Simpson

December 9, 1999
Web posted at: 5:31 p.m. EST (2231 GMT)

From Mark Scheerer
CNN Entertainment News Correspondent

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Jessica Simpson has toured with Ricky Martin and 98 Degrees. She has a hit album and a hit single. All this, and the native Texan is only 19.

Simpson, whose Columbia Records debut, "Sweet Kisses," was released in early November, has likely had her eye on fame for as long as teen popsters Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera -- in fact, all three tried out at the same time for "The New Mickey Mouse Club." Simpson was the one who didn't pass the audition.

"I made it all the way to the end, and I froze in the last audition," she says. While mother Tina Simpson recalls her daughter's devastation after the audition, Jessica is more philosophical. "That's OK," she says, "because it made me realize I need to work harder."

A year after that setback, the then 13-year-old Dallas native was signed to a gospel music label. "My dad's a minister, so I grew up singing -- church choirs, competitions," she says. "I mean, we did it all. I've been singing ever since I was probably five years old."

When she was a high school senior Simpson hopped on a plane to New York City to sing for Tommy Mottola, the chairman and CEO of Sony Music Entertainment, of which Columbia Records is a subsidiary. This time, Simpson aced her audition. "Tommy said that he thinks that my music and my heart will affect this world in a positive way," she says.

	AUDIO
Listen to a clip of "I Wanna Love You Forever" [240k MPEG-3] or [330k WAV] (Courtesy Columbia Records)

Professionals are collaborating on Simpson's music: her first single, the ballad "I Wanna Love You Forever," was written and produced by Sam Watters (of Color me Badd) and Louis Biancanella (Mariah Carey). That single went to No. 3 on the latest Billboard singles chart.

On another song, "Where You Are," she sings a duet with Nick Lachey of 98 Degrees, and toured with the band in April.

But on a personal level, the entire Simpson clan is helping 19-year-old Jessica stay grounded.

"Her whole family is out on the road with her," her mother says. "My husband is managing her, I do wardrobe, and her little sister, Ashley, who's 15, dances with her. It's cool, because we're all there and create some stability."

And though she's currently dating Lachey, keeping Jessica on the straight-and-narrow doesn't seem like that tough a task.

For example, she espouses abstinence as being among the values most important to her. "That's something that's really, really close to my heart," she says. "I would never press it on anybody. It's just something that I want to give my husband, and it's something that's really special to me, and hopefully one day special to him."

But there is one temptation she admits she has a hard time saying "no" to -- designer clothes.

With her new album, a WB TV series in the works based on her life, and a host of movie offers, what's left for Jessica Simpson to shoot for?

"To win an Oscar and a Grammy," she quips. "I don't shoot high or anything."