Natasha Bedingfield's Pop Star Pockets

Some people think Natasha Bedingfield is too goody-goody for her own good.

"I've moved from London to Los Angeles because I want to be an international star," Bedingfield was quoted as saying on TMZ.com, the popular online gossip clearinghouse. "But, to achieve that, my record company tells me I need a little more scandal in my life."

Folks over at Epic Records, then, must be grinding their gold-plated grills: Thus far, Bedingfield has shown no urge to become a paparazzi puppet.

Breaking the Rules Mold
Ironically, Bedingfield is already an international star by most fans' reckoning. The Brit's first monster hit, 2006's "Unwritten," topped three of Billboard's charts (pop, adult contemporary and dance club play) and has become a campaign anthem for presidential candidate Barack Obama. "Love Like This" (with Sean Kingston), the first single off her second U.S. album, Pocketful of Sunshine, made the Top 10 a few weeks ago and is still buzzing around the charts. And Bedingfield has achieved this success mostly on the strength of her music, with not an arrest, rehab assignment or panty-less night of partying in sight.

That's relevant here because Bedingfield is plying her trade in an age when pop divas are as known for their curbside missteps as they are for their onstage mic chops. On the American side of the pond you have, among others, Britney Spears, who single-handedly keeps the West Coast paparazzi in business. On the U.K.'s there's Amy Winehouse, the über-talented, Grammy-winning songstress who sang about rehab—then was forced into it.

By comparison, Bedingfield is an anomaly.

"Natasha comes from a happy family whose values could not be further from those of the world in which she plays," writes Andrew Billen of The Times in London. She was raised in a Christian home, and her mother heads an international children's charity called Global Angels, which Bedingfield supports and promotes. As a teen, Bedingfield formed the Christian singing group The DNA Algorithm with brother Daniel and sister Nikola. She also wrote songs for the Hillsong London Church, and faith still motivates the singer.

"Actually, I'm not a very religious person," she told The Times. "I'm not really into smells and bells and Our Fathers and Hail Marys. I just have some beliefs, some simple beliefs that keep me grounded and help me in life."

Just Say Not Very Often
She admits to clubbing on occasion, but Bedingfield rarely goes anywhere frequented by the paparazzi. She doesn't pose for men's magazines, and when she does work in front of the camera, she dresses (by pop star standards) fairly modestly—no differently, she says, than she would dress for a Friday night on the town. As for substance abuse—well, if you're looking for skeletons in the Bedingfield closets, this probably isn't the door to open.

"I've never been attracted to drugs—or excessive alcohol—probably because my parents counseled so many people getting over drugs and alcohol," Bedingfield told The Times. "I've seen the extremes and it doesn't appeal to me. I wouldn't want to get dependent on substances like that, because I just see how it swings you and controls your whole life."

Bedingfield's no saint. But in an era where our music stars are expected to be models of outsized outrageousness, she is—at least as of early 2008—an oasis of optimistic, temperate normalcy.

"She radiates shiny, well-scrubbed wholesomeness," writes Craig McLean of the English newspaper The Independent. "She was brought up well, to think of others, be creative (she loves painting) and follow her dreams. She oozes positivity."

Her latest CD—the aptly named Pocketful of Sunshine—is a case in point.

"Little Imperfections Make You Beautiful"
Bedingfield wrote or co-wrote nearly all of the songs. And there's not a curse word—not even a minor one—on any of them. She never sings about booze or drugs or makes obvious references to sex. Rather, love is Bedingfield's focus. Romantic love. Sacrificial love. Even love of self. In the song "Freckles," she crafts a jubilant and vulnerable celebration of imperfect beauty—an important reminder to impressionable girls bombarded with airbrushed perfection every day:

"Because a face without freckles/Is like a sky without the stars," she sings. "Why waste a second not loving who you are/Those little imperfections make you beautiful, loveable, valuable."

Then, full circle to her aspirations of stardom, "Pirate Bones" seems to reject the notion that international fame is worth paying any price—including a scandal or two. "What if I stake everything I am on a dream/And it's counterfeit?" she muses. "If I forfeit my soul it ain't worth having."

So far, Bedingfield seems to be taking her own goody-goody advice to heart.