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Radio
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My Kind of
Day: Charlotte Church |
Charlotte
with her pet Lizard "Iggy"
(Click to Enlarge)
We're quite a
musical family. My mum used to play classical guitar, my Auntie
Caroline is a cabaret singer, Gramps - that's my grandad Gary Cooper
(his real name is Edward) - was with Amen Corner and Andy
Fairweather-Low in the sixties and my Uncle Paul (who's really my
cousin) does a great Elvis impersonation. We all live near each
other in Llandaff, a suburb of Cardiff, so we often get together for
a sing-song.
I live with Mum
and Dad and my pet lizard Iggy in a terraced house just around the
corner from my nan's, so I see her most days, too. Dad works for a
security installation company and Mum has taken time off from her
job in the council's housing department so she can travel with me
when I'm singing. The last year has been amazing. My album, Voice of
an Angel, has gone double platinum [sold more than 600,000 copies],
and went to number one in the classical chart and number four in the
pop charts. [While on tour in the USA earlier this year she also
became the youngest-ever solo act to enter the Billboard chart top
30.] My friends couldn't believe it - they were, like, 'Oh, my God!'
And I've met
Geri Halliwell and Robbie Williams and George Michael and Prince
Charles. They were all really nice and after I sang at the Prince's
50th birthday party he spoke to me and told me to keep it up and
stuff. 'You've got a really nice voice,' he said. 'What are you
going to do with it?' I told him I was going to be an opera singer.
I've never been to the opera but I like the music and I want to sing
Tosca one day.
For three years
I was a chorister at the Llandaff Cathedral School but last
September I moved to a private school nearby and they've been very
good, letting me take off about one day a week for recordings and
performances. But I always catch up with my school work on the train
or in the car.
I get up at
about 7.45am, have breakfast and play with Iggy - he's in a glass
case in my bedroom where I feed him live insects but he comes with
me all over the house every day. He's not fully grown yet but his
colours are beautiful. I'm allergic to cats so I originally wanted a
tarantula but Mum was worried she'd step on it. I really enjoy
school - particularly French, English and geography - and I always
have my lunch there, though I'm a bit picky and I like my chicken
with lines on it - charcoal grilled. I do eat a lot of junk stuff
but food with sauces is yukky.
When I get home
in the afternoon I do my homework, watch The Simpsons and then
usually go to my nan's for tea. After that I'll do half an hour's
singing - to a tape prepared by my singing teacher Louise Ryan -
watch some more telly (usually soaps), play computer games and
listen to my records, everything from the Corrs, Puff Daddy and
Catatonia to Maria Callas and Joan Sutherland.
I'll sometimes
shop at weekends, though my concert clothes are made for me now. I'm
not a binge shopper but I love buying shoes - I have 14 pairs and my
friends call me Imelda! Gramps gives me 3 a week pocket money and
everything I earn is put into a trust for me to have when I'm 22,
which I think is a good thing. On Sunday I'll go to church with Nan,
have Sunday lunch at Auntie Caroline's and then go for my two-hour
singing lesson. When I'm older I want to got to music college. On a
school day I'm in bed by 9.30pm. I sleep very heavily and I
sleepwalk and sleeptalk and snore so loudly that my mum can't stand
it. She says I need a brass band to wake me.
Charlotte
Church was talking to David Gillard
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