Beverley Knight's rise to become one of Britain's biggest musical stars - and her ongoing pride for Wolverhampton

There aren't many honours Beverley Knight hasn't won in her home city of Wolverhampton.

It is rightly proud of a woman who has become a global music star and one of the biggest names in West End theatre.

And, despite it all, she has remained proud to be a Wulfrunian and a part of the wider West Midlands, and fiercely supportive of the region and its people.

Knight grew up in the suburbs of the city and attended Highfields School, taking part in local grassroots theatre before going on to perform in her first show where she played Rachel Marron in The Bodyguard. 

She has never forgotten the impact the school's drama department had on her and is a frequent visitor back to watch productions and help with school events.

In 2023, Highfields held a black tie event and opened  its doors to teachers and pupils past and present to celebrate the return of the music icon. Knight was influenced by her drama teacher Sharon Bishop, who helped organise the school event and was in no doubt about the importance of her on current students.

Speaking in 2023, Ms Bishop spoke of the impact the actress and singer has had on the school and its pupils, adding:  "This is incredibly important, this lets the kids see that a career in arts is a viable option.

"It's important for them to see that the arts are accessible and you don't have to go to a private school or be in London, it's vitally important. Beverley is part of our performing arts family, she is just so wonderful."

Knight was given the Freedom of Wolverhampton back on 2018 and spoke of her "special city", adding:  'From those days as a teen to where I am now, and the crazy journey my career has been on – it's just amazing. 

"Here I am, back at home with my own people who are recognising what I do. It's brilliant. I just wish my dad was here today to see this, but I'm sure he's watching from somewhere.

"I love Wolverhampton. And that's not Birmingham, it's Wolverhampton." 

Beverley Knight MBE always loved music, flourishing at school and at church. She attended Woodfield Infant and Junior Schools, which encouraged amateur dramatics and music and that continued at Highfields, which has a reputation for drama.

Speaking of her love of music as a child, she said: "The first time I heard music would have been in church. My mum was often called upon: 'Come on sister Dolores. Lead us in song!' Singing was the most natural thing in the world. I thought, doesn't everybody's mum lead the congregation at church in song?" 

In 2023, Knight wrote a 'Letter to Myself'  for Big Issue magazine, when she spoke of her early passion for music, which was driven on by her natural ambition to be the best she could be.

She said: "Music was one, two, three, four, five, six and seven. But I was also pretty sporty. That’s a lifetime thing, I love sport. I was doing a lot of athletics – 100 metres, 200 metres, long jump. All the things that taller people should do. I had these little legs that worked quickly. So I was well into my sport. Although we didn’t play football, because back then whoever heard of girls playing football, but I loved football, I’d watch boxing – following my dad. It was the era when boxing was at its height. But music and theatrical performance were absolutely everything for me. 

"I was already obsessed with Prince. The whole school knew I was this mental Prince fan. We did a student exchange about that age when I went to Lake Oswego High School in Portland, Oregon. A bunch of us were there for almost a month and then those kids came to us. 

"I carried my Walkman with my cassette of Prince’s LoveSexy album, which had just been released. That was all I could listen to. Everybody else was listening to Bros but I was Prince, Prince, Prince. But I also loved Whitney, Aretha – so I was old school as well, listening to people who were not my generation, like Parliament and Funkadelic. I was like a mini-Paul Gambaccini – I was bang into it and didn’t care what the genre was.

"Church music was absolutely essential in my musical development. Singing in church taught me how to deliver a message through music. It was not just singing at people, but thinking, how do I want the audience – or the congregation – to feel when I’m singing these words? How do I want the words to land and how do I do that with this instrument, this voice? Never mind all the technical stuff, that can come later, but how do you make people jump with joy or weep with ecstasy – and that’s what I learned."

In her article for the Big Issue, Knight speaks of growing up in Wolverhampton, a city she loves but that also brought challenges.

She said: "Wolverhampton was and is diverse.  The thing that mostly distinguished people was money. Did you have it or did you not? Wealthy areas were diverse, ethnically; poor areas were diverse, ethnically. Mum and dad were immigrants who came here and worked hard in the NHS and a building business, which now, puts us, I guess, lower middle-class. I was the first person in my family to go to university. 

"My generation mucked in together, but my parents’ generation was still eyeing each other with a hell of a lot of suspicion.  So when I was a child, we had some instances that were really not pleasant. Racial abuse. But as I got into my teenage years and I began to understand myself and my heritage and looked in the mirror with a sense of pride about where I come from, we pretty much all just got on. We lived through Thatcher’s governments, which we argued about massively – so I lived in a Britain that was in flux. The older generation were losing their damn minds, but we were alright."



Spotted as a teenager, the 52-year-old enjoyed a successful pop career in the early 2000s and has since also transitioned into one of Britain's most accomplished West End stage performers, with acclaimed roles in musicals including Sister act and Rosetta, which she brought to Wolverhampton's Grand Theatre for a successful run. She has since become a patron for the city centre theatre.

She still loves returning to performing as a solo singer and will next year embark on a Born to Perform tour, where she will present a mixture of her greatest hits, tracks from her new album The Fifth Chapter and songs from her theatre work.

The tour starts in Ipswich in June and, naturally, ends in her home city with a date at The Halls in Wolverhampton on June 30.

She said: " “I’m excited to get back on the road but with a different kind of show folk are used to with me. Born to Perform is me taking you on a journey through my life on both music and theatre stages, using my memories and of course my songs. I’m stripping back my sound so the audience can lean in a little closer and really hear my soul.” 

Beverley Knight continues to thrive in the music industry and remains a proud Wulfrunian. And she is happy that she has stuck to her principles.

Asked in an interview what she would tell her younger self, she said: "Stick with it. You are absolutely fulfilling your purpose in life. It’s not just that you want to sing, you’ve been put on the earth to sing. Do it and don’t let anybody dissuade you."