by Sharon Mawer

Andrew Lloyd Webber obviously fancied himself as something of a Svengali pop producer or a controller of acts in the age-old tradition of Larry Parnes, Brian Epstein, or even Simon Cowell. With the TV series Any Dream Will Do almost ready to pick the next star of his 2007 West End production of Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, the debut album from his progeny Andrea Ross was released to a metaphorical fanfare of PR trumpets. Ross had been a mere slip of a 13-year-old when she had sent Lloyd Webber a couple of songs sung over karaoke backing tracks. He had obviously liked what he'd heard and realized there may be potential in her, so he auditioned her, and two years later with Ross at the age of 15, the debut album was ready. Ross had a clear, controlled soprano voice with which she sang every song with remarkable clarity, every syllable pronounced as if her life depended on it. Unfortunately, this placed her in a very crowded market already filled by Katherine Jenkins and Hayley Westenra, among others, so whether the album would become a success really did come down to either the promotion it received or the choice of songs. Since Lloyd Webber was more than fully occupied with the Joseph project, it would all come down to the songs, which included "Songbird" (originally on the Fleetwood Mac album Rumours but more recently the title track of a successful Eva Cassidy album); the Lloyd Webber numbers "No Matter What," "All the Love I Have," "Learn to Be Lonely," and "Whistle Down the Wind"; "Heart Like a Wheel" (originally by Linda Ronstadt); the TV theme to the 1960s series White Horses; and up-to-date songs like "You Raise Me Up" (yes, someone really did cover a Westlife hit) and "Start of Something New" (from the soundtrack to High School Musical). There was also a clear, concise version of the old chestnut "What the World Needs Now Is Love," which was not quite as sickening as the Tom Clay version from the early '70s, but almost as nauseating. As for the fanfare of publicity surrounding the release of Moon River, the album rushed into the charts at number 42 and one week later it was gone. Andrew Lloyd Webber was no Simon Cowell.