"Michelle McManus: Tracing my Hebridean roots gave me confidence to rethink my music career"
"She has spoken in the past about being dropped after her debut single All This Time, which reached No1. The experience scarred her and turned her against thoughts of continuing a career in the pop industry.
Since recording the new Christmas Day show – My Name Is Michelle McManus – she has been studying Gaelic at night school.
She has fallen in love with the language, especially because she can now hold conversations with the friends she made in her pre-fame days in the corporate hospitality industry, some of whom hail from Stornoway.
She said: “I was always jealous of them being able to speak in a language only they understood.
“Now I ask my friends to speak to me only in Gaelic to help me learn.”
tuilleadh air làrach Daily Record