DURAN Duran have a new album out today – and it stars the voice of Huddersfield’s Nina Hossain.
For Simon Le Bon personally invited Nina to appear on the album – and how could she refuse after being a fan of the band since she was nine.
Nina, who grew up in Taylor Hill, presents national news bulletins for ITV News and became host of ITV’s London Tonight earlier this year.
Nina, 37, appears on two tracks – one in her familiar role reading the news and the other as a sat nav voice.
The new Duran Duran album, All You Need Is Now, is available to download from iTunes from today.
Nina said: “It was all incredibly exciting as I ended up dueting with Simon Le Bon in the recording studio. There were a lot of jealous colleagues at work.
“The first gig I ever went to was at the age of nine at Queens Hall in Leeds – and it was to see Duran Duran.
“An email came in the summer from Simon Le Bon asking if I could help them out. It was the best thing I’ve ever done apart from having my children.’’
On one track called Blame The Machines Nina becomes a Sat Nav voice.
“This was way out of my comfort zone,’’ she said. “It’s hard to describe really as I wasn’t talking, rapping or singing. It was something in between.’’
On the other track, The Man Who Stole A Leopard, Nina is very much in her comfort zone reading a news bulletin scripted by Duran Duran’s Nick Rhodes.
It tells the story of a man who kept a leopard in his New York apartment.
Nina added: “In all I’ve seen Duran Duran live five times so appearing with them on an album really is a girlhood dream come true.
“I was such a big fan I used to get teased at school every time there was a story about them in the papers – including one where they said they’d be around for 30 years, so it’s nice for both them and me that they still are!’’
Duran Duran were massive in the early 1980s with huge hits such as Girls On Film, Rio, Planet Earth, Save A Prayer, Hungry Like The Wolf, Is There Something I Should Know? Notorious and The Wild Boys.
Nina, who hosts the Examiner Community Awards, began her TV career at Cumbrian news station Border Television and joined ITN in 2004.
She and partner Stuart Thomas have two young children, four-year-old Will and two-year-old Clara.
The mum-of-two young children is the daughter of Dr Tobarek Hossain, a Bangladeshi-born psychiatrist who specialised in alcoholism and set up Kirklees Alcohol Advisory Service in 1973.
He was the founder and president of Concern For Mental Health in West Yorkshire.
He died aged 67 on Boxing Day 2002 from pneumonia after battling cancer of the lymph glands.
Nina’s mother, Pamela, lives in Huddersfield.
