Claire Richards

Claire Richards (born 17 August 1977) is an English singer who is best known for being in the pop group Steps.

She went on to work as a receptionist for seven months, winning the temporary worker of the month award for May 1997.

Richards auditioned for the lineup that would become Steps.

She was offered a place in the group on the condition that she lost weight.

Steps were formed by Steve Crosby & Barry Upton (writers of "5, 6, 7, 8") alongside Manager Tim Byrne after auditioning hopefuls who answered an ad in The Stage newspaper.

She joined the group in 1997 along with Ian "H" Watkins, Lisa Scott-Lee, Faye Tozer and Lee Latchford-Evans, and the band enjoyed considerable popularity across the world over the next five years.

After Richards and her fellow group mate Ian "H" Watkins resigned during the last leg of their final tour, the two continued singing as the duo H & Claire.

The pair experienced success with their debut single "DJ", which reached No. 3 on the UK Singles Chart, and their next two singles, which both charted in the top 10.

While the duo had initial success, their album Another You, Another Me, which was released in 2002, did not chart high.

Richards also co hosted alongside Brian Dowling and Tess Daly on SMTV Live in 2002.

She took a break from singing to plan her wedding to Steps dancer Mark Webb.

H & Claire disbanded in 2003.

After leaving her music career, Richards wanted to take a break from music and concentrate on other projects; she was set to release a debut solo album but due to falling pregnant Richards decided to not pursue music any further.

It was announced in May 2011 that Richards would be taking part in the second series of Popstar to Operastar making it her first major high-profile appearance in nearly ten years.

The series started on ITV on 5 June.

She appeared on OK! TV on 6 June to promote the show.

Despite a much-praised performance of the Queen of the Night aria from Mozart's Magic Flute in the semi-final, she lost out on a place in the final to Cheryl Baker.

Steps reformed in May 2011 for a four-part documentary series on Sky Living titled Steps: Reunion.

The series started airing on 28 September, following an announcement of a second greatest hits album, The Ultimate Collection, that was released on 10 October 2011.

The album entered the charts at number one, becoming the band's third album to achieve this feat.

The second series of Steps: Reunion titled "Steps: On the Road Again" aired on Sky Living in April 2012; the series followed the band as they embarked on their sellout 22-date UK tour.

On 3 January 2013, Richards entered Celebrity Big Brother and came in fourth place.

In 2013, she announced on Twitter that there was a possibility of her producing a solo album to the success of Steps.

Richards was a contestant on eleventh series of Celebrity Big Brother and came fourth place as the show ended on 25 January 2013.

From April to June 2014, she was a regular panellist on Loose Women.

Richards took part in the fourth series of The Masked Singer UK and was unmasked as “Knitting”.

Richards began her career in the pop trio TSD.

They had little success and were dropped by their record label Avex after the release of their second single "Baby I Love You".

On 1 and 7 April 2014, Richards was a guest panellist on the ITV lunchtime chat show Loose Women.

Following this, she became a permanent panellist, making her debut on 10 April 2014.

She subsequently made a further seven appearances, with her last being on 23 June 2014.

Richards released her first solo material, a cover of the Steps track "One for Sorrow" on 30 July 2015 via her official SoundCloud.

The acoustic version of the track was recorded for an event honouring Steps' producer Pete Waterman.

The track was arranged and produced by Steve Anderson with whom Richards was now working on a full album.

In September 2015, after much fan demand, Richards released a stripped back version of "Deeper Shade of Blue".

The track, which was recorded in one take was released on Amazon, iTunes and streaming services on 4 September.B

On 8 August 2017, Richards made a cameo appearance as herself on the BBC Scotland soap opera River City.

As a solo artist, Richards has released two studio albums: her debut, My Wildest Dreams, was released in 2019 and Euphoria, a covers album, was released in 2023.

Richards was a contestant on the second series of Popstar to Operastar before being voted off in the semi-finals.

She possesses the vocal range of a soprano.