|
by JILL LAWLESS
Canadian Press
Charlotte Church turns 18 on Saturday, Feb. 21, 2004. (AP /PA, Ian
West)
LONDON (AP) - Charlotte Church was
the "voice of an angel" - the bright-eyed Welsh soprano who sang for
two U.S. presidents, the Pope and the Queen before her 16th
birthday.
As she turns 18 on Saturday, she at last gets control of the
estimated $30-million US accumulated in a trust fund since she was
11. Church - whose bursts of rebelliousness, family spats and
now-discarded boyfriend have become a tabloid soap opera - now faces
the notoriously difficult transition from child prodigy to adult
star.
With more than 10 million records sold around the world, the
singer's financial future seems secure. Church said she planned to
leave most of the trust-fund money where it was, telling Britain's
GMTV television: "I just don't want it. I don't need a lot of money
now."
Church's last album of new material appeared in 2001, and there is
no firm date set for a new one. She says she wants to leave behind
the light classical music that endeared her to millions and forge a
pop career.
Her next album will include "some rocky stuff, some soulful songs
and some electric - it's really mixed," Church told Britain's Daily
Mirror in an interview published Friday.
If Church's musical direction is uncertain, her media profile has
never been higher.
Ever since she shot to fame as a child with bright blue eyes and a
crystalline voice, Church has attracted intense media scrutiny. At
first she charmed talk show hosts with her precocious poise and easy
laughter. Later, Britain's tabloid press revelled in tales of first
boyfriends, teenage tantrums and conflict with her
mother-cum-manager, Maria.
"She's got a rebellious streak, as all teenagers have, and a pushy,
overbearing mother," said music writer and broadcaster John
Aizlewood. "It's a recipe for disaster."
A television expose - entitled Fallen Angel and screened two days
before Church's birthday - featured an embittered stepsister,
envious school friends, an ex-boyfriend, a former manager and
psychologist Oliver James, who judged Church "a conduit, a vehicle
for her mother's ambitions."
Church, who comes from a close-knit Cardiff family, insists singing
was always her dream, not her mother's.
Spotted performing on a TV talent show at 11, Church released her
first album, Voice of an Angel, in 1998. The collection of
listener-friendly airs including Danny Boy, Amazing Grace and Andrew
Lloyd Webber's Pie Jesu - Church's signature tune - sold more than
600,000 copies in Britain and topped the classical album chart.
The record also sold more than a million copies in the United
States. Church performed at the White House for President Bill
Clinton and as part of George W. Bush's inauguration ceremonies.
She has released three more albums, plus a greatest-hits collection,
all successful. But disillusionment set in quickly.
"I thought it was going to be all glamorous and really easy, and
it's not as glamorous as you think, and it's really, really hard,"
Church told The Associated Press in 1999, when she was 13.
In 2000, Church replaced manager Jonathan Shalit, who had overseen
her rise to fame, with her mother. Two years later, mother and
daughter were said to be feuding over Charlotte's boyfriend,
sometime DJ and model Steven Johnson.
Church and Johnson split last year after reports - which he denies -
that he attempted to sell details of the couple's love life to a
tabloid newspaper.
Church conceded she found the press scrutiny difficult.
"I'm just starting in relationships and stuff like that, and when
everything is being scrutinized, it's just - it's confusing enough
being 16. I'm really confused about who I am and everything and all
that," she told ITV television in 2002.
Some feel the media have gone too far, especially as Church grew
older and became a tentative tabloid sex symbol. In 2002, the
16-year-old singer was named "Rear of the Year" by a jeans retailer.
Welsh First Minister Rhodri Morgan said the award was "somewhat
unsavoury."
As she comes of age. Church seems eager to diversify her career.
Last year she sang on a hit dance track, appeared in the film comedy
I'll Be There and was guest host on the BBC's satirical TAB Quiz
show Have I Got News for You, confidently sparring with panellists
more than twice her age.
As for her musical career, Aizlewood said, "She might be taken
seriously if she does pop. It depends who advises her. She's ripe
for exploitation, for being advised to do something trendy and
transient, or something completely naff."
Or, he says, "she might get good management, a decent record
company, a good bloke and knuckle down and do some work."
|
