Jemimah Wright remembers when Natasha Bedingfield’s Unwritten was released, and wonders if this tell us anything about her faith.
Natasha Bedingfield’s song Unwritten is having a resurgence, twenty years after if was first released, but did you know Natasha, and her song-writer brother, Daniel have Christian roots?
Their parents; New Zealanders, John and Molly joined Youth With a Mission, (YWAM) in the 1980s and later led an inner-city YWAM ministry, planting a church in Kennington, London. So Natasha and her three siblings grew up as missionary kids.
Does Natasha still have a faith? Speaking to Fearne Cotton on her podcast Happy Place, Fearne asked: ‘How did you all discover music?’
Natasha said: ‘We did grow up in church. There was this amazing Afro-Caribbean church run by these brothers. They had this whole thing where they would let kids play in the service. So they would have an eight year old on the drums who was really gifted. They just welcomed us in and let us be part of that.
‘In church there is a thing that music takes you somewhere, it connects you with your higher self, each other and with God.’
‘In church there is a thing that music takes you somewhere, it connects you with your higher self, each other and with God.’
Later Fearne asked how Natasha got through a period when her now six-year-old son, Solomon was ill. When he was two, he was in hospital for five weeks with a spontaneous brain abscess. Natasha answered, ‘What helped me get through? Friends, family, prayer.’
Listening to other interviews Natasha has given, it doesn’t seem she is entirely comfortable to talk about faith, maybe for fear of being put in a box and judged. In talking about singing, she is clear there is a connection to something spiritual. She told Fearne:
‘Everybody has been to a show where it sticks in your memory forever. I went to a U2 show when I was 18, and it was at that show, singing With or Without You when the heavens opened and you just feel, whatever it is, some people might call it a God feeling, or a connected feeling with everyone. And suddenly you get answers in that moment.’
Her song Unwritten peaked at No. 6 in the charts in 2004
Her song Unwritten peaked at No. 6 in the charts in 2004 and it first became known to a worldwide audience as the theme song of MTV reality show The Hills. It re-entered the UK Top 40 recently thanks to it being on the soundtrack to the 2023 rom-com Anyone But You.
The lyrics go like this, (and I dare you not to start singing along as you read, it’s impossible).
Staring at the blank page before you
Open up the dirty window
Let the sun illuminate the words that you could not find
Reaching for something in the distance
So close you can almost taste it
Release your inhibitions
Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips
Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins
The rest is still unwritten…’
Read more about female singers
The rise of Raye - the singer and her Christian faith
Singer Ellie Goulding visits women’s homelessness centre founded by Church Army
It’s definitely a song of hope, and a cry to live life to the fullest, that a new day can bring a new start. Maybe it’s a stretch, but it reminds me of Lamentations 3:22-23: ‘The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.’
So in the words of Natasha Bedingfield, ‘today is where your book begins.’ Ask God to help you write a better story.
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