Dolly was born in Tennessee in 1946 and was brought up in a one bedroom cabin in the Great Smoky Mountains at Locust Ridge, Sevierville.

One of 13 (Willadeene, David, Denver, Bobby, Stella, Cassie, Larry, Randy, Floyd, Freida, Rachel and Dennison) children (three of her siblings are singers, one a songwriter, another a poet), she described her family as "dirt poor". Her mother Avie Lee Owens was one of 10 children, her father Robert Lee Parton one of 15. Her grandfather was a preacher and her parents attended the Assembly of God church, a Pentecostal division.

Aged eight, Dolly got her first guitar, and before long was singing on local radio, cutting her first record aged 11. She was making up songs before she could even read or write, and her talent was evident from the get go. Throughout school, which she "hated", she continued to record and perform, and the day after graduating from high school in 1964, she moved to Nashville.

Her abiding image, which remains practically unchanged today, was modelled on a local prostitute who had blonde hair, long, red fingernails and high heels. "My mama would say, 'She ain't nothin' but trash, nothin' but trash, ' and I thought, 'Ooh, that's what I'm gonna be when I grow up - trash!'" Parton later said.

Parton has always been irreverent about her image, most famous for witticisms concerning the size of her breasts. "I would have burned my bra in the 60s, but it would have taken the fire department three days to put it out, " she once remarked, and is known for repeating, "The reason I have small feet is that nothing grows well in the shade."

Perhaps her most famous line is "It takes a lot of money to look this cheap." Parton consistently has sent up her penchant for heavy-duty makeup and other, perhaps, more painful beauty procedures, an approach that has endeared her to the public and press even more.

She told Vogue magazine in 1994 the her measurements were 40-20-36 (bust: waist: hips).

Although sketchy on what plastic surgery she has undergone, Parton admitted to having breast implants in 2002, which she said was to combat a large amount of weight she lost after dieting in the '80s.

She flits between the real thing and wigs when it comes to her hair, saying that she doesn't know how long it takes to get her hair done because she's never there.

"I'm not offended by all of the dumb blonde jokes, " she said, "because I know I' m not dumb . . . and I'm also not blonde."

When still in her teens, Parton initially became successful as a songwriter, penning tunes for Hank Williams Jr and Skeeter Davis. She was then marketed as a bubblegum pop starlet, but flopped, her first song 'Happy, Happy Birthday Baby' failing to crack the top 100. Convincing her record label that she wanted to sing country music, she paired up with Porter Wanogoner, and then formed a successful duet that recorded and toured for years. But the biggest hits; 'Jolene', 'Coat Of Many Colours' and 'I Will Always Love You' were all hers.

Her star rocketed throughout the '70s, climaxing in 1980 with her role as Doralee Rhodes in 9 to 5 earning her two Golden Globe nominations for her acting performance and an Academy Award nomination for the title track, which she wrote. She was nominated for an Oscar again last year for the track 'Travelin' Thru' used in the film Transamerica. She looked to be a shoe-in but lost out to Hustle & Flow's crunk track 'It's Hard Out Here For A Pimp' by Three 6 Mafia.

In 1986, Parton became co-owner of a themepark at Pigeon Forde in Tennessee and transformed it into 'Dollywood', revitalising the area and drawing millions of visitors from the south of the US to its attractions that include thrill rides and a country fair, all with a Dolly theme. Parton also now has a lifesize statue of her in front of Sevier County courthouse Tennessee.

In 1992, Whitney Houston recorded Parton's song 'I Will Always Love You' as part of the soundtrack to the Kevin Costner film The Bodyguard. The recording went on to sell 12 million copies, becoming the biggest-ever hit written and performed by a female artist. In July 1996, the first mammal was successfully cloned by scientists from an adult cell in Scotland.

'Dolly' the sheep was so named as the animal was cloned from a mammary cell.

Parton later established her production company . . . Sandollar Productions . . . which has the dubious honour of being the machine behind the successful television series Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

Parton has always referred back to her meagre beginnings in Appalachia, and her charity work reflects this. Most notable is her national literacy programme . . . Dolly Parton's Imagination Library . . . which distributes around 2.5 million free books across America each year. Parton is also passionate about the preservation of the bald eagle, and the American Eagle Foundation sanctuary is situated in Dollywood.

In total, Parton has had 25 number ones in the Billboard Country Charts and 41 top 10 albums. She has sold over 100 million records. Out of 42 nominations, she has won seven Grammys. Amongst her more recent awards received are the Living Legend medal from the US Library of Congress and in 2004 and a year later, she was awarded with a National Medal of Arts, the highest honour given by the American government for excellence and service to the arts.

In December, she is due to recieve a lifetime contribution to the arts honour from the Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts. She spent little of 2006 on the road, and apart from a few casino dates in the States later this year, this latest European tour will be one of her longer stretches on tour.

C.V.

Full name: Dolly Parton
Born: 19 January 1946 in Tennessee
Married: She married the publicity shy Carl Dean 40 years ago. They have no children
Occupation: singer, songwriter and actress
In the news: she's just announced a European tour with three dates in Ireland