Natasha Bedingfield Muses on John Mayer Collabo, Her Own Ubiquity

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If it seemed like Natasha Bedingfield was everywhere when "Unwritten" became the theme to The Hills, consider this: the artist behind the most-spun song of 2007 has also recently appeared on everything from The Bachelorette to Barack Obama's playlist (he pumps up rally crowds with her tunes), and Friday she'll play at an ungodly early hour on the Today show.

So how does the 25-year-old maintain her ubiquity? "I've spent a long time trying to figure it out," she says. "I don't really know the formula. As an artist, you just sit in a room and you write songs, and you hope people will get to hear them." She adds, "Plus, I've been acting as myself on TV" — she serenaded prom-going high-schoolers on Degrassi and a couple of lovebirds on The Bachelorette —' "so that's not hard to do."

With her TV career kaput for the season, Bedingfield is focusing on her first U.S. headlining tour, which the New Kids on the Block will join in September. "I love that it's my own show," she says. "You can change it up, make it how you want it. I've been doing a cover of [Madonna's] 'Ray of Light.' "

Bedingfield also recently hit the studio to write tracks for upcoming albums from Ne-Yo and Brandy. (She declined to give details.) And a John Mayer collaboration might be in the cards — the pair recently discussed working together. "I love the way he writes," she says. "He's one of the coolest people in the mainstream. He's doing real music and not selling out. He's someone who doesn't get enough credit."

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Song Stories

“He Will Break Your Heart”

Jerry Butler | 1960

A lightly swinging Latin-influenced, almost cha-cha groove and close harmonies decorated Jerry Butler's early soul hit "He Will Break Your Heart," delivering a stately warning that his rival would never love his girl like he did. The melody came to Butler as he was driving on the highway from Atlantic City, New Jersey, to Philadelphia with Curtis Mayfield, and as Butler told Rolling Stone, "I just sang the melody and Curtis put the chords to it." The song's premise, Butler added, "was something that I'd lived ...The lyric was an experience rather than a revelation. Whereas music is usually a revelation."

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