Voice of an angel but feet on the ground
By FARAH FAROUQUE
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Charlotte Church is an ordinary teenager with an extraordinary voice.
(Click to Enlarge)
Picture: SIMON O'DWYER |
One of the basic primers of stardom is that you have a
license to be late. Charlotte Church, 14, soprano-at-large, is learning fast. She is late. But as she sat down to a cooling lemonade yesterday in Melbourne, it is apparent (thankfully) that the singer would score an F for attitude. "I can still chat, while smiling and photo-ing," the British young star says with an accommodating smile.If she was a Spice Girl, she would be a Perky. Or better still Angel - her debut album Voice of an Angel sold two million copies -and she has recently starred in an episode of the American series Touched by an Angel.
In the throes of a promotional tour around Australia, Charlotte appears to be on all matters, except recording contracts, a regular teenager who likes to shop. But shopping opportunities are limited when you are asked to sing for the likes of royalty (the Queen and Prince Charles), presidents (Bill Clinton) and even a pope (John Paul II).
Charlotte, who travels with a personal entourage that includes her mother, father and a tutor, insists she is grounded. "I feel like I always did," she says. "I mean, obviously my life and my circumstances have changed but me and all my family haven't changed."
Charlotte's ascent to fame and fortune - the latter is safely locked up in a trust fund - was through one of those perennial British variety shows. This one was called Talking Telephone Numbers, and she went on the show as a support act to her aunt.
She sang four lines of the liturgical song Pie Jesu and Sony Music wanted to discuss a record deal. After the first meeting, they signed her on the spot.
Sony now sometimes acts in loco parentis: It pays for most of her clothes, says Charlotte, and plots her image carefully with her. "It's funky but clean-cut," she says. (And she is indeed that, in a denim skirt and baby-pink top).
Child star age, and some self-destruct, but the sensible Charlotte has also plotted a game plan.
"My education is as important as my singing," she says.
Some of the options she is considering for the future include being an opera singer or a star of the musical stage. But charming Charlotte also slips into the conversation evidence that her head is not always in the clouds.
Just before the interview she had completed three hours of classes: a curriculum that included geography and maths and, it appears, no singing whatsoever.
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