Emerging from the Welsh language music scene of the mid 1990s with Catatonia, Cerys Matthews is among a select band of female figures from Wales who have made a name for themselves in the UK contemporary music arena.

Cardiff-born and raised in Swansea and Pembrokeshire, she worked as a nanny and a psychiatric nurse before a relationship with fellow Catatonia founder Mark Roberts sparked her musical career.

Her first live performances were busking on the streets of Cardiff, then after four years of critical approval but little commercial success Catatonia were catapulted into the limelight in 1998. They caught the mood of the nation with the singles Mulder And Scully and Road Rage, taken from the major UK hit album, International Velvet

From the title track of the album, Matthews sang: “Every day when I wake up, I thank the Lord I’m Welsh”. The words were adopted as an alternative national anthem and the band performed the song at the opening ceremony of The Rugby World Cup in Cardiff in 1999. Mistaking it for nationalistic fervour, few outside Wales realised the irony behind lyricist Mark Roberts’ words.

In the depressingly time-honoured tradition, their place in the spotlight caused problems for the band and for Matthews herself. A stay at The Priory rehabilitation clinic signalled the beginning of the end for the group as its members sought to rebuild their careers separately. Matthews moved to Nashville, Tennessee, the cradle of country and western music.

There she teamed up with a host of respected US musicians to record her debut solo album Cockahoop and in 2003 married record producer Seth Riddle. She toured the UK in 2003 while pregnant with her first child Glenys Pearl Y-Felin.

From being a pop star in the true sense of the phrase - a performer able to entertain on the biggest stage – she is one of a wise few to have taken a step back, realising the inherent dangers of playing the fame game.