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NEWS : STORIES
What's a soap opera star to do when his amnesia recedes or the true identity of her baby's father is revealed? Sing, of course! While history hasn't been kind to many actors bitten by the music bug — Eddie Murphy, Bruce Willis, Keanu
Ricky Martin was Miguel Morez on "General Hospital" before he was livin' la vida loca on the music scene, following in the footsteps of another famous "General Hospital" Ricky who went on to conquer the pop charts: "Jessie's Girl" singer Rick Springfield (a.k.a. Dr. Noah Drake). Not many know Lauryn Hill was on "As the World Turns" before she joined the Fugees, and not many remember Michael Damian, who starred in "The Young and the Restless" before hitting the airwaves with a cover of David Essex's "Rock On" in the late '80s. One soap, Australia's "Neighbours," has cranked out three bona fide music starlets in Kylie Minogue, "Torn" singer Natalie Imbruglia and newcomer Holly Valance, whose "Kiss Kiss" was the #1 single in the U.K. earlier this month. These singers and dozens of others, in genres ranging from country to opera, have inspired a current crop of soap stars to fully embrace the concept of crossing over. New York City music producer Donald Benjamin spotted the trend a decade ago and launched the popular Soap Sessions compilation series, which features stars of shows such as "Days of Our Lives" and "Passions" singing their own tunes, covers of past hits or holiday standards. (Soap Sessions Vol. 3, his best seller to date, features soap stars doing Beatles favorites.) These days, though, the soap star-turned-pop star craze is nearly outgrowing Benjamin's business. "When I call around now," he explained, "instead of getting responses like, 'I don't know if he can sing,' I'm getting, 'Well, he's doing his own CD.' Everybody's doing their own thing. I'll be working at McDonald's next week." Benjamin partially credits the influx of soap stars hitting the studio to new technology, which has made recording an album much cheaper than it was 10 years ago. Mostly though, he said, they do it because they can. A majority of the actors started in theater and learned to sing in musicals. Once the performers get on a series, they find an audience that is willing to listen to them, according to Jennifer Lenhart, who edits the Sing Along section in Soap Opera Digest. "When you're on a soap opera, there's a built-in fanbase," she said. More and more soap operas have taken a cue from Ricky Martin and have characters on their shows play singers. "There's a lot of opportunities for them to sing, because there are so many musical montages," Lenhart said. "Every couple has their own song, and it's even better if the person who plays the character sings their own theme song." Soap stars make good pop stars because they are outgoing and learn to be comfortable in front of audiences, according to Lenhart, who added, "Soap operas are such hard work, which people don't realize, that getting your career off the ground as a pop star seems easy." The big question surrounding the daytime fixtures — and, for once, it's not about who's sleeping with who — is, who actually has what it takes to be the next Ricky or Kylie? Benjamin believes there are several with enough talent and work ethic, and added that — how can you forget? — "none of these people are particularly hard to look at." Benjamin and Lenhart offered MTVNews.com their expert takes on some of the soap stars with their eyes on the music world. So like sand through the hourglass, these are the potential future pop stars of our lives:
This report is provided by MTV News
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