Aled Jones, (born 29 December 1970, St David's Hospital, Bangor, Wales) is a Welsh singer, Christian and television personality who first came to fame as a boy soprano. He is the only child of Nest and Derek Jones, and was raised in a Welsh-speaking community in the small Anglesey village of Llandegfan. He is best known for singing "Walking in the Air", the song from Channel 4's animated film "The Snowman", based on the book by Raymond Briggs. The song reached No. 5 in the UK charts. Ironically, the version in the film was not performed by Aled, but by Peter Auty, a St. Paul's Cathedral choirboy. When his voice broke at the age of 16, Aled "retired" to concentrate on his school work and playing foorball! He later went to the Royal Academy of Music, followed by The Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, after which he played the lead in Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat" in Blackpool for a year. In 2003, Aled relaunched his voice as an adult, when he released his first adult album, "Aled". Although he had a previous album before this release, "From The Heart", Aled considered "Aled" as his first proper adult album. Since then, he has released 6 other albums. These are: Higher Aled: special edition The Christmas Album New Horizons You Raise Me Up: The Best of Aled Jones Reason To Believe Aled's Christmas Gift Aled's next album, "Forever", will be released on September 26th 2011 Aled has also become a regular presenter on Songs of Praise (BBC 1), Good Morning Sunday (BBC radio 2) Friday Night is Music Night (BBC radio 2) and the Choir (radio 3). He has also presented editions of 'Escape to the Country' and 'Celebrity Cash in the Attic' on BBC television. Aled is now involved in presenting the third edition of "Classical Destinations", filming in the UK, in Europe and in Australia. In July / August 2008 Aled starred in an eight week run in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, at the Wales Millenium Centre as the wacky inventer Caractacus Potts. Aled starred in White Christmas at the Lowry Theatre, Manchester following a two week run at the Theatre Royal Plymouth between November 2009 and January 2010. He will be appearing again in White Christmas in Southampton, Dublin and Liverpool, in November and December 2011
