Natasha Bedinfield.Photo:Dayne Malan
Dayne Malan
Romantic comedies are back, and so is the beloved hit 2004 pop song “Unwritten.”
“I was trying to write a birthday present for my younger brother [Joshua] who was 14, which is why I think the song resonates with teenagers because it’s really what you need to hear at that age,” Bedingfield, now 42, tells PEOPLE.
“It’s what I wish I heard at that age, that you don’t really have to have it all figured out. It’s such a stressful question everyone loves to ask you, ‘What are you going to be, what are you going to do?’ And it’s too much to really know the answer to that at that stage. You just have to write it a day at a time,” she adds.
Now, 20 years later, “Unwritten” has reached new heights after it was featured in the Shakespeare-inspired rom-comAnyone But You, starringSydney SweeneyandGlen Powell. In the film, Bedingfield’s hit song plays a pivotal role in the film as Powell’s “serenity song” and multiple characters sing its memorable lyrics throughout the film.
“It really feels likeAnyone But Youis about ‘Unwritten,’ like ‘Unwritten’ is almost a character in the movie,” she says. “My publisher and Will Gluck, the director, they were like, ‘Look, it’s a big moment in the movie.’ So, I believed them. But when I watched the movie, I was like, ‘Wow.'”
Glen Powell, Natasha Bedingfield and Sydney Sweeney.Rich Polk/NBC via Getty
Rich Polk/NBC via Getty
The “These Words” singer has also loved watching fans lean in to the fun on social media: “It’s kind of incredible the way that it’s lifting everyone up.”
Natasha Bedingfield.Dave Kotinsky/Getty
“I use music to get to the light at the end of the tunnel,” she says. “Music connects me to everything that’s good and to my higher power and my higher self and to others. And so my music is very optimistic because it’s chasing the light.”
Despite her natural optimism in music, Bedingfield says she often enjoys listening to “sad songs” — and music that “wakes your spirit up” like Bon Iver, Damien Rice and Rage Against the Machine.
Natasha Bedingfield.MICHAEL TRAN/AFP via Getty Images
MICHAEL TRAN/AFP via Getty Images
And since Powell’s character’s serenity song is “Unwritten” — what’s Bedingfield’s? If she had to chose, she says it’s India.Arie’s “Get It Together.”
“It’s the same kind of things, I just see different sides of those issues. Like now, I feel a lot more confident than I was 20 years ago, but I’m also more experienced,” she says.
“The No. 1 lesson is to have fun,” Bedingfield adds. “Don’t take yourself too serious.”
source: people.com
