SINGER Charlotte Church is not your average 14-year-old.Not only has she sold several million records, but also she specialises in that distinctly non-teenage-friendly form: classical music.
Her albums Voice of an Angel and Charlotte Church have even landed the Welsh singer in the Guinness Book of Records, for being the youngest artist to score a UK top five album.She's also the youngest female artist to score a US top 30 album.
Church has met everyone from Celine Dion to George Michael, and Bill Clinton to the Pope, who blessed her rosary beads.
But the singer still goes to school, travels with her parents and a tutor and can only do promotional work for a few hours a day so she doesn't breach child-work guidelines. But she admits her life has become rather surreal.
I remember doing exams last year," Church said yesterday. "I did French and history in the morning and in the afternoon I went and sang for President Clinton. "Then I met Will Smith, who I love, and he said he'd been watching my career. I was like, 'my God, Will Smith knows who I am!' "
But she remains a normal teenager, taking in Taronga Park Zoo in Sydney and shopping in Melbourne during her brief promotional tour of Australia this week. She is a big fan of rock and pop, though she is happy to wean Britney Spears fans on to the works of Mozart and Bach through her albums.
I am a big rock and pop fan. I never listen to classical music. I listen to Macy Gray, Alanis
Morisette, TLC, Manic Street Preachers, Travis, Stereophonics, Lauryn Hill, stuff like that."When I get back to school it's like I've been away for a day visiting the dentist or something."No one really cares, unless I've been on a TV show with someone they like, then it's like 'what were Five like?' or 'what was Will Smith like?' "By Cameron Adams, The Herald Sun
