Friday, April 18, 2003 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Voice of an Angel

Teen singer Charlotte Church moving away from operatic songs she's known for

Charlotte Church earned fame with pop-opera, but she says she's moving away from it: "To be an opera singer, you have to be really strict with yourself, and you have to be practicing every day, and things like that. I just don't have that discipline."

Charlotte Church continues to grow up in front of the world. A veteran of the music business at 17, Church has sold millions of albums, sung for the pope, and informed President Bush that her native Wales is not in the United States (a story we'll get to in a moment).

She has alternately been championed by the British press as well as criticized by British tabloids for wearing certain clothes and for supposedly saying nasty things that she says she's never said.

The spry, charming and blond Church, who sings Saturday at the Aladdin, tells the Review-Journal she is moving away from the operatic songs that helped make her a pop-classical star, because the musical field is just too strict for her.

Question: How do you protect your voice?

Answer: I'm not really fanatical about it. Before I go onstage, I try to have as much sleep as I possibly can. I try to keep healthy. I drink honey and lemon and hot water before I go onstage.

Q: You don't smoke or have bad habits like that, do you?

A: No. I did at one point, but no.

Q: That'll ruin your voice pretty fast.

A: Yeah, I know. (Chuckles.) I got shouted out by everyone, so I said, "Oh, OK, I better stop."

Q: How much do you still practice?

A: At the moment, I'm kind of experimenting with different voice coaches. I have a lot of different voices. So I'm just experimenting, really. I want to do something really different. I'm making a departure from opera, now. I don't mean that in a bad way. But I grew up listening to a lot of opera, and I always loved it. But opera is very strict and rigid. Opera's at its greatest when it's sung in one particular way, and there's no freedom in it. I wanted more freedom. I want to write songs. My favorite kinds of artists are, like, Jill Scott, India.Arie, Sting, Eva Cassidy, people like that, just something kind of soul-y, and world music-y, that's still folky and still hopefully with classical music. I don't know how I'm going to achieve that, but I'm going to try.

Q: Classically trained musicians can lose their ability to create, because they're so structured.

A: Yeah, exactly. There's just no freedom in it. There's no individuality. And I get bored of things easily. I think if I'd gone into opera when I was 20, I probably would have stuck with it.

Q: So you're not going to end up the great soprano at age 30?

A: No, I don't think it would suit me, either. I'd have to be much more ... dedicated. ... I just like to live my life and not be fanatical about anything. But to be an opera singer, you have to be really strict with yourself, and you have to be practicing every day, and things like that. I just don't have that discipline.

Q: I heard this story about you and George W. Bush, that you met him backstage and he asked you where you were from, and then he seemed to think you were still from the States, no matter what you said.

A: Yeah, I said, "I'm from Wales," and he said, "What state is Wales in?" I was, like: "Um, here in England. It's not in America." He was really nice ... charming. So I'm a Bush fan, although I'm a very big Clinton fan, as well.

Q: Do you get tutored, or do you go to school?

A: No, when you're 16 in the U.K., you can leave school. ... What I wanted to do was to take these two years off and try to concentrate on my career. But I want to go to university, because I'm really interested in psychology and philosophy and history and anthropology.

Q: I think in an interview a few years ago you said studying philosophy would make you become a better song interpreter.

A: Yeah, well, just living life would help me become a better interpreter. I've got a bit of that to do, yet.

Q: So it sounds like you want to be a singer, in a career.

A: Yeah, I could never imagine myself not singing. I can imagine myself not being famous. The fame bit is the part that really doesn't bother me. It has great upsides, but it has great downsides. The upsides are things like money, obviously, and the free stuff and -- I sound like such a cliché, sorry -- but some of the fun stuff is amazing, will just make my day. The downsides are, like, press and so much pressure. ... Lots of people say, "Aren't you worried that you're a novelty, you were commercial to start, so your albums will sell less and less." It's nice to sell lots of albums, of course, but really as long as I'm singing it doesn't bother me.

Q: Speaking of the downside, I saw this story in the tabloids a couple of years ago, and you were wearing this outfit, which seemed fine to me, and they had next to you a picture of Christina Aguilera from the "Moulin Rouge" video, and it said: Charlotte's beginning to look like this!

A: Things like that really don't bother me. They can say what they want about my weight or how I look. I ignore that, because that's all trash. Really untrue things have been written about me, fabricated things I was supposed to have said. That really upsets me. There was a big story in the tabloids about when I went on tour, and they said that I swore at someone in a wheelchair because I didn't want to do a meet-and-greet. ... I've got family members calling me saying, "Did you say that?" And I say: "Don't be stupid, of course not. I'd never say that." And there were some things I was supposed to have said about Sept. 11, that the Americans overexaggerated, and things like that. I was in Florida at the time, and I had people coming up to me going, "Remember the firefighters," and I was, like, "I didn't say it." ... So there are some things that really bother me.

Q: Are you afraid of anything, now?

A: Not really. When I was, like, 12, I had so much confidence: I watched some of the tapes the other day, when I was on David Letterman for the first time, and I probably did seem a little arrogant then, but that's just because I was so bubbly, and I had so much confidence, because you have no insecurities, no inhibitions, at 12. You just do what you think is funny, and people respond to you. So I probably did come off like a little brat then, but I hope I've grown out of it.

Q: I asked Lil' Bow Wow a couple of years ago, when the last time he was nervous, and he said: I'm never nervous. He was 12 or so.

A: Yeah, that's true. I was never nervous at that age. I was nervous in front of the pope, and when I did a showcase in London. But because you have no fear, and no inhibitions at that age, you don't even think about cause and effect. You just do it. But as I'm gettin' older, I'm just getting more nervous. And weird. (Laughs.)

Q: What kind of pressure do you feel from your parents and the record company?

A: Everyone's always tried to stereotype them as the pushy parents, and they've tried to back away from that as much as they can. People just say that because it just fits into the story of me becoming a "wild child." The only pressure really is not really from the record company. They say: Take as much time as you want, and do any style you want, because if you're not happy with it, you're not gonna promote it, and it's not gonna sell. So what it is, is just the press. That puts unbelievable strain. Unbelievable strain. Whether it's with my family members, or friends selling stories.

Q: When you perform, what will you be performing?

A: It's kind of a mellow set. I'm doing "Fields of Gold" by Sting, and I'm doing "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face," "Don't Rain on My Parade," "Ain't No Sunshine" and I'm still doing some of my old (opera and Broadway) songs. It's gonna be cool. It's a lot of songs I've never sung before, so I'm gonna be really nervous.