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Queen Elizabeth II

Jubilee singer Katherine Jenkins presented with OBE

<![CDATA[Welsh mezzo-soprano Katherine Jenkins, a favourite of Her Majesty's, who was awarded an OBE earlier this year, was presented with her OBE by the Prince of Wales at Buckingham Palace today.

The 33-year-old received the OBE in The New Year’s Honours list for 2014 for her services to music and charitable services. However, this is not the first award for the popular singer. Two of the ten studio albums released since her debut in 2004 have won a Classic Brit Award for Album of the Year. She has also sung at a number of television and sporting events and, in 2012, she competed on the television show Dancing with the Stars, where she placed second.
Katherine Jenkins first sang in front of The Queen at the Royal Variety Performance in 2005, and subsequently at the Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance at Royal Albert Hall in 2006 and 2007. She also performed at the first and only open-air concert hosted at Balmoral in 2006 to celebrate Her Majesty’s 80th birthday.
Perhaps her most notable royal role was in the Diamond Jubilee celebrations in 2012 when she sang the National Anthem at the Epsom Derby.
Miss Jenkins, who is well known for her work with the British Armed Forces, is a patron of the British Forces Foundation. On multiple occasions, she has flown out to entertain the British troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. Most recently, she held a concert at Camp Bastion, the main British military base in Afghanistan in November. In addition to that, she ran the London Marathon in 2013, and was able to raise £25,000 for a cancer charity.
After having the honour bestowed upon her, Katherine said, “I am incredibly humbled to receive this great honour. To accept such an award after only a decade of service to music and charity comes as a wonderful surprise. I share this award with the charitable bodies I am so privileged to work with, especially to those brave servicemen and women who risk so much for us all on a daily basis.”
Photo credit: branestawm2002 via photopin cc]]>