Sharleen Eugene Spiteri (born 7 November 1967) is a Scottish singer and guitarist, best known as the lead singer of the rock band Texas. She has a contralto vocal range. In 2013, Texas's worldwide album sales were counted at 40 million records. Texas returned from their hiatus in 2013 with The Conversation, which debuted at No. 4 on the UK Album Chart, No. 3 on their native Scottish Album Charts as well as No. 8 in France. A 25th-anniversary album followed in 2015 entitled Texas 25, followed by the band's ninth studio album, Jump on Board (2017), which achieved mainstream chart success, topping the albums charts in Scotland and debuting within the top ten in France, the United Kingdom and Belgium. Their tenth studio album, Hi was released in May 2021 and became their highest charting album in the UK since 1999's The Hush, reaching number three on the official UK Albums Chart, number one on the UK Independent Albums Charts and debuting at number one in their native Scotland. During the period Texas were on hiatus during 2005–2013, Spiteri released her debut solo album Melody which was released in 2008, followed by a second solo album, The Movie Songbook, in March 2010. During this time, Spiteri was a judge on the Sky music talent show, Must Be the Music. Early life Spiteri was born in Bellshill Maternity Hospital in Bellshill, Scotland, to father Eddie, a guitar-playing merchant seaman, and mother Vilma, a singing window-dresser. Spiteri is of Maltese, Italian, Irish and German descent. When she was young, the family moved from the Glaswegian suburbs to nearby Balloch, close to the shores of Loch Lomond, and she went to Vale of Leven Academy school there. As a teenager, she was interested by pop culture. Music was her escape: "I used to love going to the record shop on a Saturday and I'd buy a single and a plastic sleeve. I'd go back to my bedroom where [singer] Siouxsie Sioux was painted on my bedroom wall". She later stated: "I guess what people never realise is that real bands and musicians are geeks, we spend our youth as geeks and we turn into these rock stars." While a student at Vale of Leven Academy, her nickname was 'Spit the Dog', after the character on the TV show Tiswas. Career Sharleen Spiteri worked as a hairdresser in Muirhead, North Lanarkshire, until Texas