Down The Dumper – The 2000s Part 4.

Here’s yet another pop star who burst on to the scene. Daniel Bedingfield was born in Auckland, New Zealand, and moved to the UK not long afterwards. His first single gained some publicity because he produced this at home, and his voice sounded curiously female. “Gotta Get Thru This” was released in December 2001 (there were two videos made for this) and was a chart-topper for three weeks. Not a bad way to start your career.

I thought that this was rather catchy, and well, he went from his bedroom to being a famous singer and getting the crowd into a frenzy on Top Of The Pops in no time. Daniel went on to have more Top Ten hits, and in September 2002 his debut album, also called “Gotta Get Thru This”, was released and made the Top Ten. And he was also an entertaining interviewee on whatever TV shows he turned up on.

He proved he could hop around genres and went on to have further chart-toppers in 2002 and 2003 with “If You’re Not The One” and “Never Gonna Leave Your Side”, but these were much more on the soppier side, as it seems he wanted to be a balladeer too and decided to aim for the “buy this for your loved one to show them how much you care on Valentine’s Day” market.

After recovering from a serious car crash in New Zealand, Daniel returned to the scene in 2004, and he won a Brit Award for Fanciest Beard or something. Also in this year, his younger sister Natasha made her chart debut. In August 2004 she reached Number One with “These Words” for two weeks, making them the only brother and sister to have individually had a chart-topping single in the UK. In November 2004 Daniel’s second album “Second First Impression” was released, and this also made the Top Ten.

In June 2005 though, what turned out to be his final hit solo single “The Way” (not a cover of the Fastball song) was released, and somewhat surprisingly this didn’t make the Top 40, reaching only no. 41. Natasha went on to have hit singles for another year or two, but Daniel went back to this bedroom. In more recent years he had has success as a songwriter, he has also been a judge on the New Zealand version of The X Factor, and performed in a stage musical.