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Weekly
Media Feature - (8/26/2001) |
Charlotte
Church is Broadway Baby
USA
Today - 24 August 2001
By Elysa Gardner, USA TODAY
Charlotte Church stretches out with show tunes.
Charlotte Church is giving her regards to Broadway. The 15-year-old soprano, whose angelic interpretations of classical material made her a crossover star, will stress show tunes and pop-savvy arrangements on her fourth album, Enchantment, due Oct. 9.
While the CD features a few traditional songs and operatic arias — Habanera from Carmen and The Laughing Song from Die Fledermaus - it is dominated by musical-theater favorites.
Church performs Tonight and Somewhere from West Side Story, Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man from Show Boat, Bali Ha'i from South Pacific, If I Loved You from Carousel and A Bit of Earth from The Secret Garden. Also included is her version of Papa Can You Hear Me, which Barbra Streisand made famous in the film Yentl.
Producer Keith Thomas — known for his work with teen-pop acts Mandy Moore and 98 Degrees, in addition to more mature artists such as Vanessa Williams and Brian McKnight — was brought on board to give Enchantment a more modern sound. Church's take on the Irish folk song Carrickfergus, for instance, has "a pop (and adult-contemporary) feel, with a full rhythm track," Thomas notes.
"We're not doing anything as crazy as straight-up pop music," Thomas says of his work with Church. "We're just adding a few flavors here and there to make (Enchantment) a little more aggressive than what she's done in the past. Her voice still has a classical feel to it, but the tracks underneath are a bit different, which made her sing differently. I think she stretched herself with this record."
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