The popular opera singer Russell Watson was critically ill last night after emergency surgery to remove a brain tumour.

The Salford-born singer, known as “the Voice”, had similar surgery for an apparently benign brain tumour last year and had appeared to be recovering well and resuming his career.

He was in his recording studio on Wednesday, putting the finishing touches to his latest album, when he complained of headaches and became too ill to continue.

He was taken to the Alexandra Hospital in Cheadle, where he underwent an immediate MRI scan which showed that the tumour was bleeding into the brain.

But the singer, 40, who lives in Hale, Cheshire, delayed the operation to share a “private moment” with his two daughters, Rebecca, 12, and Hannah, 6, before surgeons began to operate, his agent, Giles Baxendale, said last night.

Mr Baxendale said: “It’s been a tough day. He looks pretty grim. He’s alive, that’s the main thing.

“He’s out and in intensive care. He’s in a critical condition still and going to stay in intensive care for at least 24 to 48 hours. He's in and out of consciousness. He’s spoken. He was having waves of consciousness.”

An MRI scan showed the tumour which had struck him down last year had regrown and surgery was needed immediately. It was of the pituitary adenoma type and was not malignant, the private hospital said.

“The one thing is his two girls,” Mr Baxendale said. “He was delaying a life-threatening operation this morning. I think people thought he could die last night.” He added that the singer had woken up on Wednesday feeling “horrendous”.

Watson, who has sold more than four million albums worldwide, had been due to release his new album, Outside In, on November 26.

Fans have inundated his website, posting prayers and hopes for his recovery.

Watson’s boyish good looks, strong, self-taught tenor voice and easy charm have carried him from apprentice cutter in a nuts-and-bolts factory to success as the prince of popular classical opera.

His escape from 12-hour shifts came when he won a local radio talent competition. He left the factory to try his luck on the club circuit, mainly in the North East.

Watson’s breakthrough came in 1999 when he was invited to sing Nessun Dorma before Manchester United’s last Premier League match of the season at Old Trafford.

In an interview with The Times this year, the singer spoke about his illness. He said: “Since an early age I’d had an in-built premonition, a vision that I would not make 40. For the previous seven years I’d had a recurring nightmare in which my head exploded. And here I was with a brain tumour.”

Dr Thomas Stuttaford, the Times doctor, said bleeding from brain tumours could cause severe problems. He said: “A bleed will extend beyond the tumour and damage the surrounding healthy tissue.

“Unfortunately, even with the greatly improved treatment for cerebral tumours, reoccurrence is still common.”

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