KATIE Markham is one of the most recognisable tribute acts on the planet.

She shot to fame after appearing on an Adele at the BBC TV special for which she was hand-picked to pay homage to the incredibly talented Adele Adkins, the UK’s most successful female singer, who has sold more than 120 million records worldwide.
Katie was one of a line-up of eight singers asked to sing alongside the real Adele, who was cleverly disguised in prosthetics as ‘Jenny’, as part of a skit on the Graham Norton-hosted programme. 
Since then Katie has become known as the ultimate Adele tribute act and bears a real resemblance to London-born Adele. Katie’s vocals are uncannily similar to Adele’s powerhouse voice, which has been described as a ‘raspy, aged-beyond-its-years thing of full-blooded beauty’.
It has been quite the wild ride for Katie, who hails from Scunthorpe, having gone from playing working men’s clubs to touring her own show internationally. When I speak to her she has just come off the Saga Spirit of Discovery cruise ship, entertaining cruise ship passengers and stopping off in Denmark and Stockholm.
Katie said: “It’s a bit insane. But I love it. My background is working men’s clubs, I’ve gone from there and worked myself up. One of my agents put me in for a showcase, I had to do an Adele number, I had no choice.”
Little did Katie know she would end up appearing on television singing with one of the greatest vocalists of all time.
“We got told it was a pilot show and we were asked to send videos singing and saying why we liked Adele. I was asked to go to London.
“That was back in 2015,” she pauses, remembering that moment four years ago “and it’s gone a bit mad from there.
“I will never forget it. We weren’t really told anything. I was told to sing on this stage and seven people were with me. And this lady called Jenny appeared. I thought straight away ‘that’s her, that’s Adele’, of course she had all these prosthetics on to disguise her. She started singing and I knew straight away who it was. 
“Taking part in the Adele TV special was unbelievable. That whole experience. And from that I ended up being approached by Chameleon Music and four years later I’m still doing this.”
In January Katie will be travelling to Canada and to Australia for three weeks. She is also planning to tour in Finland.
But first Katie is taking her Adele Someone Like You - The Adele Songbook show on the road, calling in at Weymouth Pavilion next Friday. (27)
She describes the show as ‘a huge celebration of Adele’.
Katie said: “It’s an established show, this is the third year of doing it, it’s a new show from the last time I came to Weymouth, we revamp it every time so that everyone has something they enjoy listening to.
“It’s still a celebration of Adele’s music with a few stories from behind the songs. The girls do a song then I go off and get changed. It’s good fun and the audience really seem to relax and enjoy it. I present the show as myself, I don’t put an accent on or anything. I’m from Scunthorpe and don’t sound anything like Adele’s London accent so it wouldn’t work.”
Katie also sings a new song which was released on Adele’s third album in some countries called Can’t Let Go.
“It’s a heart wrencher,” she says. “I’m a very emotional singer. I can get very emotional singing the songs. It depends on what I feel and what the audience react to. The more poppier songs get people on their feet.”
Katie lists her favourite Adele songs to sing as Take It All, All I Ask, When We Were Young, One and Only and Make You Feel My Love.

Katie says she loves chatting to audience members after the show. 

“I always like to see what people think. Some tell me they’ve been crying throughout the show. I get the people who have been dragged there by their partners and some of them tell me it’s moved them to tears.”
Katie, who has been singing and dancing since she was six, experienced success on the X Factor back in 2013, getting as far as the last seven finalists with Sharon Osbourne as her mentor and just missing out on a place in the Judge’s Houses round.
Being involved in a massive show like the X Factor was a huge confidence boost, Katie said. 
“I came out of the X Factor with a lot more confidence than when I went in. I felt like there were a lot of people with back stories and they didn’t want me to go as far. I’ve never been one to turn down a challenge and I came out with a lot more confidence than when I went in. I got as far as I did with my story but what I’ve always wanted to do is just sing and do what I do,” something very similar to the woman she emulates, I point out.
Katie had a follow-up encounter with Adele when she went to see her perform at Wembley Stadium.
She said: “My other half decided to do a poster for me and it said ‘Do you remember when we met on the BBC?’ and it had my face circled. I was carrying that around and one of her people must have seen it. Adele took me out of the audience, took my poster off me and told thousands of people at the concert who I was. I just thought it was amazing that she knows who I am.” 
Performing as someone regarded as having one of the best vocal ranges in the business comes with its own kind of pressure, Katie said. 
“I do put a lot of pressure on myself, I’m a Taurean, I worry all the time. I try to eat healthily and steam myself for my voice. It’s a lot of pressure performing as Adele!”
And the future looks bright for Katie - she’s soon hoping to do a theatre show and release an album of ‘my own sort of songs’.
Adele has said in the past that she wants to come to one of Katie’s shows.
“It would be amazing to have her there,” Katie said. “But I know she tends to disguise herself quite a lot so I can imagine she wouldn’t want to be noticed.”
If you attend Katie’s show in Weymouth you may well see a certain singer sat among the audience, no doubt hoping not to be noticed or perhaps even described as the anonymous ‘Jenny’.
*Someone Like You - The Adele Songbook, Weymouth Pavilion, Friday, September 27, 7.30pm. Contact the box office on 01305 783225 for tickets.