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Natalie Powers
began her path to fame at the age of seven when she played the youngest
orphan in the first run of the hit musical 'Annie'. Natalie was
born on the 26th July and 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 7-14, 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 Theatre. She
later starred alongside Kim Wilde in 'Tommy' at the Shaftsbury
Theatre before returning to 'Starlight' to play an even bigger role.
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 pop legend 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 magic foursome. Scooch were born!
After signing a
recording contract with Accolade, the pop imprint of EMI
Group's highly successful Parlophone label (The Beatles, Blur, Kylie,
Gorillaz) 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 smashed into the top 5! Scooch had arrived: it seemed like you
couldn't turn on the TV or open a magazine without the fab foursome
staring back at you. With performances on CD:UK and Top Of The Pops
under their belt, they were ready to unleash more material and began
to record their album.
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. With their EMI
record contract finished, the group faced the decision of signing
with another label or pursuing their own individual routes. It was
at this time that Natalie discovered she was expecting the patter
of tiny feet and felt that it was the perfect time to relax and
enjoy her pregnancy without the stress of being an international
pop star! The others felt Scooch would not be the same without Natalie
and happily decided to go their separate ways whilst making a conscious
decision to remain the best of friends (which they still are to
this day!)
Natalie gave birth
to Michael-Jay Powers on the 26th 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 chill out and get her figure
back. It wasn't long before she was itching to get back to work
and launch the next step of her career!
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 French Diva Lara Fabian was soon given
the reworking by Natalie and was the highlight of Almighty's 'Definitive
Collection' album. Natalie performed the track on her club tour
which was constantly extended due to popular demand and the show
went from strength to strength.
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 London's
hotspot G-A-Y with a crowd of adoring fans. 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 & 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 & 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.
In December 2006,
the original Scooch members met 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 track 'Flying The Flag (For
You)' which beat tough competition to enter into the final six
songs. The group entered into rehearsals and performed the track
live on BBC 1 in front of an audience of 6.8 million people.
Scooch stormed to victory beating strong competition from the likes
of former 'Darkness' frontman Justin Hawkins and former Atomic Kitten
Liz McLarnon. Scooch entered into a full-scale promotion campaign
and were once again propelled all over TV, press and radio!
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 will release their new single on 7th May 2007 and will perform
at the Eurovision Song Contest in Helsinki on 12th May 2007.
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