Charlotte Maria Church (born Charlotte Maria Reed, 21 February 1986) is a Welsh singer-songwriter, actress, and television presenter from Cardiff.
As a child, Church was a popular classical singer; as a young woman, she made a less successful move into pop music in 2005. By 2007, she had sold more than ten million records worldwide including over five million in the United States. She hosted a Channel 4 comedy chat show, The Charlotte Church Show. Church released her first album in five years, Back to Scratch, on 25 October 2010. Church is a soprano.
Church has embraced political activism, supporting Jeremy Corbyn when he led the Labour Party, Plaid Cymru in the Senedd elections, and the cause of Welsh independence.
Church was born Charlotte Maria Reed on 21 February 1986 in Llandaff, a district of Cardiff, Wales, to Maria and computer engineer Stephen Reed. Her parents separated when she was two, and she was raised by her mother, who brought her up as a Roman Catholic. In 1992, Maria married her second husband, James Church, who adopted Charlotte in 1999. She has four siblings: two younger half-brothers, through her biological father, and two older step-siblings from her adoptive father's previous marriage.
Charlotte's musical break came at age 11 when she sang Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Pie Jesu" over the telephone on the television show This Morning. This was followed by her performance on ITV's Big, Big Talent Show the same year. Subsequent to a request to sing "Pie Jesu" at Rupert Murdoch's 1999 wedding to Wendy Deng, it was revealed Murdoch and Church's management at the time persuaded Church to waive a £100,000 payment for singing at his wedding in return for "good press". Church also received a vocal scholarship to Howell's School Llandaff in Cardiff, where she started in 1998, after leaving The Cathedral School, Llandaff. With help from tutors, she was able to manage both performing and school work, and said in many interviews she was "just like every other girl her age". She left school in 2002 at the age of 16.
As a classical music singer, Church sang in English, Welsh, Latin, Italian, and French. She was then introduced to the Cardiff impresario Jonathan Shalit, who became her manager and negotiated a contract with Sony Music. Her first album, Voice of an Angel (1998), was a collection of arias, sacred songs, and traditional pieces that sold millions worldwide and made her the youngest artist with a No. 1 album on the British classical crossover charts.
Church appeared on US Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) specials. Her 1999 eponymous second album also included operatic, religious, and traditional tracks. One, "Just Wave Hello", was the centrepiece of a millennium-themed ad campaign for the Ford Motor Company. The song's full-length video, featuring Church, won acclaim at the Detroit Auto Show and introduced her to new fans. The track reached No. 31 in Britain.
In 2000, she released Dream a Dream, an album of Christmas carols. It included Church's first foray into a more non-classical, pop-influenced style in the title track Dream a Dream, borrowing the melody from Fauré's Pavane and featuring American child country singer Billy Gilman.
In 2001, Church added more pop, swing, and Broadway with her album Enchantment. That year, Church made her first film appearance in the 2001 Ron Howard film A Beautiful Mind. Celine Dion was beginning a concert engagement in Las Vegas and was not available to perform the film's end title song, "All Love Can Be", so composer James Horner enlisted Church and the song was rewritten for her vocal range. Church also handled other vocal passages throughout the score.
In 2002, at 16, she released a "best of" album called Prelude, and took part in the Royal Christmas tour alongside Dame Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, marking the end of her classical music career. Her next album, Tissues and Issues, would be a pop release.
2003–2009: Pursuing pop career; Tissues and Issues
In 2003 Church teamed up with trance music producer Jurgen Vries to sing vocals on his track "The Opera Song (Brave New World)". She was credited on the records as CMC (her initials) as it was her first foray into pop music. The song reached number three in the UK Singles Chart, Church's second highest-charting single and Vries' highest.
In 2005, Church issued her first pop album Tissues and Issues. Four singles were successful in the UK with "Crazy Chick" reaching number two, "Call My Name" number ten, "Even God Can't Change the Past" number seventeen, and "Moodswings" number fourteen. Although these were released in Australia as well, they failed to reach the same level of success there. Church's pop album was released in the US through Amazon.com MP3 shop, and iTunes in 2009.
In April 2006, Church performed three concerts in Glasgow, London, and Cardiff, in venues holding between 2,000 and 3,000 people; the dates at London and Cardiff were sold out. Supported by Irish band the New Druids, Church performed a mix of tracks from her debut pop album and a number of pop covers including Prince's "Kiss" and Gloria Estefan's "Rhythm is Gonna Get You".
In November 2006, it was announced that she and Sony had parted ways. According to her publicist, this was a mutual decision reached after a series of meetings throughout the year, which were held since her six-album contract had ended. There was speculation that Church had decided to take a break from her singing career to focus on her television show. Others suggested that her pop releases' chart performance contributed to the decision. Yet another factor was her pregnancy with her daughter, Ruby Megan Henson.
In 2007, Church became Patron of the charity The Topsy Foundation UK, helping to raise awareness and funds for its work to support rural communities in South Africa, empowering people infected with and affected by HIV and AIDS, through medical care, social support and skills development.
Articles emerged in the UK press in March and April 2008 stating that she was still training classically, considering a return to classical crossover. Church has sung in religious services in Taizé. She has also performed before Pope John Paul II, Queen Elizabeth II, King Charles III (at that time the Prince of Wales), and U.S. President Bill Clinton.
In June 2008, she became pregnant with her son, Dexter Lloyd Henson. In an interview, she mentioned she would be ready to work on more music in a few months, although she was not sure whether she would further develop her career in classical, pop, or both, as she loved both genres for different reasons. Church also mentioned that she had been working with a vocal instructor to keep her voice in check.