Readers Digest UK - December 2021

DECEMBER 2021 • 23

READER’S DIGEST

been central to Aled’s development

as a singer and presenter and was

a habit formed in childhood.

He grew up in Anglesey, North

Wales where his mother was a

primary school teacher and his

father was an engineer. “There was

always music in my family. My family

and grandparents sang and I was

encouraged to sing and perform at

school”, he says.

Soon after he joined the choir

at Bangor Cathedral, he was made

lead soloist. The remarkable quality

of his treble voice was noticed by a

member of the congregation who

wrote to a local recording company

about it, “without even my mum and

dad knowing. The first my parents

knew of it was when they received a

letter from the company, asking if
I fancied doing a record”, says Aled.
He went on to make several
and had made 12 albums before
recording the mega-selling “Walking
In The Air”. It should have made him
a teen multi-millionaire but Aled
denies this. “I didn’t become very
rich. My father put the money away
for me for later. It wasn’t about the
money. I was more interested in
singing at Hollywood Bowl (in Los
Angeles) or going to Disneyland.”
When his voice broke at 16, it
made national news. His soprano
career was over although by now
he had sold an astonishing 6 million
albums. As he was advised to rest
his voice for a couple of years, he
took an acting course at the Bristol
ST Old Vic Theatre School and in 1990

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