Standing Ovation is the album I've always wanted to make. My fourth album in three years and probably the one I am most proud of.
You see, I have a long standing affiliation with musicals. As a wee girl the family would often congregate round the TV watching the old classics, South Pacific, Mary Poppins, Oliver, Fiddler on the Roof and then as I got older I went to see my first stage musical Les Miserables and from there I was hooked, captivated and I loved the way you could transform yourself into another world with the emotive lyrics.
This album is also extra special to me as I got the chance to duet with my childhood idol Donny Osmond. Not only did we record together, I was then invited to sing with him in LA on Dancing With the Stars and then to Las Vegas to perform in his show at the Flamingo.
It was a surreal experience and one that I will never forget. I was so nervous before going on stage, I can't begin to tell you. It's one thing meeting the person you have idolised since you were 13 but to have to get up on stage, well I felt like I had a severe case of stage fright. It was so overwhelming but at the same time so exciting that another dream had come true and another box ticked on my bucket list.
This year I have wanted to get far more involved in promotion for the album. I'm less weary of talking to people and I felt I wanted to give back something to say thank you for all the support that has been given to me by so many over the past few years.
I will be signing albums in HMV in Glasgow and Edinburgh, I have a trip to New York to do performances on the Today show and some other great shows and see my old friend, Piers Morgan. I'm performing on a host of UK TV shows including the lottery, This Morning, Lorraine and I'm very excited to be able to support Children In Need again this year. That evening is one of the highlights for me.
I have become a little more technologically savvy this year too and taken part in some Twitter Q&As. Despite temperamental internet they have been great fun to take part in and I really enjoy all the varied questions. Not only does it give me a direct line of communication to fans which is so vitally important I can also reassure people that rumours that pop up are simply not true. I've also helped come up with questions for a new facebook app. It was fun to create these questions and see how well people know me and also musical trivia.
It has been another fantastic year- I've tried to rise to the new challenges and settle my fears that this will all be over soon. I'm enjoying myself more and feel that life in my career as well as in my personal life is getting better. Here's hoping you enjoy this album as much as I enjoyed making it.
Standing Ovation is out on 19 November. You can pre-order it by clicking here.