Forget your 40 million albums, Mum. Obama gig’s MUCH cooler!
SHE has sold more than 40 million albums worldwide as the lead singer of one of Scotland’s most successful pop bands.
Yet Texas frontwoman Sharleen Spiteri’s showbiz CV has failed to genuinely impress her teenage daughter – until now.
The 49-year-old will join a select list of stars to perform for President Barack Obama at a charity dinner during his first ever visit to Scotland this week – much to her daughter Misty Kyd’s delight.
Spiteri, who topped the charts again last month with Texas’ ninth studio album, revealed the news ‘blew the 14-year-old’s mind’.
She said: ‘We have the Obama gig, which we are really excited about. My daughter is almost 15, and she has got excited a couple of times about certain things, but this blew her mind.
‘When I said “You’ll never guess who we have been asked to play for?” She was like “Mum... Mum.”
‘She said: “Can I come? can I come? Are you going to meet him?” I said: “Well hopefully I am going to meet him.”
‘She then asked: “Is Michelle going to be there?”
‘It was so amazing to see a young kid be aware of what the Obamas have done, how they have changed perceptions, and that is something I felt very proud of, that she wanted to meet him.’
Eurythmics star Annie Lennox and comedian Kevin Bridges will also take to the stage at the fundraiser on Friday at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre, organised by The Hunter Foundation.
All of the cash raised will be split between children’s charities in Scotland and the Obama Foundation, set up by the 44th US president and his wife Michelle.
Ticket prices for tables of ten ranged from £5,000 to £20,000.
Spiteri, who is getting married to fiancé, chef Bryn Williams, later this year, said the concert was a career high-point – nearly three decades since the release of Texas’ debut album Southside.
She added: ‘I feel pretty darn good.’