Music History<\/a><\/p>\n\n A series where artists share their musical firsts and lasts.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt\u2019s a very exciting time for artists right now because you don\u2019t need to have a label.\u201d
\n Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos: WireImage (Steve Jennings, Joseph Okpako), Getty Images (Jo Hale, Neilson Barnard, Alberto E. Rodriguez, Tim Mosenfelder)\n <\/p>\n
Natasha Bedingfield\u2019s music has functioned as sonic dopamine ever since she emerged from the U.K. in the mid-aughts. The three-pronged classics \u201cThese Words,\u201d \u201cPocketful of Sunshine,\u201d and \u201cLove Like This\u201d will make even the most rigid of millennials crack a smile. That is, until the grand pooh-bah makes its entrance and you just can\u2019t stop beaming: \u201cUnwritten,\u201d one of the undisputed greatest hits of the 21st century, an ode to controlling your destiny. (This writer sang it proudly at her middle-school graduation with 14 other students.) Bedingfield is currently tinkering away on her upcoming sixth album, which she\u2019s using as an opportunity to reflect on what she hopes to achieve with her own experiences.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want people to go on a journey,\u201d Bedingfield explains. \u201cSome people say their inner child is being healed \u2014 my music is doing something for people. So when I\u2019m writing the new music, which is nearly finished, I\u2019m picturing things like Coldplay and Massive Attack shows where they have elements of organic human music, real vocals, and no autotune. That\u2019s where I\u2019m going.\u201d For now, the singer-songwriter is our latest \u201cMusic History\u201d guest, regaling us with stories about feeling way too claustrophobic while filming The Masked Singer, how Lady Gaga once opened for her on the road, and the review that affected her the most.<\/p>\n
The unique thing about my upbringing is that we weren\u2019t allowed to listen to the radio. We were raised in quite a vacuum devoid of pop songs, so it\u2019s ironic that I ended up writing pop songs with my brother. We ended up having hit songs on the radio, and we didn\u2019t grow up listening to radio. I went to the library and found Songs in the Key of Life, by Stevie Wonder. I was like, What is this? This is amazing. That\u2019s one of my formative records.<\/p>\n
There were a few records we would play to death. I mean, I\u2019m getting old now; that was when we were listening to actual records. We also loved Disney. We were raised in church, so we listened to a lot of Christian music. A lot of actual music was happening in church. The Cardigans \u2014 the record with them sitting on the couch, my sister and I played that to death \u2014 Bj\u00f6rk and Lauryn Hill. I remember being a teenager and India.Arie came out with that amazing Voyage to India record and I was like, What is that? I love that. There\u2019s a lot of soul. As I got older and started to want to be a singer, I realized it was a big challenge to have a unique voice. A lot of the singers sound the same. One of the things I thought to be clever was just listening to male singers. So I listened to Steve Wonder, Sting, Bono, and the Rolling Stones \u2014 a lot of male, gutsy singers.<\/p>\n
We had a great teacher in school called Francis, who was amazing at teaching creativity, how to write poetry, and how to write music. She was one of the early people who saw me and my brother. He\u2019s my older brother and one of those \u201cvery talented\u201d children, while I was quiet and under the radar. I didn\u2019t feel people really noticed me as a child. I mean, they noticed me as a person, but not, Hey, this is going to be a talented person. We always thought it was going to just be my brother. And then my sister and I loved harmonies \u2014 we loved singing and forced our brother to let us sing with him. He\u2019s my biggest mentor. He\u2019s the one who taught me how to sing in harmonies. He\u2019s really hard on me: That\u2019s out of tune. Do it again. Tough love.<\/p>\n
Justin Timberlake. He was doing a tour around Europe, and I was opening for him there. It was in those really huge arenas, and it felt fun because it was like being in school \u2014 there were all the corridors backstage, and everyone just hung around there. The thing I noticed about Justin is whenever he comes into the room, you don\u2019t notice. You\u2019re cracking a joke and suddenly he\u2019s there on your shoulder and he\u2019s joining in. The other thing I noticed is he never says good-bye. You look around and he\u2019s gone. He\u2019s the loveliest person to be on tour with. He was dating Jessica Biel at the time. His whole band had good, real musicians and great dancers.<\/p>\n
The other one was \u2026 I can\u2019t remember the boy band. I wasn\u2019t into boy bands, but I was opening for a boy band and Lady Gaga was opening for me. Oh, New Kids on the Block. It was the very beginning of Lady Gaga. She just had one outfit, and it was the white cube dress. She wore it every day. From the very beginning, she was determined and had this amazing self-belief. My husband overheard her talking to her team and she was saying, \u201cI want to do it with Eminem. I want to be on Rolling Stone. I want to be on this.\u201d This is a brand-new artist just releasing her first single. We were like, Oh wow. Americans are very good at self-belief: I\u2019m going to visualize this, I\u2019m going to be there.<\/p>\n
But it wasn\u2019t just her thinking and saying, \u201cI\u2019m going to be doing this.\u201d She worked really hard. In the mornings, she would go to radio stations, she would do the show with me and New Kids on the Block, and then she would go and do nightclubs every night. I remember being really impressed and happy for her. She changed the industry. She actually made it. I\u2019ve had many times in my life when I\u2019ve met people just before they break huge. After a while, you start to be able to recognize that fairy dust someone else has. Nicki Minaj is another. I was on tour and got a call from our team saying, \u201cThis is going to be the next Gaga. She\u2019s finishing her record. Can you be on it? She\u2019s a fan.\u201d And I was like, \u201cOkay, yeah, after my tour.\u201d And they were like, \u201cNo, you have to do it now because the record is closing.\u201d Wherever we were, we booked a studio and recorded it that night. The song ended up on Pink Friday.<\/p>\n
Years ago when you released a song in England, they had something called Top of the Pops. It was such a great show where you got a chance to showcase your song. And then if it was a good song, by the end of the week, sometimes it would be a hit. That\u2019s what happened to me. I sang my song \u201cSingle,\u201d which is my first song. How I love a double meaning. I was like, Oh, I\u2019ll have a single called \u201cSingle,\u201d and I\u2019m single. It spread like wildfire by the end of the week. It was No. 1, and that was a bizarre feeling. I think the weirdest part was going to the airport and walking through where they\u2019re searching you. They pulled me over and I\u2019m like, Oh no, I\u2019m in trouble. I don\u2019t want to be searched. And then they\u2019re like, \u201cAre you her?\u201d I\u2019m like, Yes, I am. Don\u2019t I get a massage? Just feel me up a bit.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Concert for Diana. It was at Wembley Stadium. I mean, I just sang one song, but it was an amazing feeling. The bigger the crowd, the easier it is and the nicer it feels. I later found out it was 80,000 people and I was like, Oh, that\u2019s why I liked it. The thing is, you have a lot of lights in your eyes. You can\u2019t actually see the bigger crowds. The weird thing is the British press is so nasty. I remember the next day all they could talk about was my stripper shoes. They were just high heels. I like wearing platforms. Instead of them feeling like they cripple, you just have an extra bit on the toes so your feet aren\u2019t perpendicular. For some reason, they thought my shoes looked like stripper shoes. I still use platforms because it\u2019s a better way to run around.<\/p>\n
I remember a review that said my first album sounded like \u201can American Idol record\u201d where every song was different from the others. I was like, Fair enough, because what they were saying was what had happened \u2014 every song was written by me and different writers, so it didn\u2019t have one producer all the way through. Every song used different sounds. I thought that was a good critique. On albums since then, I\u2019m much more like, What\u2019s the actual overall sound of the album?\u00a0<\/p>\n
The funny thing is that everybody, almost everybody, I meet tells me they have a best friend who looks exactly like me. I guess I look like people\u2019s best friends, so I\u2019m like, Okay, great. And then they\u2019ll show me a picture of their friend and I\u2019m like, \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d I don\u2019t think I look like Ellie Golding, but I love how she looks so that\u2019s definitely a compliment for me. She\u2019s an amazing artist and songwriter.\u00a0We should have us in a lineup and maybe Ellie could get away with some stuff and say it was my fault.<\/p>\n
I feel like I had autonomy from the beginning. I was quite lucky. I was signed by songwriters who let me be part of the whole process, including the production. As I progressed, I realized some of those things can feel like an illusion of control. Especially when it got into the big record-label people, they would be like, \u201cOh, we\u2019ve got to do a music video. Can you choose this director or this director? But you have one hour to make a decision and you can\u2019t bring other directors to the table.\u201d It\u2019s a gradual thawing out. I think it\u2019s like a consciousness as women \u2014 as we become aware of our own conditioning, what the patriarchy is, and things like that, then we start to go, Oh wow, I\u2019m actually taking more control now. Sometimes having other people in charge, it can feel almost like if I make a mistake, I can just blame them. It was actually a bit scarier to have full autonomy when I left my label because you don\u2019t realize how much we attach to having a label and how much we think that makes us a real artist.<\/p>\n
Then you have to go on this journey and find that real artist for yourself. It\u2019s a very exciting time for artists right now because you don\u2019t need to have a label. You have artists like Raye. I was at the Brit Awards a year ago and all of these record companies were there; she won all the awards and all the labels were upset. You could see them just kind of fuming and leaving. But she\u2019s an unsigned artist who\u2019s doing her own thing and it\u2019s much more authentic. That\u2019s what people want. It\u2019s a wonderful time, but you kind of have to do it all. I love when the record labels get upset.<\/p>\n
I get claustrophobic, and I really didn\u2019t like being in a mask so I wore the mask extra long; I would put it on half an hour before going onstage so I could get used to it. I would feel so panicky. They were really surprised. I was in the corridor doing deep breaths. I did not like it: Let me out. The mask was heavy, and it\u2019s really hard to think through. I don\u2019t know if many people talk about that, but not everyone is claustrophobic. I think I\u2019ve got asthma. My brother used to put blankets over my head when I was a kid. It just brings back all of those things. I don\u2019t like feeling trapped. It\u2019s the weirdest show; you\u2019re not allowed to talk to anybody backstage. They hide you from the other contestants. You wear something that says \u201cDon\u2019t talk to me,\u201d and you wear a mask the whole time. It\u2019s the most lonely show. They\u2019re great, but it\u2019s just a bizarre thing. It\u2019s a good show, though. I like watching the show from the other side of the mask. Did I ruin it for you? I ruined it for you. Everyone\u2019s different. I guess some people love being squashed but not me.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s amazing when you sing a song like that and people haven\u2019t heard it yet and then, by the end of the few months you\u2019ve been promoting it, they\u2019re screaming it with you. It\u2019s that moment when people are singing along with all of their heart when you go, This is something special. It\u2019s not something that\u2019s just about me. A lot of times, artists onstage are kind of selling themselves: Hey, worship me. I\u2019m a genius. There\u2019s a little element of that, especially the Michael Jackson era; you could see how he was actually an idol. A lot of pop music is like that, but it\u2019s kind of creating this illusion of a perfect person. I heard Billy Corgan talking about it recently. With a song like \u201cUnwritten,\u201d there\u2019s something in the song itself that captured people. That\u2019s what I love. It\u2019s my greatest joy and my greatest achievement. My big desire was that I could make music that would become people\u2019s anthems and become something for them. Me and Danielle Brisebois, who I wrote it with, we\u2019re like, Wow, we did that. There must\u2019ve been some other elements in the room.<\/p>\n
It was Emma Stone\u2019s breakout moment, where we all discovered her. I loved watching Easy A because a family member, when they first heard \u201cPocketful of Sunshine,\u201d told me it was an annoying song. So it\u2019s funny to me that\u2019s what Emma\u2019s character says in the scene: \u201cMost annoying song ever.\u201d Then it ended up being an earworm for her and she ended up loving it. It felt like a good eff-you to that family member: Yeah, maybe it was annoying, but maybe it was also important. My label made me rewrite the verse a few times because the big boss said, \u201cI like the song, but I don\u2019t know. If I like the song, does that mean that other people will? I like some really cool dark stuff, so maybe we need to make it more pop. Or maybe that verse is a chorus.\u201d So we tried to write different verses, but we kept coming back to this. It\u2019s how it had to be. I would love to meet Emma Stone. I feel like she\u2019s a riot. She seems like someone who\u2019s the best elements of her characters.<\/p>\n
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