Natasha Bedingfield: Second Time Around

The U.K. pop princess gives classic pop props, drops sophomore set

By Melinda Newman
Special to MSN Music

Natasha Bedingfield has a secret. The pop artist confesses that she "would love to write music like Björk; she's so intelligent and deep and amazing."

"... sometimes, completely no one recognizes you. You go to a club and you could get turned away because you're just not hot that day ..."

At first blush, it is hardly a confession one would expect from this British 26-year-old singer who is best known for her ultra-catchy, so-bubbly-it-floats, 2006 mega-hit "Unwritten" (still ubiquitous due to its use on a Pantene commercial)   But talk to the gregarious singer/songwriter for any length of time and her love and knowledge of many different artists comes through—except, surprisingly, the contemporaries who are jockeying for space alongside her at Top 40 radio.  "I don't like listening to pop, that's the thing," she says, sitting in the back lounge of the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus, a mobile recording studio unveiled in Las Vegas at the Consumer Electronics Show. "Actually, I only listen to old classics, old pop. I listen to the Beatles, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder ..."

Bedingfield returns Jan. 22 with her second album, "Pocketful of Sunshine." The album is already off to a strong start via first single, "Love Like This," which features 17-year-old sensation Sean Kingston.

Hear "Pocketful of Sunshine" in the Listening Booth

More on the album on New This Week

MSN Music: Unlike your first album, which celebrated independence, "Pocketful of Sunshine" is about relationships. How difficult is it to put lyrics on a CD when you know people are going to ask you who the songs are about?

Natasha Bedingfield: I'd been quite private with the press and [the studio] was the place where I had to be open because I'd set that kind of challenge to myself: to always be honest with music. And so I was like, "cool, this is actually therapy" and it's great.

The funny thing is the reason I write songs is because it's easier to talk about emotions in a song or in art than actually in real life and then you get to an interview and they're  like, "What was that song about?" and you're like, "S--t, now I actually have to talk about it," you know.
 
The first single "Love Like This" is a sweet song about a first love. How did you pair with Sean Kingston, who had a huge hit with "Beautiful Girls?"

I was working in the studio with [producer] J.R. [Rotem] and he's very much involved in the Sean Kingston thing. He showed me some of Sean's stuff and I thought it would be really cool to get him on that track.

I felt like I needed a lighthearted song that was a love story [on the album]. I just think it's quite sweet. It's like a relationship that never got followed through, never got consummated. It's a nice idea and we all have those people in our lives; we look back and we kind of realize they've always been there and we remember to be grateful for them.

"Unwritten," which was one of the most played songs on pop radio in 2006, was written for your younger brother. How did that come about? 

At the time [I wrote it], he was 14, he's 18 now, and I didn't have a present for him, so I'm like, "I'm going to write him a song."

So it was his birthday present?

Yes!

Does he get any royalties?

No!  (laughs)  A year later, I released [the song] on his birthday and I was like, "Well, that can be your birthday present this year." And he was like, "No, you have to give me a real present." So I gave him an Xbox.

The success of your first album catapulted you to stardom in England. How did you deal with sudden fame?

Fame is extremely empty from my experience and it goes up and down.

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