[11] According to the Sunday Times Rich List 2008, Melua had amassed a fortune of £18 million, making her the seventh-richest British musician under the age of 30.

[20] Melua spent her first years with her grandparents in Tbilisi[21] before moving with her parents and brother to the city of Batumi, where her father worked as a heart specialist.

[16] During this time, she sometimes had to carry buckets of water up five flights of stairs to her family's flat[22][23] and according to her, "Now, when I'm staying in luxurious hotels, I think back to those days".

In 2008, Melua moved out of her parents' home in Maida Vale to an apartment in Notting Hill,[20] where she transformed the spare bedroom into a recording studio.

[citation needed] Melua has been referred to as an 'adrenaline junkie' because she enjoys roller coasters and funfairs and often paraglides and hang glides.

[28] In September 2010, Melua was ordered by her doctors to stop working for a few months after suffering a nervous breakdown, resulting in her hospitalisation for six weeks.

[29] Melua opened up about the breakdown years later in an interview with The Independent, saying that it ended up being one of the best things that had ever happened to her, as she said it helped to quash a feeling of superiority she felt by being a successful musician in the music industry.

[42] After completing her GCSEs, Melua attended the BRIT School for the Performing Arts in the London Borough of Croydon, undertaking a BTEC with an A-level in music.

When studying at the school, Melua began to write songs and met her future manager and producer, Mike Batt.

Silver ("Learnin' the Blues"), John Mayall ("Crawling up a Hill"), Randy Newman ("I Think It's Going to Rain Today") and James Shelton ("Lilac Wine", originally a UK hit for singer Elkie Brooks).

This changed when BBC Radio 2 producer Paul Walters heard the single and played it on the popular Sir Terry Wogan breakfast show.

On 30 September 2005, Melua came under criticism in The Guardian from writer and scientist Simon Singh for the lyrics (written by Mike Batt) of the track "Nine Million Bicycles".

[54]They were interpreted by Singh as an assault on the accuracy of the work of cosmologists[55] which sparked a series of letters from other Guardian readers, agreeing or disagreeing.

[54]Both sides amicably agreed that the new lyrics were less likely to achieve commercial success, amidst a discussion about scientific accuracy versus artistic licence.

[65] "Mary Pickford", written by Mike Batt, was about the silent film star of the same name and the formation of United Artists along with Charlie Chaplin, D W Griffith and Douglas Fairbanks .

Melua debuted a full orchestral version of the first single, "I Will Be There", during the Coronation anniversary gala for Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace in July 2013.

[71][72] Described as a "tender and heart-warming ballad which is underpinned by Melua’s beautifully compassionate vibrato and an orchestral arrangement that builds majestically",[73] the song was composed by Mike Batt.

[citation needed] Melua recorded a cover of Black's "Wonderful Life" in 2014 for the BBC Radio 2's Sounds of the 80s compilation album.

[87] In June 2020, Melua supported the Georgian Red Cross Society in their efforts to assist the vulnerable population in Georgia during the COVID-19 pandemic by performing a live charity concert featuring songs that were requested by her followers on her social media accounts.

The lead single off the album, "A Love like That", which was produced by Leo Abrahams,[89] received its first airplay on 30 June 2020 on BBC Radio 2.

The video for 'Airtime', which again featured actor Billy Howle and was also directed by Charlie Lightning, was shot around Herne Bay over two days and was filmed according to COVID-19 lockdown guidelines.

[91] In the summer of 2022, Melua revealed a new collaborative album with Grammy award-winning sound engineer Simon Goff, Aerial Objects.

The sensitivity needed for this kind of process has allowed many things to surface, from us discovering the differences in how we listen to and hear music and lyrics, to our own deeply personal life experiences.

[102] In September 2023, Melua released a re-recorded version of the album track "14 Windows", which served as a charity single for the Royal Medical Benevolent Fund.

Melua and her band underwent extensive medical tests and survival training in Norway before flying by helicopter to the rig.

[112] In November 2004 Melua was asked to take part in Band Aid 20 in which she joined a chorus of British and Irish pop singers to create a rendition of "Do They Know It's Christmas?"

[113] Then in March 2005, Melua sang "Too Much Love Will Kill You" with Brian May at the 46664 concert in George, South Africa for Nelson Mandela's HIV charity.

[22] She has stated that this is related as much to her dislike of spending and glamour as it is to her support for the charity,[23] and admits that she looks "like a tramp" and that her hairdresser playfully calls her look "the Romanian window cleaner".

Until Fair Trees came along these cone pickers were given no safety equipment or training, no health insurance and very little pay; every year people are injured and even killed doing this work.

[122] Melua appeared on the BBC's The Culture Show in November 2006 advocating Paul McCartney as her choice in the search for Britain's greatest living icon.