A true son of Wales, Aled Jones was born on December 29th 1970 in St. David's Hospital, Bangor. An only child Aled is bilingual in English and Welsh. He remembers first singing aged around two years while standing on his grandmother's table to her piano accompaniment. He joined Bangor Cathedral choir as a nine year old chorister and enjoyed four and a half happy years there. His talent was introduced to the world thanks to a lady in the Cathedral congregation who wrote to a local recording company suggesting they record his voice before it broke. They arrived at the Cathedral and recorded an album and the rest is history!

Aled then went on to record 16 albums as a boy and was in great demand as a soloist on TV and radio. Aled was the soloist on three special programmes from Israel which were watched by millions. Aled also performed on many of the world's greatest concert platforms in the U.K. and around the world. He sang in the Vatican and brought the summer concerts series to a close at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. Aled sang on numerous occasions for the Royal Family, one of the highlights being a private performance for the Prince and Princess of Wales in their living room at Kensington Palace. Maybe you remember him best for singing “Walking in the Air”, from the ever popular animated film The Snowman - a film adaptation of the childrens' book by Raymond Briggs, with that pure treble voice that still echoes in the nation's collective memory. Aled retired from boy soprano singing on his 16th birthday. He was in the middle of recording an album when he literally had to call it a day. Or more precisely, he just never came back from lunch. He was advised by his hero, the Welsh tenor Stuart Burrows, not to sing publicly for five years once his voice broke.

He has come a long, long way since his enforced ‘retirement’, when he gave up singing to concentrate on his school examinations. The official line was that he wanted to end his career on a high note! Aled always knew he would sing again – whether that was in the bath, at home or on the stage. So while the nation mourned the loss of his treble voice, Aled concentrated on his studies and his tennis. He played the game to county standard and, after taking his A level exams, Aled left his home on Anglesey, North Wales and moved to London to study at the Royal Academy of Music. He went on to study at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School before auditioning for and winning the role of Joseph in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

Aled was offered presenting roles on BBC Radio Wales as well as a TV anchor role for the Welsh-speaking channel S4C. He was also approached about a presenting role on the BBC’s flagship religious programme Songs of Praise. He took up the offer and is now the main presenter making 26 programmes a year. Aled’s singing career blossomed again in 2002, when Songs of Praise asked Aled to sing on the programme. The viewers loved it and this led to the release of his first real adult album entitled ‘Aled’ which was a storming success and went to No 1 in the Classical Charts, here in the U.K. and as far afield as Australia.

The following year Aled was approached by Classic FM radio and offered a two-hour Sunday morning programme which was an enormous personal success for him. To his great amazement, Aled was the subject of the last ever This is Your Life on the BBC and was surprised on stage at the Royal Albert Hall during the filming of the Songs of Praise Big Sing. Aled then released another beautiful album entitled 'Higher' and followed this with a stunning album of carols which was packed full of everyone's favourites.

Touring around the country in concerts as well, Aled’s life suddenly became so busy that he hardly had time to draw breath. He appeared as a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing in 2004 and won a whole new army of fans who loved his dancing performances and he was able to add the title of ‘dancer’ to his long string of accomplishments.

More tours and more albums followed and also a change of Sunday mornings as well. Aled was approached to join BBC Radio 2 and present their live flagship Sunday programme Good Morning Sunday which has been an amazing success for him although getting up to present his programme in the very early hours has played havoc with his sleep time. In addition to Good Morning Sunday Aled was given his own BBC Radio Wales chat show and has also presented many editions of the live BBC Radio 2 programme Friday Night is Music Night. Add into the mix his BBC Radio 3 programme The Choir and you will see that Aled’s life has become so hectic that you might be forgiven for thinking that he needed to slow down. He won't though as he loves his work so much and thanks to the limo-bikes he always makes it on time for work.

In the summer of 2008 Aled took on the lead role of Caractacus Potts in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in Cardiff to great acclaim and in 2009 he joined the cast of Irving Berlin’s White Christmas in the starring role of Bob Wallace a role he has played several times.
 

Aled has also released two singles with Sir Terry Wogan in aid of the Children in Need Appeal over the last two years. He currently has a total of 27 albums to his name – selling over 6 million copies to date.  Aled has also written 2 books: ALED'S FORTY FAVOURITE HYMNS was published in 2009, followed by ALED JONES' FAVOURITE CHRISTMAS CAROLS  in 2010.

Aled has been one of the regular presenters on both Escape to the Country and Cash in the Attic. Aled is still singing whenever he can and undertakes several concerts each year at venues around the UK and in Australia as well as presenting roles. 

In September 2012, he joined Loraine Kelly on the Daybreak sofa.

 

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