In the Mix

Or on second thought, maybe not. British pop singer Natasha Bedingfield, who's playing the Theater of Living Arts tonight, had a European hit last year with a song called "I Wanna To Have Your Babies." I first heard it on the radio last spring while on vacation, and as I was barreling down the autostrade I almost dropped my doppio macchiato. This would never fly in America, I thought. Pop music (that isn't country music), is about the chase, the hook-up, and maybe endless undying love. It's not about consequences. It facilitates baby-making, but as a rule, doesn't risk spoiling the mood by overtly discussing the creation of complicated creatures prone to inopportune upchucking, who, cute and cuddly as they may be - and indeed are, in Bedingfield's "Babies" video - before you know it will require a college education that'll cost you a fortune.

The cute premise of Bedingfield's song - which led Blender to call her "the hottest baby-craving stalker ever" - is that she knows full well she needs to keep her procreating aspirations to herself, less she induce a male panic attack. "Trust me it would scare you, if you knew what was going on in my brain/That I've picked out the church, all the schools, all the names." Turns out, she was right: Bedingfield's American label, Epic, issued the singer's bouncy new album with a new name. In the UK, it was N.B. Over here it's the more determinedly cheerful Pocketful of Sunshine. Bedingfield explained to Nicole Pensiero in the Inky on Friday, she's disavowed her Euro hit in pursuit of U.S. success. "If I'm going to get attention, I want it to be for something great," she said. "Not for something silly." So breathe easy, prospective papas in fear of creating unplanned offspring: On Sunshine, any mention of making "Babies" has been conveniently removed.