Vanessa Barrett was born in Canada but grew up in Oxford, England. She followed a musical theatre career appearing in a number of West End and hit UK touring shows including Aspects of Love (Really Useful Company), Evita (Robert Stigwood) and The Sound of Music (Robert S Lee).

In 1999, Vanessa met Mervyn Conn, one of Britain's greatest exponents of country music concerts in the UK featuring top names from Nashville and starred in his new hit UK musical, Stand By Your Man based on the life and music of Tammy Wynette. Vanessa played the role of the late country music star to tremendous acclaim with critics applauding her uncanny vocal and physical likeness. She went on to appear in the UK tour of 'Queens of Country', a tribute to Dolly Parton, Patsy Cline and Tammy Wynette.

Vanessa recorded a debut album of contemporary country music hits in 2002 called Already Gone, with two of the tracks appearing in the top 20 in the European Country Music chart listing. She also appears in the Best of British 2003 and 2004 country music albums (Silver Heart).

Whilst establishing herself as a new British country music artist she was invited to sing on stage with Slim Whitman in his UK Farewell Concert Tour as his supporting artist along with Hall of Fame star, Narvel Felts, rockabilly artist from Nashville.

In 2004, Vanessa co-founded Hero Entertainment Limited which produced 'Elusive Dreams', a tribute to the music of George Jones and Tammy Wynette which ran successfully for an eight week tour of the UK.

In 2006, Vanessa completed her first seasonal album entitled It's Gonna Be One Happy Christmas, a selection of holiday favourites with four new Christmas songs. Christmas In The Country (Dawn Rodgers-Wyse) was voted into the European Top 30 Hotdisc Chart, beating Narvel Felts and his perennial favourite Season's Greetings and finishing at Number 3 in the UK Independent Top 10.

Vanessa lives in the UK and has a four year son called Ben who is a constant source of love and inspiration!