91Èȱ¬

She was born on 17 June 1983 in Lisburn, Northern Ireland, and lived in Dorset, England before moving to a village near Haverfordwest in Pembrokeshire at the age of six. She attended Hayscastle Junior School and later Sir Thomas Picton School, and is a fluent speaker of Welsh.

From a young age Fisher was a member of Côr Newyddion Da, and she competed annually in the Urdd Gobaith Cymru, National and International Eisteddfodau.

As a teenager she joined Haverfordwest Operatic Society, for whom she appeared in a number of productions including The Pirates Of Penzance and South Pacific. She was also a member of the Torch Youth Theatre where she performed in George Buchner's play Woyzek.

Between 1999 and 2002 Fisher joined the National Youth Music Theatre, where her roles included Lady of the Lake in the UK tour of Pendragon, and Morgan Le Fay for the production's Japanese tour in 2001. The following year she won the Wilbert Lloyd Roberts Scholarship in the Songs from the Shows competition in the National Eisteddfod, and the Milford and West Wales Mercury talent competition.

In 2002 she was awarded a full scholarship to the Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts in London, from which she graduated in 2005 with a first class degree in musical theatre, as well as the Gyearbuor Asante prize for being the top student. At Mountview she performed in Annie Get Your Gun, A... My Name Is Alice, Jerry's Girls and Carousel.

After leaving Mountview Fisher worked at a pizza restaurant and in telesales, a period she later described as "completely demoralising". She made her professional theatre debut at Christmas 2005, playing Princess Samina in the pantomime Aladdin at the Torch Theatre, Milford Haven, and the following year she won the £1,000 cash prize and the Gower Trophy in the final of the 2006 Welsh Musical Theatre Young Singer of the Year Competition, held at Swansea Grand Theatre.

Her big break came in 2006, when she took part - and eventually won - the 91Èȱ¬ talent show How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?. The series aimed to find a performer to play Maria von Trapp in a new West End production of The Sound Of Music, produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber.

It began on 29 July 2006, following open auditions, and was shown on Saturday evenings on 91Èȱ¬ One. Connie Fisher won the competition during the final on 16 September, and was given a six-month contract to play Maria.

Her debut in The Sound Of Music came on 15 November, which received positive reviews, and her contract was extended until February 2008. Fisher became in demand as a performer, and on 1 July 2007 appeared at the Concert for Diana at Wembley Stadium before 63,000 people. In August that year she also performed at Bryn Terfel's Faenol Festival.

Connie Fisher's debut album, Favourite Things, was released on 9 October 2006 and contained a number of show tunes and modern classics. It peaked at number 14 in the UK album chart. She also featured on a new soundtrack from the stage show The Sound Of Music, released on 11 December 2006.

A follow-up album, Secret Love, was released in February 2009. As with Favourite Things, it featured show tunes and songs from classic films, plus a cover of Buddy Holly's True Love Ways and a new Andrew Lloyd Webber song called First Impression Counts.