By CHRISTIE ELIEZER
It’s no surprise that an Australian label’s first marketing foray into the under-10s music market was with Nikki Webster. The elfin 14-year-old flew 98 feet into the air while playing the role of Hero Girl last September at the spectacular opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympics.
Her lead-off single, “Strawberry Kisses,” debuted on the Australian Record Industry Assn. charts at No. 2 in the week ending June 23. It remained at No. 6 in the week ending Aug. 18 and has so far sold 115,000 copies, according to BMG Australia (platinum here is 70,000), setting up the Aug. 20 release of an album, Follow Your Heart.
“Doing the Olympics was fantastic, but I was just playing a character,” Webster says. Since the age of 7, she has been in such musicals as The Sound of Music and Les Miserables, and she also sang onstage with Michael Jackson on his HIStory tour. “But I’d always wanted to do a pop record,” she tells Billboard. “My heroes are Kylie Minogue and Olivia Newton-John. The best thing about the Olympics to me was that Olivia came backstage and told me she thought I had a great voice.”
Numerous labels discussed deals with manager Lisa Hamilton, eager to translate the Olympics’ 4 billion global viewers into CD sales. Gotham Records, a Melbourne independent owned by record producer Ross Fraser and singer John Farnham, won the bidding by asking Webster what type of CD she wanted to make. Noting that Webster can act, dance, and sing, Fraser says, “She was clearly a talent that could be taken overseas.”
“Strawberry Kisses” was penned by New York City-based jazz pianist Jeff Franzel, who has written for ‘N Sync, Shawn Colvin, and Taylor Dayne. Tapping writers in Sweden, the U.S., and Australia, Fraser executive-produced Follow Your Heart.
BMG Australia, which distributes Gotham here, took its marketing cue from the British singles market, with heavy advertising up front and a high chart debut to drive further sales. Managing director Ed St. John explains retail campaigns were set up with such mass merchants as Kmart and Target because “her fans are more likely to still go shopping with parents than to go to music stores.”
Scott Whiffin, communications manager for Kmart, says Webster’s single is their biggest seller. “We’re looking forward to the album, because we expect it to do as well as the single.”
Jon Simiele, manager of HMV Prahran, Melbourne, reports sales in the store as “average. Her fan base is not our market — they’re much younger. I’m not particularly a fan, but I can appreciate it for being a cute, easily marketed pop song.”
Ford admits there was concern that the single might polarize older listeners. “But with this sort of track, it gets down to where you play it [in the show] and how long for,” he says. “[Kids] love their own in Australia, and a new Australian act gets a good listen.”
Plans are to work Webster in Asia this year — in between her commitments to play Dorothy in the Australian run of the Wizard of Oz from November — and then in Europe during early 2002.
Source: Billboard