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Most of you know Charlotte Church as the Welsh classical music phenom who burst onto the scene in 1998. Since then, this 15-year-old singer with the voice of an angel has sold over 9 million albums worldwide and sung for the Queen of England, the Pope, and Presidents and First Ladies. Earlier this month she joined the Columbia Records family and released her fourth CD, Enchantment, which features the new single, “The Prayer,” a song that’s most appropriate for these anxious times. Gavin recently spoke with Church about her newest body of work.

You sing with newcomer Josh Groban on “The Prayer.” Can you tell us how that came about?

David Foster, who produced the song, had spoken to my manager [Irving Azoff] about this song and mentioned Josh. David sent us the Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli version and I thought it was so beautiful that I’d quite like to record it. I recorded my part in Wales and Josh did his part somewhere in America. I heard his voice for the first time when I started recording the song. He has this gorgeous easy-going voice that’s not too operatic.

How do you think this song has the power to heal, especially with the way things are around the world right now?

My album is called Enchantment because music has this inexplicable way of helping people through hard times. Recently a lady came up to me and said, “My son was killed in the September 11th attacks, and listening to your music is one of the only things that picks up my spirits,” and that was so nice to hear. I love to hear those kinds of stories because being famous can sometimes be hard, and when people say things like that, you realize you’re actually helping people and that puts everything into perspective. “The Prayer” in particular, has got such emotive words, an optimistic feeling, and this whole hopefulness inside of it.

There are more contemporary pieces on this album. Is that a new direction you’re going to continue moving in?

When I was 12, someone would say, “Sing this,” and I’d just kind of sing it, I didn’t have much perspective on things. But now I’m developing as an artist and I wanted to be more involved in my career because in the end, I am the project. I wanted to be fully in charge of what was going into this CD and decided I wanted to put quite a lot of diversity in it: Celtic songs, classical songs, Broadway songs. I tried to mix different musical genres and cultures together. This is the CD I’m most proud of because it’s that one that I’ve been most involved in.

Any other projects you’re currently involved in?

One of my favorite songs I ever sang is for the new Ron Howard movie, A Beautiful Mind, which stars Russell Crowe as a math genius and comes out at Christmas. I haven’t really got a favorite artist, but James Horner, who wrote all the music, is just a genius. He wrote “All Love Can Be” for the film for me and it’s just the perfect song for these hard times.

Any words to American radio?

I know that often music has to be stereotyped into certain [formats]. But if it’s good quality music, which has got a lot of artistry in it, then it shouldn’t be segregated against what type of music it is.