The Scottish star who rose to fame in the 2000s is set to return to the stage for the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony in Glasgow
Katie Tunstall will perform at the Commonwealth opening games ceremony tomorrow(Image: Getty)
Scots star KT Tunstall is set to perform at the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony at Glasgow’s OVO Hydro on Thursday, July 23. It is the first time the Commonwealth Games have been held in the city since 2014 and the Edinburgh singer is among the stars performing to mark the occasion.
Kate Tunstall, now 51, first rose to fame in 2004 in her late twenties with her hit single Black Horse and the Cherry Tree when she starred on the TV show Later… with Jools Holland.
After appearing on the programme, her debut album Eye to the Telescope became a global success. Kate’s most famous track Suddenly I See became recognisable globally, going on to feature in the opening scene of the 2006 film The Devil Wears Prada.
Kate’s success also led to her winning the 2006 BRIT Award for Best British Female Solo Artist.
Now 22 years on, Kate has eight studio albums and is currently supporting American rock band O.A.R on their US tour in the US.
She also wrote all of the music for the west end show Clueless which made its debut in 2025.
After playing Glasgow’s Summer Sessions at Bellahouston Park last month, she will return to the stage at the OVO Hydro tomorrow evening or the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony.
Here’s everything we know about her life now.
Love life
Kate originally hails from Edinburgh and moved to Santa Fe in New Mexico over a decade ago. The star relocated to the US in her earlier years, previously living in LA and Topanga.
The singer currently lives with her partner Chris Light who she met in a dog park during lockdown. The pair bonded over their love for their rescue dogs.
Prior to meeting Chris, Kate had been married twice.
She was formerly wed to her band’s drummer, Luke Bullen, who she married in 2008 on the Isle of Skye. However, it was not meant to be as the pair later split in 2013.
After their divorce, she met her second husband Alexander Preston. The former couple married in 2015 and finalised their divorce in 2022, citing “irreconcilable differences”.
Health
Kate previously revealed that she partially lost her hearing in 2018 and was diagnosed with a condition called sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSHL).
The singer’s hearing problems began after she jumped on a long-haul flight to attend a Spice Girls gig and ended up with tinnitus.
However, a few years later her hearing problems escalated and she completely lost all sound in her left ear.
The star told the Mirror in 2025 that she is now 97 per cent deaf on her left side and she can’t use a hearing aid for assistance as her hearing is too far gone.
As a result of her deafness, Kate also suffered from vertigo which made her completely lose her balance for a couple of months.
However, the star has been able to overcome her health battles and is now back in the studio and performing.
Heartbreaking past
Kate and her elder brother were adopted when they were just babies. The star, who does not have any children, revealed that she has considered adoption in the past due to her own childhood.
The Scots singer was put up for adoption just 18 days after she was born and previously admitted there will always be an ‘abandonment issue’.
The singer told the Mirror she found her biological mother when she was 23-years-old but had never been able to discover who her father was.
In 2019, she went on ITV’s Long Lost Family where she discovered her dad had sadly passed away.
The programme also uncovered that she had two sisters living in Fife with the younger being a KT Tunstall fan.
Kate told the Mirror: “They broke it to them gently, saying, ‘We think you’ve got a sister you didn’t know you had—and she’s famous’. And the younger one said, ‘It’s KT Tunstall!’
“She grabbed my album, which they had in the house, held it up against a picture of our dad, and just went, ‘They look exactly the same.’”
