A Labour Party rising star was set to be a very different kind of hit – until her mother stepped in.
Shadow mental health minister Rosena Allin-Khan was offered a record deal at 21.
But her mum, who had been a pop star in her native Poland, urged her to follow a childhood dream and become a doctor.
MP Rosena, now 42, revealed: “I had opportunities to do things in a very big way in music and showbiz.
"People were saying ‘don’t you know how lucky you are?’
“The musicians union provided me with a lawyer.
"I was being offered an opportunity people could only dream of.”
But her mother Maria – who had met her Pakistani-born dad while touring in London – didn’t want her girl to make the wrong move .
“My mum was really helpful,” said Rosena. “She said, ‘I know you spent your whole life desperate to be a doctor, to help people.
"'If you were a doctor you can still sing, but if you become a singer, you can’t dabble in being a doctor.’ She’s wicked.
“I had to choose between a record contract and going to medical school. I turned them down.”
Mum-of-two Rosena told James O’Brien’s Full Disclosure podcast that she wanted to be a doctor from wishing to cure a blind relative when she was three.
She went on to work in A&E wards before becoming a councillor in Tooting, South West London, where she’s now MP, and still doing shifts as a doctor at a local hospital.
Rosena finished runner-up in the party’s deputy leader contest earlier this year, delighting voters at a Brighton hustings by belting out Cher’s Turn Back Time.
And she still manages to score some big hits in another way – the ex-Shadow Sports Minister took up boxing while at university and is a member and team doctor at a local club.
