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Play on Words: With its resistance-is-futile hook ("I love you I love you I love you"), the British singer's self-penned debut single, "These Words," is a summer smash. She honed her songwriting chops at University of Greenwich in England. "I could have studied music, but I thought I would study psychology says. "Study life, study people. It was great, but it fills you with more questions than answers."

Early Gigs: Growing up with three siblings (parents Molly, 46, and John, 48, did social work). Bedingfield says, "When i was about 12 I was banned from singing in the house because I was so annoying I would go around singing as loudly or bizarrely as I could."

Bro Knows: Her brother Daniel, 25, a Brit pop idol known for the '01 hit "Gotta Get Thru This," broke his neck in a car crash in the family's native New Zealand last year. Hearing the news "was one of those moments when your heart freezes," says Natasha. During his 8 month recovery Daniel returned home just in time to see his sister soar up the UK charts. "As a joke I put up a huge poster of me—five times bigger than [I am]—in his house," she says. "He-walked in and said, Aah! She's taken over.'"

Material Girl: After a U.S. publicity tour the single singer returned to London—but not without some serious souvenirs: "In the hotel where I was staying in New York, they had a Jimmy Choo sale. I came back from America with probably 12 new pairs of shoes."

-BOX-

NATASHA'S STATS

AGE: 25
HOMETOWN: London
LATEST CD: Her debut release, Unwritten

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