Una Healy’s biography, net worth, fact, career, awards and life story

Early life

Healy was born in Thurles, to Anne, a nurse, and John Healy, a GP. She has a sister named Deirdre. She comes from a musical background, and is the niece of country singer Declan Nerney. She is a cousin of Irish athlete Paul Hession. At the age of 13, Healy gave up swimming (she was an All-Ireland champion swimmer at nine) and decided to take up guitar, teaching herself to play using her mother’s guitar and from then on began to write songs of her own.

After finishing school at 18, Healy decided to take a year out and worked as a medical secretary. She went on to study nursing and then primary teaching at Mary Immaculate College, but finally decided to pursue her music passion at 23 years old.

Healy began her music career playing guitar and singing in pubs and clubs around Ireland, solo and in bands. Whilst she was slowly finding success in her native Ireland as an indie solo artist, she felt she did not have a firm direction in her career. Therefore, in the summer of 2007 she flew over to London to gain more exposure and experience and landed an audition for The Saturdays, which was her first audition for a major label and abroad.

Career

Early work

Healy won Ireland’s Glinsk Song Contest in both 2004 and 2006. She represented Ireland at the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 as a backing singer for Brian Kennedy on “Every Song Is a Cry for Love”.

The Saturdays

Healy is a member of the girl group The Saturdays who have enjoyed thirteen top ten hits and four top ten albums. The group released their first single “If This Is Love” in July 2008. It peaked at number 8 in the UK Singles Chart. The Saturdays released a second single, “Up”, where it charted at number five in the UK, and later the song enjoyed a certification of Silver in the United Kingdom. In late October 2008, the band released their first studio album, Chasing Lights, where it charted at number nine in the UK, and also achieved a certification of Platinum by BBI.

The band released a third single from the album, “Issues”, which also received a silver certificate by the BBI. The Saturdays released a cover of “Just Can’t Get Enough” by Depeche Mode; the song debuted at number 2 in the UK, behind Flo Rida’s “Right Round”. The fifth and final single from the album was “Work”, which was the first single by the girls to not reach the top 20. The Saturdays later went on a tour titled “The Work Tour.”

In 2009, The Saturdays appeared in an episode of BBC TV series Myths, which was their first acting venture as a band. They played a singing group called The Syrens in a modern version of The Odyssey, with Healy as “Peisone”.

In October 2009, the group released a second studio album, Wordshaker, which charted at number nine in United Kingdom and was given a silver certification by the BBI. The first single, “Forever Is Over”, charted at number two in the UK. The Saturdays appeared in advertisements for several products including a brand of deodorant, tampons, mobile phones, an operating system, and hair removal products. But in early 2010, the Saturdays released a second and final single from their second debut album, “Ego”, which charted at number nine. Although the song became their second lowest single to chart, it became one of their highest selling singles, after getting a certification of silver by the BBI.

In summer 2010, the Saturdays released their first mini album, their third album overall, Headlines!, which charted at number 3 in the UK and number 10 in Ireland. The band released their eighth single, “Missing You”, which charted at number three in the UK and number six in Ireland. Group member Rochelle Humes confirmed that the second single from the album would be “Higher”. After Flo Rida beat the group to number one for the second time, the American rapper offered to do a collaboration with the band. It was later confirmed by the group’s official website that Flo Rida had recorded vocals for “Higher”. In November 2011, The Saturdays released On Your Radar.

Healy starred in a reality series called Chasing The Saturdays which premiered on E! on 20 January 2013. The show features the group trying to make it in America. Upon its premiere in the United Kingdom, Chasing The Saturdays became that week’s No. 1 most watched show with 72,000 viewers. Living for the Weekend was released by the group on 14 October 2013, and charted at number 10 on the UK album charts, making it their fourth top ten album to date.

Solo work

Healy was a judge on sport/talent ITV show, Let’s Get Gold with former EastEnders star Martine McCutcheon and cricketer Andrew Flintoff. On 18 August 2006, she released an extended play called Sorry, which she self-produced. The album includes the songs “So Long”, “Raider of My Sleep” and “I Love You”. She was selected to present a new programme on RTÉ called Una’s Dream Ticket.

In January 2014, she was a contestant in series 2 of celebrity diving TV Show Splash! She hosted the first ever Pride of Ireland Awards in June 2014.

As of 2014, Reebok had announced they were teaming with Healy to launch Women’s Fitness Collection.

On 6 October 2014, it was announced that she would be a judge on The Voice of Ireland, starting in January 2015. On 18 April 2016 Una premiered her first solo track, indie-inspired “Staring At the Moon”, performing live on the semi-final of The Voice of Ireland. On 5 August 2016, Healy confirmed she had signed a solo deal with Decca, with the intention of releasing a solo album in 2016. On 18 October 2016, Digital Spy reported that Healy’s debut album would be released in 2017, under the reported title, The Waiting Game. Healy also took part in the “Forever Country Covers Series”, which celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Country Music Association Awards. She performed Forever and Ever, Amen, originally a hit for CMA winner Randy Travis.

On 10 February 2017, Healy released her debut solo album named “The Waiting Game”.

Personal life

Healy married international Rugby Union fullback Ben Foden on 30 June 2012 in her native Ireland after four years of dating. She continued using the professional name Una Healy until October 2013, when she started using her legal name, Una Foden, because using multiple names was “confusing”. In March 2016 Healy announced that she would be reverting her surname to her maiden name for professional use. The couple have two children, daughter Aoife Belle (born March 13, 2012) and son Tadhg John (born February 2, 2015).

Healy won “Hottest Female 2009” in the Virgin Media Music Awards.

She appeared in the January 2010 edition of FHM along with the other members of the Saturdays. She was ranked number 19 and number 41 in FHM’s Sexiest Women poll in 2010 and 2011, respectively. In FHM’s 2012 poll, she had dropped down to 66th place.

Healy previously ran her own blog where she spoke about family life, The Saturdays, and herself.

Discography

Studio albums

Extended plays

Singles

As lead artist