Sophie Monk enjoys fun of going solo

By ELEANOR BLACK

It's no coincidence that Australian popette Sophie Monk is often likened to Marilyn Monroe.

Before she shot to fame as a member of television insta-pop band Bardot, the female five-piece which emerged from the Aussie version of Popstars, Monk was a Monroe impersonator at Movie World on the Gold Coast.

Since then she has been styled as a sort of skinny Monroe, lying around wearing lashings of pink lip gloss and doing her best to seduce the camera.

In the video for her debut solo single, Inside Outside, Monk does it again, dancing in giant souvenir snow globes mimicking Monroe and that other iconic 60s bombshell, Brigitte Bardot. The snow globes are kitted out to represent several major cities, including Las Vegas and Paris, and Monk is presented as a living doll.

The comparison to the Hollywood legend makes the 22-year-old, soon in Auckland to perform at Rumba, giggle. It seems she channels Monroe for the fun of it, just like she models bikinis for swimwear line Expozay for fun, and makes music for fun.

Her famously daffy manner and cute-girl-next-door looks have assured Monk a loyal following in Australia, where she was picked out as the most popular member of Bardot, who released two platinum albums and had six Top 20 hits in Australia in their two-year lifespan.

When the band broke up in May she had no plans to embark on a solo career, but Monk, who has been singing since she was 8, missed performing.

Her first single, written by British hit-makers Rob Davis and Steve Mac, is a sugary number in the tradition of Kylie Minogue, Ronan Keating and Britney Spears - who have all benefited from the pair's expertise.

Davis wrote Minogue's hit Can't Get You Out Of My Head in 90 minutes. Monk hopes her own album, due for release next year, will be stacked with similarly catchy songs.

"I think it's going to be quirky and uptempo and happy, but obviously it's going to have a dynamic throughout it as well," she says, confusingly.

Although she admires female rockers - and meets all-time favourite Pink at Rumba, a chance she describes as "unreal ... really weird ... exciting" - Monk says she couldn't pull off a hard-edged sound.

At the festival, which also features Natalie Imbruglia, Bic Runga, Zed and Che Fu, she performs a 20-minute set, her biggest solo effort to date. She admits to nerves.

"You've got to make sure you're on it the whole time. But I've got dancers with me as well and it's gonna be a full fanfare with costumes and stuff, so I won't feel so bare."

Feeling exposed is not generally a problem for Monk, the face (and body) of Expozay.

Even the theft of dozens of her bikini billboards from bus shelters in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane does not make her feel weird. She reckons it was one guy, on a road-trip.

Monk is recognised everywhere she goes in Australia but, no, that doesn't bother the cheerful singer. "I don't mind that at all because everyone's pretty friendly in Australia - you get looked after."

While she misses the camaraderie of being in a band - all the talking and giggling, she says with a giggle - Monk is becoming used to being the centre of attention.

"You've still got heaps of people round you anyway. It's not as if you're lonely, ever. There's so many people behind the scenes."

She keeps in touch with her former bandmates by phone. Katie Underwood has featured on two Disco Montego singles but Tiffany Wood, Sally Polihronas and Belinda Chapple have yet to make a splash.

Monk has started to write her own material, with Gold Coast producer Shane Monopoli. "It's pretty weird. Sometimes you can sit down and say, 'Right, I'm going to write a song', and nothing comes to mind and other times you can sit down and write one in an hour. So it's pretty easy."

She is not expecting an easy ride to the top of the charts just because she is familiar. And if it stops being fun, she won't pursue it.

"If it's meant for me," she says when asked how she rates her chances of achieving Kylie status.

"Whatever makes me happy, I guess. You've got to be careful because you never know - you can be hot for a minute and not the next. You can't have too many expectations ... "

* Sophie Monk plays Rumba, Western Springs, tomorrow.