MySpace Hottie of the day - Natasha Bedingfield

Today, let's meet Natasha Bedingfield, a pop singer and songwriter from London, England, UK. The daughter of two New Zealand-born social workers, Natasha grew up alongside three siblings: Daniel, Nikola and Joshua. While she is close to all of them today, her and the eldest sibling, Daniel, were rivals growing up.

Natasha showed an interest in music from an early age. Daniel and younger sister Nikola shared Natasha's passion, and the three Bedingfields formed their own group, the DNA Algorithm, when they were teenagers. But for Natasha, music remained a hobby at first. Torn between pursuing art or psychology studies in college, Natasha settled on college.

After two years of attempting to balance college work and music, Natasha dropped out college in order to pursue music full-time. Honing her skills on guitar and piano, Natasha wrote songs and recorded in friends' studios in the hopes of building up a body of work that she could take to a record company. In the meantime, her brother Daniel became a pop star, and Natasha, mindful of her own talents, was encouraged by his example and industry contacts.

Once she was ready, Natasha took her demos to Phonogenic, an imprint of BMG. The record company was impressed by both her music and her unique attitude, and signed her to a record deal. She then went to Los Angeles for six months of writing and recording with some of pop music's top writing and producing talents.

Natasha's debut came in the spring of 2004. Her first single, called "Single," climbed the UK charts, as did her second single, "These Words." She wrote her third single, the inspirational "Unwritten," for her younger brother Joshua's 14th birthday. That September, she released her debut album, Unwritten. The album entered the charts at No. 1, only the third debut album of a solo female artist to do so. By October, 2004, Unwritten had gone platinum.

After such an impressive debut, Natasha was in high demand and raking in critical accolades. She was nominated for Best UK & Ireland act at the 2004 MTV Europe Music Awards.

Back home, the BRIT Awards reportedly offered Natasha and her brother Daniel 10,000 pounds each to perform a duet in the spring of 2005. Interestingly enough, Natasha and Daniel Bedingfield are listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the only siblings to have separate solo No. 1 hits in the United Kingdom.

In November, 2006, Natasha released the DVD Live in New York City, which contained a live concert performance as well as music videos and a documentary. That month she recorded the Diane Warren-penned song "Still Here" for the film Rocky Balboa. The song, however, did not appear on the soundtrack although it was included on her second album.

Natasha's second album N.B. was released in April, 2007 in Europe. She recollaborated with Kipner along with Eve, Wayne Wilkins, and Maroon 5 singer Adam Levine. The album takes influence from a variety of music styles such as R&B, reggae and electronica. Natasha commented that it differed from Unwritten because it represented her shifting priorities from being a single young woman to "dating, searching for a partner" and "looking for Mr Right". The album debuted on the UK Albums Chart at number nine and received mixed reviews by critics, who found that it had "good pop moments".

"I Wanna Have Your Babies", the album's lead single, was about finding the right man to father her children and became criticized by fans and critics alike. The song was moderately successful, reaching number seven in the UK, number eight in Ireland and the top fifty in most other markets. "Soulmate" was released as the album's second single on July 2, 2007 and also peaked at number seven in the UK. "Say It Again" was released as the third single on October 8, 2007.

In July, 2007, she appeared on an online YouTube music video of Esmée Denters singing "Unwritten". Natasha sang backing vocals off-screen for most of the video, but joined Denters in front of the camera at the end of the song. In September, 2007, it was announced that the lead single "I Wanna Have Your Babies" would in fact not be the lead single in North America. Instead, a new track titled "Love like This" would serve as the lead American single. The track, which features Jamaican reggae act Sean Kingston did not appear on the original pressings of N.B.

To promote N.B., Natasha embarked on the FutureSex/LoveShow tour in May, 2007, supporting Justin Timberlake and on July 1, 2007, she performed "Unwritten" at the Concert for Diana at Wembley Stadium in London.

Her live session at Abbey Road Studios was recorded for Live from Abbey Road and the performance was screened on an episode shared with Iron Maiden and Gipsy Kings. The show was screened on Channel 4 in the UK and the Sundance Channel in the United States.

On October 3, 2007, Natasha won an award for "Best Pop Artist" at the 2007 BT Digital Music Awards held at The Roundhouse in Camden, North London, she also performed her latest single "Say It Again" at the ceremony.

While Natasha released her album N.B. in Europe, the U.S. version of her second album was titled Pocketful of Sunshine. The album featured six songs from N.B. alongside seven new ones including the aforementioned "Love Like This". The album was released on January 22, 2008, with the lead single, "Love like This" being released a few months earlier. The title track became the second single and was played on the season finale of MTV's The Hills.

On January 18, 2008, Natasha's forthcoming UK tour was canceled for the second time, one month before it was supposed to start. It has now been officially scrapped, so she can spend more time in the U.S. promoting her album. However, she will perform a number of free acoustic gigs in the spring to compensate for the cancellation.She recently signed on to become the opening act on the recently reunited New Kids On The Block Fall Tour of 2008 in the USA. She has been back in the UK recently to promote the single "Love Like This" which recently made the top 20 in the UK chart, with the album Pocketful of Sunshine to follow later this year.

In February, 2008, Natasha was invited by EA Games to re-record the single "Pocketful of Sunshine" in Simlish, with a music video released as part of a viral advertising campaign for the release of The Sims 2: FreeTime.

Stateside, the single "Pocketful Of Sunshine" has reached the top five on the Billboard Hot 100. A forthcoming third single from the album is currently being planned and is going to be "Angel."

Natasha is a philanthropist who has donated time and money to organizations such as the Global Angels, an international children's charity founded by her mother, Molly Bedingfield. She became associated with the organization in 2006 because of her celebrity status which she could use to help "people around the world, particularly children, who live in conditions that would horrify us". She is now an ambassador for Global Angels and in November, 2006 she visited India for three weeks in support of the charity. She visited an orphanage in Calcutta and a refugee camp for former child prostitutes in Mumbai to learn more about the situation and the conditions in these areas. She later expressed her shock at what she had witnessed. Video diaries filmed during her trip were posted on her official website in early 2007. She is also an advocate for Stop the Traffik, a global coalition which works to end human trafficking and a member of the (RED) campaign.

In 2004, Natasha showed interest in acting and made her debut in the James Bond video game From Russia with Love in November, 2005. She lent her voice to the character Elizabeth Stark, the British Prime Minister's daughter who is kidnapped in the opening sequence. Natasha commented that she would like to do more acting, but only if the film "was good enough, and it was a role that [would] fit me." She is not set to appear in any forthcoming films in the near future. However, she will make an appearance in the seventh season finale of the hit Canadian television series Degrassi: The Next Generation.

If you would like to know more about this sexy pop songstress or listen to tracks from her album Pocketful of Sunshine, check out her profile at http://www.myspace.com/natashabedingfield.