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[17 Oct 2008|06:55pm] |
Sophie Huston thought she was meant to be an actress. Growing up, she constantly begged her parents for acting lessons. Her parents were normal, sensible people who loved their average life. They had a nice house in the suburbs with a yard, two usually well behaved children and there were always a couple dogs running around to round out the perfect family life. Letting their daughter enter into a possibly seedy career at such a young age was not an option. (Sophie had started begging when she was about six years old.) She was allowed to act in school plays and join in community theater each summer, but that was all. Sophie had to keep her nose to the grindstone, graduate, go to college, graduate. Only then, according to her parents, would she be allowed to pursue acting.
Her senior year, as Sophie got back acceptance letters from various colleges, she heard word that some talent scouts would be coming near her town for some general auditions. Without her parents knowledge, Sophie prepared a monologue, a song and went. Ironically, it was the song that got her somewhere. They found her a spot in a girl group and before she knew it, Sophie was saying goodbyes to her parents, to college and began her whirlwind life as a Spice Girl.
The frenzy only lasted a few years but it changed Sophie's life. Sure, they had their fans and chart topping songs, but there was relentless criticism of the group and their usually hollow songs. The constant travel and promotion, added to the pressures to stay thin and pretty and (despite the multicultural nature of the group) as white as possible fractured Sophie's self esteem. Between each tour and round of endless interviews, she wasn't sure if she even knew who she was anymore.
After a couple years, she realized that she was more talented than the songs they were singing (most of the girls were, of course, that didn't take much). When the group fell apart, she was only 22 and after a few months off, she decided to go to college to regain a sense of normalcy. Everyone told her it was career suicide. Even her parents wondered if it was the right choice but she was insistent. She needed to find herself and thought that getting back to her life where she left off was the best way to do that. As she educated herself and tried to avoid the limelight as much as possible, she quietly penned her first album.
Sophie hadn't finished her degree but after two years of college, she finished her first album and entered the studio. She reconnected with a couple of the girls she lost touch with. She got back into the touring and promotion machine, but she was more prepared this time.
The album was released in 2006 and Sophie never went back to school. She did, however, stay in touch with her college boyfriend, a man who graduated the year she left school for music. The often long distance relationship wasn't easy on either of them. Finding out she was pregnant in early 2007 put more strain on their relationship than it could handle and they agreed to end the relationship. Sophie never mentioned him in interviews, other than to say he was a guy who would rather be a lawyer than a father, which was a statement she later retracted. She finished the tour she was on at the time, this one for her second album, and disappeared from the public eye until she had her daughter, Billie.
Sophie is currently working on her third album, for release in early 2009.
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[17 Sep 2008|08:02pm] |
discography
with the spice girls:
1999 ● Spice
2000 ● Spiceworld
2002 ● Forever
as sophie huston:
2006 ● Never Be the Same
2007 ● Sophie Huston
filmography
2000 ● Spiceworld
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