The 10 best soap stars turned pop stars, ranked
26 March 2026, 11:26
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From the TV to the Top 10.
If you're hoping to climb to the top of the pop charts, you might as well try your luck at being a soap star first.
For the past 40-plus years, stars of our favourite soaps have transitioned from the small screen to chase their big dreams as hopeful pop icons.
Arguably, the first to blaze the trail was Anita Dobson, wife of Queen's Brian May, but widely known to the general public as feisty landlady Angie Watts from EastEnders.
Since then, countless actors and actresses who provide our daily entertainment with colourful characters have gone on to achieve pop stardom.
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Here at home, we've had names from Coronation Street, EastEnders, Hollyoaks, Emmerdale, Heartbeat, and more testing their chops behind the microphone.
Elsewhere, Aussie soaps like Home and Away and Neighbours have produced some of the biggest names in pop music.
The entertainment business is cutthroat, however, and not for the faint-hearted – so many soap stars have flopped and failed at staying in the charts.
To prove who the greatest are to switch careers, we've ranked the best soapstars-turned-popstars from top to bottom:
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Adam Rickett (Coronation Street)
Adam Rickitt - I Breathe Again (Music Video) HQ
Adam Rickett started out playing Nick Tilsley on Coronation Street in 1997, the hunky but boyish love interest of Leanne Battersby.
Given his pin-up looks, Rickett jumped ship from the soap and pursued a career in pop in 1999.
His euro-pop song 'I Breathe Again', whilst a bit cheesy, is an undeniable club banger, though he failed to replicate the success of the UK top five hit despite signing a six-album deal with a major label and releasing just the one album.
He referred to his music career as "the most f***d up thing I could have done. I hated every single day of it for 12 years I just felt It wasn't me." Understandably, he went back to acting afterwards.
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Michelle Gayle (EastEnders)
Michelle Gayle - Sweetness (Official Video)
Michelle Gayle joined the cast of EastEnders in 1990 as Hattie Tavernier, a member of the first Black family to join the long-standing soap.
She became a popular character, and at the height of her popularity, Gayle departed Albert Square to saunter up the charts as an R&B star.
With singles 'Sweetness' and 'Do You Know', Gayle hit her stride immediately, but things cooled afterwards.
She eventually left her label in 1997 and returned to acting – nowadays you'll see her as a regular panellist on daytime chat show Loose Women.
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Dannii Minogue (Home and Away)
Dannii Minogue - This is it (HD)
Most people might know Dannii Minogue for being Kylie Minogue's little sister.
She did have the nous to follow in her older sibling's footsteps, however, starring in Home and Away as Emma Jackson in 1989 before leaving a year later.
Over the course of her career, Dannii has released six studio albums, the most successful of which was 2003's Neon Nights, which saw her venture further into club dance music.
Nowadays, she's taken on television presenting, fronting the queer reality dating show I Kissed A Girl.
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Nick Berry (EastEnders & Heartbeat)
Nick Berry - Every Loser Wins
Shortly after Anita Dobson departed Walford's Albert Square, her dashing co-star Nick Berry also departed the fictional London borough to try his luck, too.
His luck was in, given that Berry's debut single 'Every Loser Wins' peaked at the top spot in the UK charts and stayed there for a total of three weeks.
It'd take Madonna to bump Berry from the summit with 'True Blue', with Berlin's 'Take My Breath Away' knocking him off again once 'Every Loser Wins' went back to the top.
The song wasn't his only foray into chart music – after being cast as the heartthrob of period police drama Heartbeat, which he took to the airwaves after singing the programme's iconic theme tune.
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Holly Valance (Neighbours)
Holly Valance - Kiss Kiss (Official Video)
Holly Valance was seemingly only a member of the Neighbours cast for a blink of an eye, joining the cast as student Felicity "Flick" Scully in 1999 before leaving as Aussie pop's next big thing.
Her debut single 'Kiss Kiss' (an English language remake of 'Şımarık' by Turkish singer Tarkan) was an instant hit, becoming one of the most iconic dance pop tunes of the era.
After scoring a number one song off the bat, Holly's later singles dropped off in popularity before she packed in pop music entirely.
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Delta Goodrem (Neighbours)
Delta Goodrem - Lost Without You (Official Video)
Another star to come off the Ramsey Street conveyor belt of soap starlets taking on pop music was Delta Goodrem.
The Neighbours star became a fond favourite as Nina Tucker, but her turn as a pop star impressed people far more, especially Westlife's Brian McFadden, who she was engaged to at one point.
Singles 'Born To Try', 'Almost Here' and 'Lost Without You' all performed well in the UK charts, though Goodrem's career was derailed by a cancer battle at the tender age of 19.
She pulled through and remains a major star in her native Australia, appearing as a judge on The Voice Down Under before releasing her most recent album Bridge Over Troubled Dreams in 2021.
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Martine McCutcheon (EastEnders)
Martine McCutcheon Perfect Moment
After conquering Albert Square (although her character Tiffany Mitchell didn't suffer quite a similar fate), Martine McCutcheon had the world at her feet.
With Walford in the rear-view mirrors, Martine's post-EastEnders career was alive and well in 1999 after the release of her debut single 'Perfect Moment', with her album You, Me & Us coming in at number two in the UK charts.
Going straight in at number one, the gorgeous ode to love was even played at the wedding of Liza Minelli and David Gest – though we weren't to know it was ill-fated at the time.
Her pop career tailed off, but Martine returned to acting in the Christmas classic Love Actually, eventually releasing another album Lost and Found in 2017, as well as featuring on The Masked Singer in 2021.
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Jason Donovan (Neighbours)
Jason Donovan - Too Many Broken Hearts - Official Video
Let's make no mistake – Jason Donovan was the poster boy of television soaps after his turn as Scott Robinson in Neighbours.
He became the poster boy of pop music too in 1989 with the release of his debut album Ten Good Reasons, which became the highest-selling album in the UK that year, making over 1.5 million sales.
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Jason's album even spawned four number one singles, including 'Too Many Broken Hearts', 'Sealed With A Kiss', 'Every Day (I Love You More', and of course the iconic duet 'Especially For You' with his on-and-off screen love interest Kylie Minogue.
Donovan has remained a beloved figure on stage, going on to star in shows like Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
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Natalie Imbruglia (Neighbours)
Natalie Imbruglia - Torn (Official Video)
Yes, another Neighbours star to hit the big time in the pop charts: it's Natalie Imbruglia.
Achieving initial fame playing Beth Brennan throughout the 90s, Imbruglia left to take a chance behind the microphone, and her debut single, 'Torn', became an instant classic.
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Still a karaoke staple to this day, 'Torn' was a cover version of an original Danish song by singer Lis Sørensen, which featured on Natalie's 1997 debut album Left Of The Middle.
She scored several other hits over the years, but it's 'Torn' that Imbruglia is celebrated for – and rightly so.
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Kylie Minogue (Neighbours)
Kylie Minogue - Better The Devil You Know (Official Remastered HD Video)
For the quintessential blueprint for pop music success after life as a pop star, it's impossible to look past Kylie Minogue.
Queen Kylie has been no flash-in-the-pan, given she's gone on to make a meaningful impact on popular culture.
Starting out as Charlene Mitchell in Neighbours, she dipped her toe into the world of music by covering a cheesy version of 'Locomotion'. Aussie fans wanted more from Kylie – and she gave it to them.
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International stardom beckoned after working with the Stock Aitken Waterman 'Hit Factory', scoring number one UK hits with the likes of 'Better The Devil You Know' and 'Especially For You'.
To this day, Miss 'Padam Padam' has achieved a remarkable 49 Top 40s, including 34 Top 10s, of which seven have hit the top spot.
Chuck in a couple of Grammy Awards, four BRIT Awards and countless ARIA Awards from her native Australia, Kylie is a bona fide icon – she's the biggest-selling female artist in Australian music history.
