Charlotte Church (born Charlotte Maria Reed on February 21, 1986) is a Welsh pop singer who rose to international fame in childhood as a popular classical singer.
Early life
Church was born in at Llandaff, Cardiff, South Glamorgan, Wales. She was raised Catholic by her Welsh-Maltese mother, Maria, after her natural father, Stephen Reid, walked out on them when she was about a year and a half old, had her first taste of stardom when she performed "Ghostbusters" at a holiday camp in Caernarforn at the age of 3, and had to be dragged from the stage when she refused to leave. Her big break came at the age of 11 when she sang "Pie Jesu" on the television show Talking Telephone Numbers in 1997, closely followed by her show-stealing performance on ITV's Big, Big Talent Show in 1998. This led to concerts at Cardiff Arms Park, Royal Albert Hall and the opening spot for Shirley Bassey in Antwerp. She only acquired her last name at the age of six when James Church, himself divorced, married her mother and adopted her. To this day the subject of her natural father remains a sore subject and she will not discuss him.
Classical career
Charlotte was then introduced to the Cardiff-based impresario, Jonathan Shalit, who later became her manager, and negotiated a record contract with Sony BMG. Her breakthrough album, Voice of an Angel, showcased her unique 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.
Church 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, she released Dream a Dream, an album of Christmas carols. Church has been represented in the press as an opera singer; but she has never sung in any opera performances, 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."
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.
In 2002, at the age of 16, Charlotte Church released a best-of album called Prelude, to mark her departure from classical music.
That year ended with her involvement in the Royal Christmas tour alongside Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, however, same had mixed success, as she was late to join it due to an alleged ear infection which prevented her flying, and the tour was dogged every step of the way by reports of her bad behavior, including snarling "Fuck this, I didn't agree to no meet and greet. Hello?" before storming off when asked to meet fans. Plummer and Andrews were not impressed by her at all.
Pop career
Charlotte made her first venture out of classical music in February 2003 providing haunting vocals for Jurgen Vries (aka DJ and producer Darren Tate's) single "The Opera Song". She was credited on the sleeve as CMC. The track reached #3 in the UK charts.
In 2005, she issued her first pop album Tissues and Issues and the first four singles have all been at least moderately successful in the UK with "Crazy Chick" reaching #2, "Call My Name" reaching #10, "Even God" reaching #17 and "Moodswings" reaching #14. Although these were released in Australia as well, they failed to reach the same level of success there, and in March 2006 it was announced that there would not be a US release of same nor any US release until a No. 1 hit was obtained.
Discography
Albums
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Charlotte Church (1999) #8 UK, #40 US
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Dream a Dream (2000) #30 UK, #7 US
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Enchantment (2001) #24 UK, #15 US
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Prelude: The Best of Charlotte Church (2002) #76 US
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Singles
Voice of an Angel
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"Pie Jesu"
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"My Lagan Love"
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"In Trutina"
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"Panis Angelicus"
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"Amazing Grace"
Charlotte Church
Dream a Dream
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"Ave Maria"
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"Dream a Dream"
Enchantment
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"Tonight"
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"Carrickfergus"
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Prelude: The Best Of...
Tissues and Issues
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"
Moodswings (to Come at Me Like That)" #14 UK, #5 MEX
External links
