

Studdard is an incredibly performer as well as vocalist, and his witty humour and confident stance held the audience captivated from start to finish. He even took requests for songs after he’d finished playing through his set list, which I thought was an awesome and really personal touch.

It’s probably fair to say that for any British solo artist, the holy grail is really being able to achieve transatlantic success; it’s actually incredible to take a step back and consider the fact that artists like Robbie Williams, capable of selling out Knebworth three times over here in the UK, is relatively obscure by way of comparison over in the States. Of course, Scotland can lay claim to having a female solo artist who’s managed that particular crossover in spectacular style in recent years, in the form of Susan Boyle, but it’s also fair to say that Sheena Easton - who hails from Belshill in North Lanarkshire - could also be viewed as similarly successful, given the fact that she matched her slew of top ten solo singles in this country - the likes of ‘Modern Girl’ and ‘9 to 5’ included - with a host of Grammy nominations over in America, two of which she’s won. With over twenty million records shifted to date, Easton has been relatively inactive in recent years, with last year’s remasters of a handful of her classic records being as close to new material as we’ve gotten in a while; she seldom tours, but would surely be able to book huge venues around the world if she chose to mount a comeback.