Musician

The international travelling gets harder as I get older, but when I'm performing on stage, it makes it all worth while.

My mother was the only one who encouraged and inspired me for singing. She was singing all the time in the house, playing records also.

When I did the video for 'Holding Out For A Hero,' we filmed that on top of the Grand Canyon, and that was quite frightening. I was close to the edge, and there was a helicopter hovering about, creating a lot of wind, and I was nervous I was going to fall off.

My voice was left with its husky sound after surgery on large vocal nodules.

When I tour with the new album, I still do the classics, and I love the atmosphere it creates with the whole audience singing along.

My father used to tape 'Top of the Pops' for me every Sunday, and I would sit in my bedroom, write down the lyrics of all of my favourite songs, and sing along. I was always singing in my bedroom with a hairbrush.

I suppose I don't have to work, but I do love working. I class myself as a working-class girl, and I've never stopped working. When I'm offered shows here, there and the other, I do an awful lot because I feel other people would love to be offered what I'm offered; who am I to say no? I'm definitely working class, and I always will be.

I love watching movies with happy endings or anything with Steve Martin or stuff like that.

I am itching like hell to play America because I know that if I did the show over there, they would love it.

I love Tina Turner. I'm one of Tina Turner's biggest fans. Tina Turner was a big influence on me to become a singer. A role model and in a way she gave me back my confidence in choosing my material.

I am going to keep on singing. I have no intention of retiring. Actually, I always wonder whether people know my songs in the different countries I visit. I feel nervous over whether they will sing along with me or not.

I haven't had a big hit record in America since 1987.

Every country I've had different hit records, so we have to change the set to fit the country.

In 1983 I'd had a number one. I'd sold 6 million copies of Total Eclipse Of The Heart all over the world.

My mother, who died aged 82, had Alzheimer's. Losing your memory is bad enough, but everything shuts down. You can't remember how to eat or go to the toilet. It's a terrible disease and so distressing to watch it take over someone you love.

When you're in the music business, every day is the same. If you work 9 to 5, you can't wait for the weekend, but in the music business, you don't know one day from the next. It's always the weekend.

I wear my heart on my sleeve.

I'm told sometimes I look like Goldie Hawn, and I get chuffed about that.

I lost dozens of pairs of expensive glasses because I'd put them down and then not be able to find them again.

We all have a great time. And then I go to bed, get up and do it all over again. I like my life.