Natasha Bedingfield

Natasha Bedingfield biography

Natasha Anne Bedingfield (born 26 November 1981) is a British pop singer and songwriter. Bedingfield debuted in the 1990s as a member of the Christian dance/electronic group The DNA Algorithm with her siblings Daniel Bedingfield and Nikola Rachelle. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Bedingfield recorded rock and gospel songs for the Hillsong London Church, while Daniel went on to enjoy success with hits "Gotta Get Thru This" and "If You're Not the One".

Bedingfield released her first album, Unwritten, in 2004. The album contained primarily up-tempo pop songs and was influenced by R&B music; it enjoyed international success with more than 2.3 million copies sold worldwide and she received a Grammy Award nomination for "Best Female Pop Vocal Performance" for the title track "Unwritten". Bedingfield's second album, N.B. (2007), was less successful but yielded the UK top 10 singles "I Wanna Have Your Babies" and "Soulmate". N.B. was not released in North America, but six tracks from it were included with seven new ones and released in 2008 as her third studio album Pocketful of Sunshine, with the singles "Love Like This" and "Pocketful of Sunshine" earning success on the charts. In December 2010, Bedingfield released her third album in North America named Strip Me.

In 2012, VH1 ranked her #66 on the list of 100 Greatest Women in Music.

Early life

Bedingfield was born in Sussex (later moving to the Lewisham, south London) to New Zealand-born Molly and John Bedingfield who worked in the international charity sector focused on inner-city projects in education, reconciliation, addiction rehab, and longterm community development, alongside local government initiatives and faith-based communities in Europe, Asia and Latin America. Natasha has three siblings: brothers Daniel, Joshua and a younger sister Nikola. Her interest in music was encouraged by her parents and she took guitar and piano lessons when she was younger. When Bedingfield was a teenager, she and her siblings, Daniel and Nikola, formed the dance/electronic group, The DNA Algorithm. The group provided Bedingfield with the opportunity to explore different musical genres and expand her songwriting abilities. She provided vocals for the group which primarily performed dance-pop music about independence and empowerment, themes that would later be found in her own solo compositions. At age 14, Natasha sang vocals on Origins Refined Intricacy (Steelyard Records).

Bedingfield attended a year at the University of Greenwich, where she studied psychology, then left to concentrate on singing and songwriting. At first she recorded demos in the garages of friends who had recording studios, which she presented to record companies. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Bedingfield composed and recorded songs for the Hillsong London Church. In 2004, her recordings appeared on the church's live album Shout God's Fame and the children's album Jesus Is My Superhero by Hillsong Music Australia.

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