{"id":298,"date":"2004-12-13T12:21:08","date_gmt":"2004-12-13T12:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nikkiwebsterfan.net\/press\/?p=298"},"modified":"2022-10-21T04:55:28","modified_gmt":"2022-10-21T04:55:28","slug":"nikkis-all-grown-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nikkiwebsterfan.net\/press\/nikkis-all-grown-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Nikki’s all grown up!"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Olympic golden girl has grown into a fully-fledged pop princess, all without a hint of scandal.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Funny man Rove McManus pretended to spike her lemonade \u2013 and she once trashed Michael Jackson\u2019s hotel suite \u2013 but that\u2019s the extent of any scandal in pint-sized singer Nikki Webster\u2019s past. No Drew Barrymore-style stints in rehab, no battles with booze and pills, no anorexia or bulimia scares, not even any unsuitable boyfriends.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn fact, no serious boyfriends at all,\u201d laughs Australia\u2019s former child sweetheart, who flew to worldwide fame as \u201cHero Girl\u201d at the Sydney Olympics in front of four billion TV viewers. \u201cMaybe the time will come one day.\u201d<\/p>\n

At 17, the curly-haired poppet\u2019s all grown up. And still the only secret in her closet is a serious fashion habit, courtesy of her best-selling Kmart clothing range. She may be a good girl, but this teenager is far from ordinary, whatever she might say. After all, how many 17-year-olds have partied with Michael Jackson? Nikki sang a duet with Michael, before his subsequent disgrace, on the then-superstar\u2019s HIStory<\/em> tour of Australia. It was her first, and only, brush with rock \u2018n\u2019 roll-style bad behavior.
\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t get starstruck, but when I was younger, I guess Michael Jackson was the person who made me think, \u2018Oh my gosh,\u2019\u201d admits Nikki. \u201cWhen I met him, he was the nicest person, and I\u2019m not going to make a judgement on him now.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe invited a whole bunch of us kids up to his suite after the show. He was giving away PlayStations and everything. One boy even asked for the TV, but Michael explained it wasn\u2019t his; it belonged to the hotel! We were having M&M\u2019s fights, there was Fanta sprayed all over the walls. That room was trashed by the time we left!<\/p>\n

\u201cMichael was great, so down-to-earth, but he wouldn\u2019t show us how to moonwalk,\u201d she continues. \u201cHe said something that\u2019s stuck with me ever since. He told us, \u2018Actually, I\u2019m the most nervous person you could hope to meet, until I get out there on stage. It\u2019s the audience that makes me confident.\u2019 And I thought back to that when I was doing the Olympics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Famous friends aside, Nikki\u2019s proud to have stayed true to herself. \u201cEveryone\u2019s tried to corrupt me, even Rove, although I\u2019m sure it was just his sense of humour,\u201d grins the multi-talented musician, actress, dancer, designer and fledging business tycoon who, astonishingly, has just released a Best Of Nikki Webster<\/em> compilation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been four years since the Sydney Olympics, and I guess that\u2019s been a wake-up call,\u201d says the Strawberry Kisses<\/em> singer \u2013 fresh out of school after sitting her final exams, and happily living at home in Sydney with proud parents Tina and Mark. \u201cThat\u2019s why I\u2019m bringing out this album, to remind everybody that I\u2019m nearly 18 and driving around like anyone else. I\u2019m not 13 forever, you know! People hold on to that Hero Girl image and forget I\u2019ve grown up like any other teenager.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo this CD is a collection of the best things I\u2019ve done, everything I\u2019ve been through until today,\u201d she explains. \u201cIt\u2019s like a coming of age, enabling me to move on, take a different direction and when I turn 18, see what happens!\u201d<\/p>\n

Fans, however, need not fret. Although Nikki met Kylie at the 2000 Olympics, stays in touch, and views her as something of a mentor, she won\u2019t be seen gyrating raunchily on screen in tight gold hotpants. At least, not any time soon. Beneath the golden ringlets and elfin smile, diminutive Nikki masks a sharp intelligence, focused drive and strong sense of self. She\u2019s well aware becoming an adult isn\u2019t always easy, especially when you\u2019re in the spotlight.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m often asked why I don\u2019t start acting sexy, but that\u2019s not me,\u201d she maintains. \u201cI\u2019m pretty strong, I won\u2019t be pushed into anything. And besides, I don\u2019t want to let down my supporters. I think I understand their frame of mind because I meet them when I go out on tour.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople have grown up with me and watched me grow through my career \u2013 I even get grandparents coming up to me and kissing me! They nurture me, so I\u2019m not interested in coming back as some completely different person. I think I\u2019ll always stay the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is undoubtedly good news for the tweenies, mums and dads who idolise her \u2013 and even for the strange red-blooded blokes who voted Nikki into 96th place on a list of the world\u2019s \u201c100 Sexiest Women\u201d in 2003.<\/p>\n

But Ms Webster is loathed, as well as loved. Although her first hit, Strawberry Kisses<\/em>, stayed at number two on the music charts for eight weeks, commercial radio canned it. Triple M\u2019s switchboard reportedly \u201clit up\u201d with listeners nominating the lollipop single for the stations \u201cworst song hunt\u201d.<\/p>\n

Nikki shrugs philosophically. \u201cI guess people think I\u2019m an easy target because I\u2019m young. I was warned about the tall-poppy syndrome way back, before the Olympics \u2013 but surely we\u2019re over bagging Australian artists, after the overseas success of Kylie and Olivia?<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got the best and worst of it because I do have some great people who like what I do. But the negative stuff that goes around was hard to deal with when I was 13. I developed a really thick skin, and grew up very fast. Now I tend to take it all with a pinch of salt. Not everyone\u2019s going to like you. And the criticism comes mainly from people who haven\u2019t met me or spent any time with me, so it\u2019s not like it\u2019s personal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBe strong and stay true to yourself, that\u2019s all you can do. Look at Kylie, who ignores all the knockers and keeps coming back, bigger and better than ever. See, she\u2019s proved all the people wrong who bagged her out, and I\u2019ll be the same. God, at least I haven\u2019t been called anything as terrible as \u2018the singing budgie\u2019!<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully, it shines through that I love what I\u2019m doing. The only reason I\u2019m out there \u2013 and I\u2019m sure it\u2019s the same with Kylie \u2013 is my passion for music and performing and for what I can offer other people.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a passion she discovered as a tiny girl at Saturday dance classes, to the bewilderment of her childcare-director mum and electrician dad. \u201cNeither of us have a musical bone in our bodies,\u201d confesses mum Tina. \u201cIt must be a fluke somewhere, because our son Scott\u2019s also a talented musical theatre performer!\u201d<\/p>\n

Now a seasoned artist, Nikki filmed her first commercial at the age of five and later appeared on stage with stars such as Bert Newton and Lisa McCune in Cinderella, The Sound Of Music, Les Miserables, Aladdin<\/em>, and The Wizard Of Oz<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Source: Woman’s Day
\nView scans of this article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Olympic golden girl has grown into a fully-fledged pop princess, all without a hint of scandal. Funny man Rove McManus pretended to spike her lemonade \u2013 and she once trashed Michael Jackson\u2019s hotel suite \u2013 but that\u2019s the extent of any scandal in pint-sized singer Nikki Webster\u2019s past. No Drew Barrymore-style stints in rehab, … Continue reading<\/a>Nikki’s all grown up!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,83],"tags":[27],"class_list":["post-298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-16","category-the-best-of-nikki-webster","tag-the-best-of-nikki-webster"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nikkiwebsterfan.net\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nikkiwebsterfan.net\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nikkiwebsterfan.net\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nikkiwebsterfan.net\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nikkiwebsterfan.net\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/nikkiwebsterfan.net\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1785,"href":"https:\/\/nikkiwebsterfan.net\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298\/revisions\/1785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nikkiwebsterfan.net\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nikkiwebsterfan.net\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nikkiwebsterfan.net\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}