Natalie Powers
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| Natalie Powers | |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Natalie Powers |
| Born | July 26, 1977  Sutton Coldfield, England |
| Genre(s) | Pop, Bubblegum, Trance |
| Occupation(s) | Singer |
| Years active | 1998- |
| Label(s) | EMI, Almighty, Warner Bros. |
| Associated acts | Scooch |
| Website | www.nataliepowers.com |
Natalie Powers (July 26, 1977) is a British solo recording artist and lead vocalist of the pop group Scooch, which represented the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 2007.
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[edit] Early career
Natalie Powers began acting at the age of seven when she played the youngest orphan in the first run of the hit musical Annie. Natalie was brought up with her two brothers in Sutton Coldfield in the West Midlands. Natalie's parents, Peter and Gloria, recognised her talent and took her to audition for the lead role in Annie. Natalie toured around the country, and between the ages of seven and 14, she starred in many musicals and pantomimes, working with popular entertainers such as Michael Barrymore and Les Dawson amongst others.
Natalie left school at 16 with heaps of theatre and television credits under her belt and moved to London to the legendary Arts Educational School of Performing Arts in Chiswick, where the likes of Will Young attended. Upon leaving college, Natalie moved into the West End to take a principal role in the all-singing, all roller-skating extravaganza Starlight Express at the Apollo Victoria Theatre. She later starred alongside Kim Wilde in Tommy at the Shaftsbury Theatre before returning to Starlight to play an even bigger role.
[edit] Scooch
It was during this period that Natalie spotted an advert in The Stage newspaper for a new pop act, in much the same way that the Popstars series began. Natalie was called for an audition and after singing and dancing in front of Mike Stock (responsible for the likes of Kylie, Jason Donovan, Rick Astley) and she was immediately offered a place in the group. Three other hopefuls, Caroline Barnes, David Ducasse and Russ Spencer completed the group.
After signing a recording contract with Accolade, the pop imprint of EMI, Scooch set about recording their debut single, "When My Baby" featuring Natalie on lead vocals. The song was a big success, giving Scooch their first taste of top 40 success. The group embarked on a massive arena tour as supporting acts with B*witched and later Five to promote their follow up single "More Than I Needed To Know". The single was released in January of 2000 and enetered the top 5.
Scooch's third UK hit came in the form of no. 12 smash "The Best Is Yet To Come" in June 2000. Their success was being matched in other countries such as Japan, where "More Than I Needed To Know" hit the no. 1 spot. A fourth single followed in the form of the flamenco inspired "For Sure" which hit the no. 15 spot and became an immediate summer party anthem and was followed by the album "Four Sure" which finally hit the shelves in August 2000. At the end of their EMI record contract the group split up.
[edit] After Scooch
Natalie gave birth to Michael-Jay Powers on the 26 February 2001 and rested for the next couple of months. Describing motherhood as "the most amazing experience of her life" she took time out to relax and traveled to Italy with Michael and her parents to recuperate.
Meeting with independent dance label Almighty Records in July 2001, it was agreed that they would work with Natalie on some solo material, the result of which was the top 5 club smash "Music To My Heart", a song which originally appeared on Scooch's debut album and was hailed by fans as the best song Scooch ever recorded. Natalie embarked on a hugely successful tour around some of the biggest and best clubs across the country to promote "Music To My Heart", also performing some old Scooch favorites. The public interest in Pop Idol prompted Almighty to ask Natalie to record a dance version of "Unchained Melody", which was soon to be released by Gareth Gates, one of the finalists. Natalie's version was released in April 2002 providing her with yet another massive club hit.
While recording "Unchained Melody", Natalie overheard the producers remixing a track that Natalie instantly fell in love with. The track, which later turned out to be "I Am Who I Am" by Belgian-Sicilian Diva Lara Fabian was soon given the reworking by Natalie and was the highlight of Almighty's Definitive Collection album.
Natalie's vocals appeared on two underground-trance hits "Liftin Me Up" and "Over & Over" for Echoten in 2003 and she signed a major record deal with Mike Stock's record label Better The Devil — home of Fast Food Rockers and German artist Ateed. Although some new tracks were recorded, no singles were released resulting in Natalie and Better The Devil parting company in late 2004.
Itching to meet up again, the four original members of Scooch decided to do a mini tour of some of the UK's top venues in 2004 which peaked at G-A-Y. The guys vowed to remain great friends and to meet up again for some more shows at some point in the future.
In 2005 Natalie was approached by Northerbeat producer Ross Alexander to record an exclusive track for the mighty Gayfest series. Natalie recorded a pumping version of the Maria Vidal classic "Body Rock". The album was a success upon release and the Gayfest tour took Natalie and fellow artists all over the UK to some of the biggest nightclubs.
In the summer of 2006, Natalie was asked to record for a new compilation album Forever Bond of classic Bond themes remade for the dancefloor. Natalie chose to record "For Your Eyes Only" from the film of the same name. The stunning album which also includes the likes of Kelly Llorenna, Angie Brown and Hannah Jones was released all over Europe and America in late 2006 and even hit the top 5 in the iTunes dance chart.
More recently, Natalie has been working as a professional vocal coach with both established and new acts for stage and screen and has recorded a number of new club-oriented tracks. An original track "Drifting Away", written and produced by Saint was released on the Totally Clubbed Up compilation album in early 2007.
[edit] Scooch reunion
In mid-late 2006, Russ Spencer contacted the other original Scooch members with an idea of recording a new track for the BBC's Making Your Mind Up competition, the winners of which represent the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest. Scooch recorded a new song co-written by Spencer, entitled "Flying the Flag (for You)", which won the competition.
Now signed to Warner Bros. Records in the UK, the group have also re-recorded parts of the song in other European languages for potential releases. Scooch released their Euroviison single on 7 May 2007 and performed at the Eurovision Song Contest 2007. They finished 23rd out of 24 countries, receiving a disappointing nineteen points; this did, however, include a maximum score of twelve from Malta. The next day, their single reached #5 in the Official UK Top 40.
