Coleen Nolan has revealed that she and all her siblings will help their sister Bernie in her battle with breast cancer.

Bernie revealed yesterday that she has become the third Nolan sister to be diagnosed with the disease and admitted that as it has already spread to her lymph nodes, she will need both chemotherapy and a mastectomy if she hopes to survive.

Dancing On Ice star Coleen Nolan told The Mirror that Bernie will have all the family support she needs during her treatment. She said: “She’s so strong, she’s really holding it all together. Obviously she’s had her moments but she’s strong and we all have to be strong for her. We’ve all been rallying round to help her.

“Once her treatment starts if she’s not feeling well, one or two of us will be there to help with her daughter Erin and her husband Steve.”

View the original post Sisters will help Bernie Nolan battle breast cancer on Unreality TV

Popstar To Operastar singer Bernie Nolan has revealed that she is the third one of her sisters to be diagnosed with breast cancer.

Admitting that the disease has already spread to her lymph nodes and that she is facing a grueling course of chemotherapy and a mastectomy of her left breast as part of her battle, the former Brookside actress told The News Of The World:

“Cancer’s a scary word but it can b****r off. I don’t care – just get this s*** out of me.

“I’m going to see my daughter grow up and I’ll fight it with everything I have

Bernie’s sisters Linda, 51, and Anne, 59, have both successfully battled cancer this decade and Bernie has pulled out of a planned tour of Mum’s The Word so that she can do the same.

“I’m fighting this. I’m going to kick its ass. Take one breast, take them both, I don’t care. I’m strong and I’m not going to let this defeat me. I’m not going to sit back and let that happen.”

She doesn’t yet know whether the surgery will come before or after the chemo, but Bernie insisted: “I’m going to lose my hair – they’ve told me that because they know the strength of chemo they have to give me.

“I’ll look a b****r with no hair, but I don’t care. I’ll wear a wig.”

“It’s about seeing my child grow up and having more fun with my sisters and life with my husband.”

She added: “Hopefully I might be helping someone. People need to go for mammograms. If they catch it early enough something can be done.

“I just hope my situation helps someone else or convinces one person to get themselves checked out.

“For me it’s all about life and seeing my child grow up. I am going to kick this into touch as soon as possible and get on with my life. It makes you realise what’s important in life. I am going to be 50 later this year and I am still going to have that party. I don’t care what I look like.

“And I’m sure we’ll do another Nolans tour next year. We might even call it the Survivors tour and try and give other survivors something to take their mind off their own situations.”

What an inspiring and courageous woman. Bernie, we wish you the best of luck in this difficult time!

View the original post Bernie Nolan battles breast cancer on Unreality TV

So tonight is the final Popstar to Operatsar show and singing for the winners title are Bernie Nolan and Darius Campbell.

For his first number Darius Campbell sang ‘Non Piu Andrai’. He performed this song a few weeks back but on his decision to sing it again tonight he told Myleene Klass:

‘I wanted to see if I could get through this performance with my flies up!’

Judges Comments:

Katherine: When you came into this comp you had the heart of a tenor. It settled much more in your bass baritone voice this time. Your usual standard, brilliant.

Lawrence: That was you back on form. That was what you do so well. Very cheeky, very sexy, very Darius performance.

Meatloaf: I loved the way you commanded your troops and the way you changed personality half way through.

For Bernie’s solo song, she chose to sing ‘Les Filles de Cadix’. We think she started a little weakly but picked up strength and lost the nerves as she went along. Her final big note was astounding and made up for any other flaws for us.

Judges Comments:

Katherine: I’m really pleased and really proud of you. Every time you sing you make me smile and I think your mum is smiling too.

Meatloaf: You’re hot and they’re not!

Rolando: I’m very happy that you changed the choreography tonight as that allowed you to have a more vocally controlled performance tonight.

DARIUS & ROLANDO DUET

For Darius’ second song he performed ‘The Impossible Dream’ with his mentor Rolando Villazon. We think that the key was much too low for Darius at the start and because of this he was really shown up by Rolando during the first verse. He sounded much better as he moved up his range, but we still preferred Rolando…who incidentally looks suspiciously like a muppet when he sings.

Judges Comments:

Lawrence: Come on guys have a bot of a man hug. That was the opera version of Brokeback Mountain.

Meatloaf: Darius do not ever forget this moment! Oh My God was that good!

BERNIE AND KATHERINE DUET

For Bernie’s second song she and Katherine Jenkins will sing West Side Story’s ‘Somewhere’. Katherine says she wants to showcase Bernie’s voice and thats something we were worried about. We’re hoping that her amazing voice doesn’t outshine Bernie’s completely.

Bernie sang beautifully but for us it was more of an opera pop performance than a pure opera rendition. This was especially obvious as she sang alongside such an experienced opera singer as Katherine.

Judges Comments:

Meatloaf: Bernie just rocked! That was unbelievable!

Lawrence: To echo what Katherine said, Bernie has been the most popular contestant that we’ve had. All our hearts are with you dear.

FINAL GROUP SONG

For the final group song Katherine and Rolando will sing Libiamo ne’ lieti calici with Darius and Bernie. It’s a drinking song from the opera La traviata, so the contestants should be able to have a bit of fun with it. Funnily enough we recently saw Paul Potts in concert and he and a female companion gave a fantastic and lively version of this song. In comparison we found tonight’s rendition a little slow paced and lacking in energy, however there is no doubt that Bernie Nolan in particular held her own against the two professional singers.

RESULTS

The winner of Popstar To Operastar 2010 (does that mean there will be a series next year?) is……….. DARIUS CAMPBELL!

We are delighted that Darius won, even though he wasn’t the best singer throughout the series. Hopefully, now that he has actually won a singing show, Darius will move away from reality TV and forge an actual real career elsewhere!

View the original post Popstar To Operastar THE FINAL liveblog! on Unreality TV

ITV have revealed that their two Popstar To Operastar finalists wll perform duets with two of the panellists on tonight’s live show.

Bernie Nolan and Darius Campbell will compete for the winners title this evening and both will perform a solo song along with a duet.

Nolan will sing ‘Les Filles de Cadix’ as her solo track and will later pair up with Katherine Jenkins for West Side Story’s ‘Somewhere’.

Campbell will perform ‘Non Piu Andrai’ and also a duet of ‘The Impossible Dream’ with Rolando Villazon.

Popstar To Operastar airs tonight at 9PM on ITV1

View the original post Contestants to duet with judges on Popstar To Operastar final on Unreality TV

Bernie Nolan has become the bookies favourite to win ITV’s Popstar To Operastar. The ‘Nolan Sisters’ singer, has revealed that she is competing on the show in honour of her late opera singing mother.

Bet365 are offering odds of 5/4 on Bernie stealing the show’s title this month and are also predicting that former Pop Idol star Darius Campbell will leave tonight.

Corrie actress Kym Marsh is 10/3 to win, ahead of former favourite Marcella Detroit who is now 7/2 with Bet365.

View the original post Popstar To Operastar: Bernie Nolan favourite to win, Darius Campbell to go? on Unreality TV

She may be one of the world famous Nolan Sisters and have legions of fans all around the world, but Bernie Nolan admits that taking part in ITV’s Popstar To Operastar is the scariest thing that she has ever done.

In an interview with The People, Bernie admitted that while she is desperate to win the show, she is overwhelmed by the amount of things she still has to learn about the singing style.

“I am so, so nervous,” she said. “I’ve been singing professionally since I was a teenager and have performed in huge arenas around the world.

“I’ve even learned to sing in Japanese because we were bigger than The Beatles out there and sold nine million records.

“But this is harder than anything I’ve ever done. I had never seen an opera in my life and didn’t know anything about it.

“It’s a totally different type of singing to pop and I’d need years to get anywhere near good at opera. But even though I’m a bag of nerves I’m loving every minute and I REALLY want to win.”

Bernie revealed that the reason the show means so much to her, is because her late mum was an opera singer and would be so proud to see her following in her footsteps.

“Mum was the only trained singer in the family. She got a scholarship to the Royal College of Music in Dublin but didn’t take it up because she wanted to do musical theatre instead.

“But she had an amazing voice and she used to say to me ‘I’m sure you could sing soprano too’. I wish she was here to see me – she’d be so proud and she’d be able to help me too. But every week when I perform I can feel her watching me and willing me on.

“Last week Marcella sang One Fine Day – that was my mum’s song which she sang on stage when the whole family used to perform together and it always blew people away.”

“I couldn’t listen to Marcella perform because I was on after her and wouldn’t have been able to hold it together.

“I get very emotional – thinking about Mum and my daughter Kate up there looking down on me.

Bernie is now the bookies favourite to win ITV’s PSTOS, ahead of remaining contestants Danny Jones, Darius Campbell, Kym Marsh and Marcella Detroit.

View the original post Popstar To Operastar’s Bernie Nolan ‘singing opera is the hardest thing I’ve ever done!’ on Unreality TV

Popstar To Opera Star continues on ITV1 tonight and we can’t wait to watch Delectable Darius once more. Although we are liveblogging the show, we may be about an hour behind the rest of you, curse that awful Celebrity Big Brother!

We start with a tedious introduction of the judges. We know who Meat Loaf is! Move on please.

DARIUS CAMPBELL
Darius kicks off tonight’s performances and someone on Twiter compared him to Mr Bean….which kind of ruined the illusion for us! This week Darius will be singing in French and apparently his mispronunciation is leading him to sing about asses. We thought that Darius’ performance was a lot stronger tonight, he definitely performed it well. We could so see him waving that cape about and being torn apart by an angry bull!

Judges Comments:

Rolando: You gave energy, you gave a performance but the French was not all there.

Lawrence: I think that we can now out you as a secret pretend matador as a child.

KYM MARSH

So Kym stuggled this week with her drinking song, which by the way we heard Paul Potts sing in concert last week. He was amazing at it, can Kym compare?

We really enjoyed Kym’s performance and think she might be a bit wasted on Coronation Street. With a voice like that, why is she wasting her time snogging mingers like Steve McDonald and Peter Barlow?

Judges Comments

Katherine: There is such a massive improvement on last week. You tend to go flat but you didn’t do that today. Next week we need to work on projection.

Meat Loaf: I think you have a real problem…and that is you’re going to get invited to every party in London from now on!

Lawrence: You were sophistcated, elegant and sexy!

DANNY JONES

Like Darius, Danny Jones struggled with the whole singing in another language thing this week and after a crash course in Italian he repeatedly strugled with one particular phrase.

Although his performance wasn’t as technically good as either Darius’ or Kym’s, it’s almost a foregone conclusion that he will reach the final of the series. Danny has an army of McFly fans backing him and no doubt voting for him repeatedly!

Judges Comments

Katherine: Swoon!

Rolando: Danny you worked very hard and this was a dangerous piece for him. He really kept the operatic voice and I’m very proud of you.

Meat Loaf: Danny I applaud you, you were there every moment.

Lawrence: I thought that was a very mature performance. It was all about opera and pop Danny was left behind.

MARCELLA DETROIT

It’s Shakespeare Sister girl again and though she impressed us vocallyon last week’s show, this week we’d like to see a bit more confidence and personality. Tonight she will be singing an aria from Madame Butterfly.

Marcella is by far the best amateur opera singer on the show and that shows in more difficult pieces the judges are choosing for her. We loved her tonight and thought that she looked a bit more comfortable than she did last week.

Judges Comments:

Katherine: I think you are far to hard on yourself. You had the hardeest song and you worked really hard. I thought it was outstanding.

Rolando: I think we worked very hard to the the emotion of the piece. But we did not hear that magnificent moment that we got in the rehearsal room.

Meat Loaf: She was singer about her lover coming back, if I was him I would be swimming to you.

VANESSA WHITE

So Vanessa was devatsted to be in the bottom two last week but not annoyed enough to make practice! Rolando was not a happy bunny at all. She’s singing Sumertime, which seems a bit easy in comparison to Marcella’ song but hey, if she hadn’t got the time to rehearse…..

Vanessa started off badly and it didn’t get much better from there. She was screechy at her top end and had no performance or emotion at all. We’re hoping that she leaves tonight.

Judges Comments:

Katherine: In fairness this is quite an easy song this week. It’s in English and I think you got away with it but if you had something more difficult it would have been a challenge.

Rolando: One thing is to say you want to give it 100%. Another thing is to perform like that….you did it!

Meat Loaf: I have to disagree with Katherine. I actually think it was the hardest song because it’s so well known and people know if you’ve nailed it or not.

Lawrence: I love the fragility in your voice.

BERNIE NOLAN

Tonight Bernie will be singing the love theme from the film The Godfather. We thought it was pretty unfair of Katherine to sing it with Bernie, how off putting would that be? Show off!! Bernie decided to try a high note at the end and then regretted sugesting it when she realised how difficult it would be. Luckily she pulled it off and her whole performance was about 10 notches above Vanessa’s. We would never have expected Berne to be such an accomplished vocalist, we wonder if Coleen can sing as well?

Judges Comments;

Katherine: That ending blew everyone away. It was amazing. I wish that I had that top note honestly. You were slightly ahead of the orchestra but I can forget that because the passion was there.

Meat Loaf: There are hitmen all over the world in tears right now.

Rolando:You took breaths in strange places but thats what I call a chaka chaka (?) performance!

Lawrence:It is extraordinary to hear the noises that you make.

JIMMY OSMOND

Jimmy is singing another song that we heard Paul Potts sing this week, the poor man just can’t hope to compare. The sight of Jimmy serenading his wife was quite sweet, he should make it through to next week just for that wee piece of lovliness.

Katherine criticised Jimmy last week for starting a phrase in his opera voice and finishing in his pop voice and it looks like he hasn’t managed to shed that habit. After the first two lines he could have been singing any Osmond’s sng in a different language.

Judges Comments:

Rolando: The words were not there and the voice was a little tired. You were struggling but you tried very hard.

Meat Loaf: Jimmy the middle of that stage right there, you did something with your hand and it was sexy dude. If your wife wasn’t heer I’d have you on the floor.

Lawrence: Last week you sold us ice cream, this week I thought it was a bit of cheese. Next week lets have opera and tragedy instead.

View the original post Popstar To Operastar liveblog: Friday 22nd January 2010 on Unreality TV

Bernie Nolan has admitted that she decided to sign up for ITV’s Popstar to Operastar in honour of her mum.

Bernie, one part of the celebrated Nolan Sisters said:

“When I heard about this series, it immediately appealed because my mother was the only trained singer in our family.

“She won a place at the Royal College of Music in Dublin, but didn’t go because she wanted to do musical theatre instead. That was a good decision because I wouldn’t be here if she’d gone to the college! But were she alive today, she’d be absolutely thrilled that I’m involved with this project. I’m doing it for her.”

Bernie, who sang lead vocals on The Nolans’ smash hit, “I’m In The Mood For Dancing,” continued that, “I can definitely take what I’ve learnt here back to my pop career. Pop singers tend to lose their voices a lot more than opera singers, and now I know why. With pop singers, the voice comes from the throat, which wears it out. With opera singers, it comes from the stomach which makes it last much longer. I now know to protect my instrument, as they call it. The other day, the teacher told me, ‘you have to sing from the diaphragm’. And I replied, ‘that’s funny – I don’t even wear one!’”

View the original post Bernie Nolan: ‘I’m doing Popstar To Operastar for my mum’ on Unreality TV

Bernie Nolan, one part of the celebrated Nolan Sisters, had a very personal reason for signing up for Popstar to Operastar. “When I heard about this series, it immediately appealed because my mother was the only trained singer in our family.

“She won a place at the Royal College of Music in Dublin, but didn’t go because she wanted to do musical theatre instead. That was a good decision because I wouldn’t be here if she’d gone to the college! But were she alive today, she’d be absolutely thrilled that I’m involved with this project. I’m doing it for her.”

Bernie, whose band have sold in excess of 25 million records worldwide, has already gained so much from being mentored by Katherine. “It’s a joy!,” beams the 49-year-old. “The experience has been incredible. I’m learning so many things I never knew I needed as a singer.”

Bernie, who sang lead vocals on The Nolans’ smash hit, “I’m In The Mood For Dancing,” continues that, “I can definitely take what I’ve learnt here back to my pop career. Pop singers tend to lose their voices a lot more than opera singers, and now I know why. With pop singers, the voice comes from the throat, which wears it out. With opera singers, it comes from the stomach which makes it last much longer. I now know to protect my instrument, as they call it. The other day, the teacher told me, ‘you have to sing from the diaphragm’. And I replied, ‘that’s funny – I don’t even wear one!’”

The singer, whose group supported Frank Sinatra, underlines that Popstar to Operastar, “is such a great idea. It’s a reality TV show where you actually have to learn something. But boy is it difficult! You’re learning a new way of singing and breathing, and in a foreign language. I can’t refer to anything, and I might be putting intonation in the wrong places. And if I lose my place in the lyrics, I’ve had it!”

The singer underscores how much she is relishing her time with Katherine. “She’s so lovely,” Bernie enthuses. “The other day, she was making a point she couldn’t quite explain, so she just sung it. She was amazing, but all the time I was thinking, ‘please don’t sing. It makes me feel rubbish!’ It’s been so great. I’ve learnt something new every single day.”

View the original post Popstar to Operastar: Bernie Nolan on Unreality TV

The main show on Channel Four will be presented by Jamie Theakston and former ‘The Games’ contestant, Kirsty Gallacher and will be followed by an E4 spin off show with backstage interviews etc. This show will be called ‘Trackside’ and will be presented by Justin Lee Collins and Caroline Flack.

This years contestants are as follows

Amanda Lamb,
Julia Goldsworthy,
Bernie Nolan,
Javine,
Michelle Gayle,

Peter Duncan,
Goldie
MC Plat’num aka Marcel Somerville
Jade Jones,
JK (Jason King),

View the original post Channel Four’s ‘The Games’, Here’s The Final Contestant List! on Unreality TV