Heather Small has been announced as part of the Saturday line-up for the Rewind Festival on Saturday 18th August 2012, Henley-on-Thames, Oxon. A day ticket for an adult costs £50.00.

Other artists performing on the Saturday include The Bangles, Kool & The Gang, Grandmaster Flash, Rick Astley, Soul II Soul, 5 Star, Starship, Jimmy Somerville, Sinitta, Right Said Fred and Doctor & The Medics.

Television presenter Fern Britton and pop star Heather Small are among the star names who will appear in BBC One’s The Preston Passion, which will be broadcast from the city.

Broadcasting from a central Preston location, Fern will anchor the Preston Passion live event on Good Friday, April 6, while introducing three short pre-recorded dramas, which will be shown simultaneously on a big screen in Preston and on BBC One at 12:00PM.

The ambitious Preston Passion live spectacle aims to involve 3,500 local residents as performers and spectators. In addition to local choirs singing traditional Easter music, large-scale choreographed crowd movements across the city will re-create ‘human crosses’. The stunning live spectacle will also include contemporary dance pieces and traditional local brass band music. And, to close Preston Passion’s live programme of performance, M People’s Heather Small will sing Candi Staton’s gospel classic, ‘You Got The Love’.

Update: Heather has had to cancel her appearance due to illness, Jamelia will perform instead.

Heather Small reflects on the sad loss of singer Whitney Houston who died on 11th February 2012:

M People singer Heather Small told BBC News: “She was great, and definitely an icon and a diva in the true sense of the word."

“She was able to take any song and make it her own.”

Referring to Houston's signature song, I Will Always Love You, she said: “It's not that you take anything away from Dolly Parton because she wrote the song, but something that was so different, she (Houston) made it her own, because it was originally a country song."

“She just made it into this really big, big ballad, a very soulful ballad.”

Comparing Houston to Aretha Franklin and Billy Holliday, Small added: “For an artist to be able to relay something in their music, there is sometimes a pain or a feeling so deep that it can only come up musically.”

In a recent interview by Charlotte Lytton, Sarah Hadland, who plays 'Stevie Sutton' in the BBC comedy 'Miranda', discusses working with Heather Small for the 2011 Comic Relief Special:

Stevie is famed for her impressions of Heather Small. What was it like working with the woman herself for Comic Relief?

Doing the impression to her face was a bit weird, but she was so lovely and when she sang back at me it was incredible. Her voice is just SO powerful; it was like a wave of sound, very impressive. Also she had my face on a stick, which made it equally weird as I stood there holding her face on a stick!

Watch the Comic Relief Special on YouTube.

M People will be performing live on Friday 9th March 2012 in Dubai at the next SANDANCE live event. M People will be performing on the Atlantis Beach by The Palm Hotel. Other artists include Snow Patrol, Calvin Harris and Eric Morillo. For more information or to purchase tickets visit the SANDANCE website.