BBC
News Online's Nick Dermody samples Charlotte Church's
new career ambition - helping out her friends and
cancer research
Teenage
singing star Charlotte Church has said she will keep
experimenting with new styles of music to "find
her own voice," if it takes until she is 60.
Charlotte,
who is 16 next month, said she is under no pressure
from record company Sony to complete her extended
six-album contract.
Bread
and butter work: the teen singer as
Saturday girl sandwich maker
|
So
after four albums in quick succession, the Welsh-born
vocalist is taking time off from her career to simply
hang out with her friends, keep up her studies and
indulge a normal teenage curiosity in clothes, make-up
and music.
And
she has started to use her free time by promoting
cancer research, helping out in a friend's sandwich
bar in Cardiff and donating the Saturday-job earnings
- about £30 - to a leading British charity.
Charlotte
spent the day serving behind the counter at the city
centre takeaway store, with many of the customers
unaware their order was being taken by a
multi-millionaire music artist.
The
platinum album-selling teenager agreed to take part in
the Cancer Research Campaign's Give A Day - and Give
Them Years initiative in which celebrities donate
their earnings from a job to highlight the issue of
cancer research.
Surprised:
Charlotte fans Natalie Miller, 14, and
Danielle James, 13
|
She
said her family had suffered from the disease,
particularly on her grandfather's side, which prompted
her to help the project started by Cardiff woman,
Ginny Moon.
"It's
an awful disease. I'd like to make people aware of how
many families have been affected by it. Hopefully a
cure will be found," she said.
As
well as handing over her earnings for the shift
filling bread rolls and baguettes, she pledged to make
a separate donation to the charity's work.
But
between customers she talked about how her career was
shaping up after reports that she was trying out new
images for her herself.
She
said she was working with a range of musicians, music
writers and directors to broaden her experience of the
music scene to see if there were themes or styles
which she wanted to explore.
"I
haven't got a clue what direction I'm going to go in,
I'm just doing different things with some interesting
directors and musicians to see what happens.
Money
maker: The Church family has been hit by
cancer
|
"I
have a contract to do six albums and I can take until
I'm 60 if I want, it's not a problem.
"I
haven't got any "new image", I decide how I
want to dress and do it.
"It's
not me thinking "what image should I go for
next." I'm living a bit."
"But
I am lucky, I get a lot of designer clothes given to
me through the record company - and all my friends
nick them!"
She
said her next engagement was performing at the closing
ceremony at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City on
24th February.
