Wednesday, December 08, 2010

Charlotte Church - maturing well?

Five Days of Feminine #3

I've only recently caught up with the UK's used-to-be child singing phenomenon Charlotte Church.

I picked up a used DVD for 77cents, a movie in which she starred back in 2002/3. It hadn't sunk in that she was the female lead until the credits rolled. I'd bought the DVD because of its male lead, writer and director Scot/US citizen Craig Ferguson - he currently of US Late Late Show fame. Movie title: I'll Be There.

Anyway, back to Charlotte Church.

I was amazed to discover that she is now in her mid-twenties. I remember her as a 12-year old singing sensation - a memory solidified. In the intervening years she has carved out a career and become a wealthy mother of two. She and a long-time boyfriend, a rugby star, had two children. As far as I can discover they never married, and eventually split up.

Charlotte is now a very wealthy woman with a fortune reported to be anything from 10 million pounds sterling to 25 million (in $$$ around ...erm...16 to 40 million?)






In the intervening years since her debut she branched out from her early classical-ish style to pop, sold something in the order of 11 million albums worldwide, gathered a reputation as a diva and motormouth, and was often featured in UK tabloids, not always in complimentary fashion.


I was quite surprised to see Charlotte's natal chart. Born on 21 February 1986 in Llandaff, Wales. Astrodatabank has given a time of birth of 10:28 PM with a "B" rating - so not 100% reliable. I suspect a rectification, which isn't a bad thing, but I always think there's a temptation to make it fit - which is cheating! I'll use it anyway, it puts Moon at 00 Leo, whereas her round face in youth seemed to indicate Moon in its own sign, Cancer, to me. She had obviously some early maternal leanings, another Cancerian/Moon trait. One interviwer reported that she said she wanted 6 children! (Ye gods!!)



Ascendant may or may not be correct, but it fits pretty well in Libra ruled by Venus, planet of the arts, and placing midheaven in show-bizzy sign Leo, with natal Moon close by.

Sun and three personal planets in gentle, dreamy and intuitive Pisces doesn't exactly describe the gal who comes out of the bios available on-line, although her Sun IS conjunct Jupiter, ancient ruler of Pisces and planet of excess, so perhaps in her extreme youth she was driven by an excessive need to prove herself and her power.

Saturn and Mars are conjoined in Sagittarius, and in a challenging square aspect to Venus. Saturn's challenge may be a reflection of her urgent need to mature, and in the most recent interview I've read, published just this month in fact, with reference to her new album Back to Scratch, Charlotte does seem to have matured quite a lot.

A few snippets from The Independent
interview:

Charlotte Church is wearing a leopard-print dress and is gobbling down a cheese and pickle sandwich, with a packet of salt and vinegar crisps. She looks happy and radiant and is a lot more grounded than I had first imagined.........It's not been easy being in the public eye ever since she emerged as the 12-year-old "Voice of an Angel". Even when she goes out for a cigarette via the back door of her publicist's office in St John's Wood, where we meet, she is greeted by paparazzi........."I don't want to be a walking soap opera character," she says. "I want to be a singer."
These days she knows what makes her happy: "I know what is important to me now: happiness. It's about my family and my friends and of course my children, who are the be-all and end-all of my every decision."
Now Church is planning on a pop career in the US if she gets a deal for her album. "It was my biggest market – I sold more than six million albums there – but I haven't done anything in America for eight years. Apparently my name recognition is still pretty strong there."
Transiting Neptune will be hanging around her natal Jupiter at the start of 2012, and from then on will transit the whole of her Pisces cluster, though very slowly. We can watch and learn what a transit of Neptune can bring to a custer of planets in its sign of rulership!

Charlotte singing John Lennon's Imagine. I think she does the song justice.


4 comments:

Vanilla Rose said...

Yes, the stupid celeb magazines have had countless stories about her weight loss, weight gain, etc, and whether she was about to split up with her chap or if they had never been happier ... when she was presenting her own chat show, I recall her singing a very cheeky song about Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes.

Something about Little Suri being from Mars.

You can see how respectful we feel towards Scientologists here. To be fair to TC (who, as I'm sure you know, was NOT born on the 4th of July but the previous day), the media does report that he is extremely obliging to fans at premieres.

Twilight said...

Vanilla Rose ~~ Hmmm, yes, I missed all that. She had a chat show too then!

I wonder how long her fame will last from now on? Often such child stars sink without trace once they reach maturity....or they used to - those from earlier generations. Nowadays they have the fluff magazines to keep them afloat.

Tom Cruise isn't a particular favourite of mine, but I think he's a creditable actor, and that's really all we should be concerned with. Scientology is peculiar, but then, so is astrology. LOL!
:-)

Unknown said...

And a couple of extra bits for your next game of Trivial Pursuits.

Charlotte was a judge on a BBC music reality show called Popstar to Operastar and her non-husband Gavin Henson is in Strictly Come Dancing our version of Dancing with the Stars. He's in the semi-finals that started last night. Not expected to win as he's the weakest performer but has the Welsh vote.

His rugby career seemd to take a nosedive when he started a relationship with Charlotte. Think he got his head turned with the celebrity lifestyle bit. He's now trying to get his life back on track by signing with Saracens a mojor English side.

He comes over as a very shy individual and not a natural performer though his vanity is legendary (hair gel and silver boots on the rugby pitch) and he's taken to the sequins, fake tan and getting his guns out*. He's not a natural match for the outgoing and gregarious Ms Church so a lot of people weren't surprised when it ended.

* Guns is a English slang term for a man's biceps. The rugby boys on Strictly like Austin Healey on a previous series were noted for their muscular physiques.

Twilight said...

Rossa ~~~ Hi! Thanks for the additional tid-bits.

Ah! celebrity could make idiots of us all - given the chance. ;-)