This much I know: Rebecca Storm

I’ve never seen singing as work.

Dodging critics is work, getting through US immigration is work, but singing has always been a joy.

I always wanted to sing. I’m told I was belting out impressions of a noisy swing in need of oiling from the age of two. I did a Nativity solo when I was eight and at 14 I won a national radio competition and started to consider it as a career, although I didn’t know whether it would be possible to earn a full-time living from it.

After school, I went to college to study music and drama and I sang in the Yorkshire working men’s clubs to pay my way. I was certainly persistent.

The first ‘proper’ job I applied for was in a record company office. But by the time I got an interview I’d run away with a rock ‘n’ roll band.

The best thing about singing is being able to affect people in such a positive way. And it has also allowed me to see a lot of the world whilst being paid. That’s not bad either.

Some memorable career moments so far include singing for Royalty, appearing on Top Of The Pops and having a police escort from the Olympia Theatre in an enormous limo to perform on the Late Late Show in 1995 after another extraordinary standing ovation from the Blood Brothers audience. But I guess becoming Zig and Zag’s favourite girlfriend is top of the list.

Although a lot of people have heard me sing I don’t think I am a public figure. Offstage, I’m really quite shy and like to live a private life. We still have a home in Kildare and spend as much time there as possible.

My earliest memory is wetting myself on my first day at school. It was in morning assembly, I was four and a half and I’m still not over it. Obviously.

Blood Brothers is a very superstitious musical and having been part of it for 28 years it’s little wonder that some of that has rubbed off. I always shout good morning to the magpie in our garden and I’ll pick up a penny, even from the mud.! I never put new shoes on the table and all the knives in my kitchen are locked away safely in a drawer. I have never killed a spider and I don’t whistle in the dressing room. However, I did make the biggest boo-boo during my first technical rehearsal when I mentioned the word Macbeth.

I spend my free time with my husband, daughter, sisters and friends. I love my dog, as well as cooking, reading, watching TV, playing chess and gardening.

The best advice I ever received is not to take yourself too seriously because nobody else will — and don’t believe everything you read.

If I could change one thing in our society, I’d stop the human race from being so cruel to itself and other animals.

I believe in God but I’ll have to let you know about the afterlife.

I believe it’s healthy to be aware of death reasonably young. We can’t ignore the inevitable. That said, apart from making a will, I say fugedaboudit! and live, live, live until ya die.

One of my guilty pleasures is watching Simon Cowell on X Factor. And I love beautiful shoes that fit perfectly.

My first ever jobs were collecting for a cancer and polio charity, babysitting, and working in a cafe on Saturdays.

There is one spot in the world that I hold very dear to my heart — it’s the top of the Eiffel Tower where Kenny proposed. Although I had had two glasses of Chateau Neuf du Pape, and suffer from veritgo!

Singer and actor Rebecca Storm performs her Greatest Hits Tour at the University Concert Hall, University of Limerick on February 11, 2012.