Susan Boyle

Singer

Standing Ovation is the album I've always wanted to make. My fourth album in three years and probably the one I am most proud of. You see, I have a long standing affiliation with musicals. As a wee girl the family would often congregate round the TV watching the old classics, South Pacific, Mary Poppins, Oliver, Fiddler on the Roof and then as I got older I went to see my first stage musical Les Miserable and from there I was hooked, captivated and I loved the way you could transform yourself into another world with the emotive lyrics.

Frances Ruffelle

Tony Award winning actress and recording artist

It's incredible to look back after all these years to those days in 1985 spent in the Royal Shakespeare Company's gloomy rehearsal room 60 feet below sea level at the Barbican. Although we were all desperate for clean air and natural light, it was somehow the perfect space to create what is now the most famous musical of all time, and now a multi-million dollar feature film.

Kay Burley

Author and broadcaster

So ladies, if I can speak frankly, discovering you're pregnant by constantly throwing up your guts seems so unreasonable. It's an utter shock to both mind and body. Now I know that morning sickness is considered a common side effect to the early stages of pregnancy, but for some women it can be so much more debilitating than that. For a desperately unlucky few, it's potentially life threatening for the baby. My pregnancy experience was somewhere in the middle of the multi-coloured sickness spectrum.

Party Earth

PartyEarth.com

With football stars, legendary musicians, and knighted actors, London has a reputation as a city buzzing with celebrities. But before you start fantasizing over impressing Chris Martin or Gwyneth Paltrow with your dancing skills, remember that you are in the original land of nobility.

Kevin Mbewa Anyango

Trusts and Foundations Officer at Childreach International, blogger

But, we have the forgotten heroes. These heroes and heroines hardly get mentioned, I am talking about the local people, the villagers, let me call them the community. They are the soldiers in the front line; they live their lives fighting Aids. I celebrate them today and this is why.

Carol Tobin

Comedian, writer

All the writers and musicians I adore were all dead by the time arrived on Earth. I'm not saying I'm into dead people, life just panned out that way. But when Larry Hagman died on 23 November, I was genuinely sad because JR from Dallas used to babysit me when I was a kid.

Dr Asim Shahmalak

Britain's most respected and best known hair transplant surgeon

A few years ago former Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman and one-time party leadership contender Mark Oaten, then a rising political star, was mired in a sex scandal. I hope Mr Oaten will forgive me retelling his story here, after all it no doubt remains a source of regret and he has admirably moved on with his life and career

Emma Pollard

Entertainment Presenter and Personal Trainer in one!

Stacey Solomon is living proof that if you are in her words a 'gymaphobe' there are other ways to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Jamie Tabberer

Writer and freelance journalist

Can we please drop the pretence that Rihanna is, by any stretch of the imagination, a role model?

Samantha Womack

Stage and screen actress

Are you suspicious of how much 50p a day can really do? I was. As a mum of two, I appreciate that we are constantly asked to give and I do question where their money goes. Now I've seen first-hand just what this amount of money can do and where it goes: not just to the children, but to their families and communities too.

Eden Good

Writer and student

Women are scrutinized intensely in the media, because if they mess up, it challenges stereotypical gender roles in society.

Labrinth

I'm a musical geek. It's like there’s this big, wild universe in my head and I love to express it

I learned we all take different approaches and use our own environments to shape the sounds we come out with. Different cultures produce a different 'cool'. And your perception of 'cool' changes depending on where you are. It's been interesting to see how my music is received over in Oz - it's totally different - the album reacts and appeals to different audiences within their perception of what they love and how they interpret it. Until you play your music out to an international audience you never really appreciate the full extent of this I don't think.

Taylor Hanson

Keyboardist and singer, HANSON

For a year that has been dedicated to the planning of a new album release in 2013 (which is underway) and focusing on looking back at 20 years of music (our band turned 20 this year) we still found a way to cover a lot of ground, from the Far East to the Great North.

Mark J Daniels

Experienced Online Marketing Consultant & Pub Business Operator

I agree that MPs should go where the people are in order to get a better understanding of what is happening out here in the real world but, rather than trying to get to her constituents by spouting a message whilst chewing on a crocodile's severed member, she would be better going down to her local boozer and meeting up with real people to find out just what they need from her party.

Jamie Tabberer

Writer and freelance journalist

I'm just saying Nick Grimshaw's story seems a little contrived. And given the sheer size of the wave of popularity he's riding (he has the endorsement of Harry Styles and just about every other imaginable celebrity after all) he's not being called up on it. And that makes me angry.

Jason Holmes

London-based writer

Fresh back from a short tour of the US and Japan, Paul Weller talks about the 30th anniversary of The Jam's sixth and final studio album, The Gift, and where he's at right now.