Charlotte Church

Charlotte Church (born Charlotte Maria Reed on February 21, 1986 at Llandaff, Cardiff, South Glamorgan, Wales) is a soprano. She introduced her aunt on ITV's Big Big Talent Show in 1998, was asked to sing and was heard by Jonathan Shalit, who then helped her to secure a record contract with Sony Classical at age 12. In recent years she has moved away from the classical field into pop music.

Background

Church's looks and popular repertoire have made her a great commercial success. Her career began at the age of 12 with her breakthrough album, Voice of an Angel, where she showcased her unique soprano voice in a collection of arias, sacred songs, and traditional pieces that sold millions of copies worldwide and made her the youngest artist with a No. 1 selling album to date. She made a cameo appearance on the US CBS series Touched by an Angel. She later appeared on numerous PBS specials and television commercials, most notably in the acclaimed Just Wave Hello campaign for the Ford Motor Company. The song appeared on her self-titled second album, which included another array of operatic, religious, and traditional tracks. In 2000, Charlotte released Dream a Dream, an album of Christmas carols. Charlotte has been represented in the press as an opera singer; but she has never sung in any performances of opera, only recordings (and those of excerpts, usually edited and engineered to fit her range). However, up until 2001, she had recorded only two pop (or classical crossover songs) -- "Just Wave Hello", and "Dream a Dream", a duet with child artist Billy Gilman.

Related Topics:
Voice of an Angel - Soprano - US - CBS - Touched by an Angel - PBS - Ford Motor Company - Billy Gilman

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In 2001, Charlotte Church added some pop, swing, and Broadway to her classical repertoire with her album Enchantment. That same year, movie-going audiences heard Church for the first time in the 2001 Ron Howard film A Beautiful Mind. Since Celine Dion was not available to perform the film's end title song, All Love Can Be (Dion was beginning her concert engagement in Las Vegas), composer James Horner enlisted Charlotte to handle the vocals, and the song was re-written to Church's vocal range. Charlotte also handled other vocal passages throughout the score.

Related Topics:
2001 - Ron Howard - A Beautiful Mind - Celine Dion - James Horner

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In 2002, at the age of 16, Charlotte Church released a best-of album called Prelude, to mark her departure from classical music. The next year, she made her on-screen debut in the Craig Ferguson film I'll Be There. The film was so critically panned it did not even receive a U.S. theatrical release (it was released in Europe, however). It is now available on video.

Related Topics:
Prelude - Craig Ferguson - I'll Be There

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In the past couple of years, she has provoked some controversy with remarks on the September 11, 2001 attacks http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/1682860.stm and saying that agents are turning her down because of her weight. There was more controversy when she was awarded the Rear of the year title in 2002 at the age of 16.

Related Topics:
September 11, 2001 attacks - Rear of the year - 2002

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In March 2005, a topless photograph of Charlotte was rumored to have been stolen from the mobile phone of her boyfriend Gavin Henson, a Welsh International Rugby player, when he lost his phone on a night out in Cardiff. In interviews, Church said she was in her bra, but not nude in the picture. She said that a topless picture of her circulating around the Internet was a fake.

Related Topics:
2005 - Gavin Henson - Welsh International - Rugby - Cardiff

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Recently, her ex-boyfriend, Steven Johnson demanded Charlotte pay him £3m from her fortune to stop him from releasing his tell-tale book. His father promised the book would "hang the Church family" by revealing salacious details of Steven and Charlotte's sex life. Charlotte has yet to respond to this. Previously, her other ex had also sold stories of his relationship with Charlotte to the tabloids.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In 2005 she issued her first pop album Tissues and Issues and the first two singles ("Crazy Chick" and "Call My Name") have become UK Top 10 hit singles.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~