Nov. 26: British pop singer and songwriter Natasha Bedingfield is 29 today.

Natasha was born in Surrey, and raised  in the Lewisham district of London. Her interest in music was encouraged by her parents and she took guitar and piano lessons when she was younger.

She performed in the 1990s as a member of the Christian dance/electronic group The DNA Algorithm with her siblings Daniel Bedingfield and Nikola Rachelle. The group provided Natasha the opportunity to explore different musical genres and expand her songwriting abilities. She provided vocals for the group which primarily performed dance-pop music about religion, independence and empowerment, themes that would later be found in her own solo compositions.

Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Natasha recorded rock and gospel songs for the Hillsong London Church, while Daniel went on to enjoy success with hits "Gotta Get Thru This" and "If You're Not The One."

Natasha recorded her first album Unwritten in 2004. The album contained primarily uptempo pop and R&B-type songs. It features collaborations with Steve Kipner, Danielle Brisebois, Nick Lachey, James Reilly, Andrew Frampton, Wayne Wilkins, Kara DioGuardi, Guy Chambers, Patrick Leonard and the rapper Bizarre.

The first single released from the album was "Single," which reached number three on the UK Singles Chart. "These Words" was released as the album's second single and became Bedingfield's first UK number one and U.S. top twenty single.

"Unwritten" was released as the album's third single in 2004, and reached number six on the UK Singles Chart and it also became the most played song on U.S. radio in 2006.

(Continued below CDs...)

HIGHLY Recommended (Links to Amazon):

(... continued)

The album enjoyed international success with over 2.3 million copies sold worldwide. At the 2005 Brit Awards, Bedingfield was nominated for four awards, though did not win any of her nominated categories.

She was also nominated for an award at the 2006 Brit Awards, In 2007, she received a Grammy Award nomination for "Best Female Pop Vocal Performance" for the title song from the album, "Unwritten" but did not win.

In 2007, Bedingfield released her second album N.B. which yielded the singles "I Wanna Have Your Babies" and "Soulmate." In North America the album was released under the title Pocketful of Sunshine in January 2008. The album received mixed reviews by critics and peaked at number nine in the UK.

The lead single, "Love like This," was released in September 2007 and charted at #11 on the Billboard hot 100. The title track was released as the second single in February 2008. and peaked at #5 on the Billboard hot 100.

Natasha's third album Strip Me is due to be released in December 2010.

Bedingfield has achieved five top ten singles in the United Kingdom and, through April 2008 has sold over 2 million albums worldwide.

####