Best-seller award makes Mae the Queen of classical

The controversial teenage violinist Vanessa Mae is to receive an award as best-selling classical musician.

The millionaire prodigy, who blends her classical music with pop strains, will be presented with The World's Best-Selling Classical Recording Artiste of the Year prize at the World Music Awards in Monte Carlo, France next Thursday.

Previous winners of the award have included the tenors Luciano Pavarotti and Placido Domingo.

The 18-year-old will also give a rendition of her best-known single "Toccata And Fugue" at the ceremony.

Mae shot to fame when she appeared, aged 14, in a video to accompany her techno-acoustic- fusion music, dressed in a see-through outfit and walking in the sea.

But she has also produced solely classical albums, including the Beethoven and Tchaikovsky concertos which she recorded when she was 13.

Her album The Violin Player has sold more than three million copies worldwide.

With her latest LP, The Classical Album 1, she became the fastest-selling solo classical artist ever.