ARTIST

Charlotte Church

Most 12-year-olds are lucky if they can dress themselves, never mind sing on key and stand under luminous spotlights with gracious poise while the whole world watches. Most people die without ever meeting the Pope, but 12-year-old Charlotte Church has done it. Prince Charles's 50th birthday bash was an exclusive affair, but Church was there singing. She's also in the Guinness Book of World Records as the youngest artist to ever hit No. 1 on the British charts. The Welsh-born soprano has done so much so soon, it makes you wonder what she's going to do for an encore. Buy the world, perhaps?

She's done it all in a most unusual fashion. Unlike so many of her peers who might be sporting Spice Girls bubble-pop, Puff Daddy hip-hop beats, or a perhaps an ersatz cowboy hat, Church has stuck with classical music (although one might not want to consider anything by Andrew Lloyd Webber as "classic" anything.) She signed to Sony Classical and recorded with the orchestra of the Welsh National Opera, of which several members are said to be reaching the age of the Rolling Stones. Her album Voice Of An Angel went double-platinum in the U.K. within five weeks of its release (way ahead of Boxcar Willie and Slim Whitman), and she's appeared on The Rosie O'Donnell Show, David Letterman, and The Tonight Show With Jay Leno. Her professional ambitions include to sing Puccini in an opera house as an adult.

Written by Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide