Brooke Hogan

High-Energy Brooke Hogan Readies High-Energy LP, Shops For Label

25 Aug 2005 08:36:00 EDT

'Goofy' jam vs. 'space-age' track — Hulk's daughter is torn between two singles.
By Brandee J. Tecson

Brooke Hogan
Photo: Chrissy L. Nguyen / MTV News

HOLLYWOOD — Not much can get Brooke Hogan down these days. The 17-year-old who calls wrestling great Hulk Hogan papa has been enjoying rising-star status thanks to her family's VH1 reality show, "Hogan Knows Best" — and now the aspiring singer is ready to turn her newfound fame into album sales.

"It's kind of like we're building this underground swell," Hogan told MTV News. "We're just trying to keep it very top secret so we can make this album huge."

The Florida native — who first caught the ear of pop music mogul Lou Pearlman (Backstreet Boys, 'NSYNC) — released her first single, "Everything to Me," to modest success last summer (see "Brooke-Amania: Hulk Hogan's Daughter Shoots For Pop Stardom"). The subsequent first album was slated to drop last September, but after parting ways with her record label Trans Continental, Hogan has been taking her time weighing other options.

"We're very close to being done with the album, so we're just shopping around to different labels right now trying to make the best move," she said.

For the disc, Hogan recruited the talents of beatmaker Steve Morales (co-writer of Christina Aguilera's "Dirrty") along with Damon Elliott, who produced tracks on Pink's Missundaztood.

"I have some really great people on my side, and this record is totally like something you've never heard. All of the songs I feel are hits, and I think we've found a whole new direction with the sound," the singer gushed.

"It's not teeny-bopper pop, it's not hardcore rock and it's not total R&B. It's just down the middle," she explained. "You can dance to it. It's just fun to sing and has tons of energy."

As for the lead single, Hogan is still debating between two tracks: the lighthearted, quirky "Low Rider Jeans," produced by Elliott, or the more cutting-edge dance track "Lately."

" 'Low Rider Jeans' is very goofy, very Gwen Stefani, very Pink," she said. "It's totally me because I love being wild and crazy, and that's exactly what this song is. And 'Lately' sounds like space-age dance music. It's nuts."

The green-eyed ingénue plans to drop her first single by January, with her full-length self-titled debut album expected to follow soon after.

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Brooke Hogan

Brooke-Amania: Hulk Hogan's Daughter Shoots For Pop Stardom

29 Jul 2004 09:36:00 EDT

Teen singer discovered by Lou Pearlman also plays piano, guitar.
By Joe D'Angelo

Brooke Hogan
Photo: MTV News

Despite Brooke Hogan's blond hair, dance skills and aspirations for teen-pop stardom, a couple of major differences stand between Britney Spears and the 16-year-old Floridian.

First, Brooke's dad could definitely beat up Britney's dad.

That's because Mr. Hogan stands at 6'6", tips the scales at over 250 pounds, and is known around the world by the nickname "Hulk." Rather than follow in her daddy's extra-large footsteps, though, Brooke is breaking out with a music career. Although she may not possess the Hulkster's signature leg drop or penchant for tearing a shirt to shreds at the drop of a hat, Brooke did inherit daddy's attraction to the spotlight.

"I was real young when I realized what and who my dad was," Brooke explained. "He was an icon, and I kind of realized that when I started seeing all these people asking for his autograph. I was just like, 'Dad, so many people love you. What did you do to make this happen?' And that's when he explained the whole wrestling thing to me, and what he did, and how it was all on television.

"But when I saw how people loved him, and how people were attracted to him, I wanted that same thing ... but without the bumps and bruises. That's not my bag."

Instead, Brooke's bag is singing, dancing and playing the piano and guitar. After being discovered by boy-band Svengali Lou Pearlman, the man responsible for launching the careers of 'NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys, her debut album, Brooke Hogan: This Voice, is scheduled to drop September 21. Its first single, "Everything to Me," is expected to surface at radio this week. A video for the song was shot last month by director Nigel Dick (Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys). In it, the talented teenager plays a high school cheerleader who, just by her mere presence on the field, distracts the star football player into dropping passes like a butter-fingered freshman.

But before a parallel can be drawn between Hogan's cheerleader clip and the one that launched Britney's career, "... Baby One More Time," in which Spears was dressed in a skimpy school uniform, consider the other major difference between Brooke and Britney: The former says she won't let her sex appeal overshadow her talents.

"I know people are going to think that I'm a pop tart that has overproduced music, can't sing, is not really playing the piano, and just is a dancer who looks good," she confessed. "But the great thing is that I can be all of that, be what Britney was times 10, with the real deal added on, and people are going to see that. People can [prejudge] me all they want, but once they finally see me, they're going to be like, 'Oh dang. I misjudged her. She's not fake.'

"It's great that you look good, you can dance, you can even sing, but it all comes down to that one unplugged version, where you're just sitting there with your guitar, your piano, and just your voice, without any mixing or any effects. That's showing people your real talent."

So far, Hogan's career hasn't launched entirely on her own merits. Cable channels don't give just any rising young star their own reality TV show, like VH1 is doing with "(Inside) Out: Hulk Hogan, Stage Dad," which premiered Thursday, without some preconceptions. And just any pretty face who can carry a tune doesn't get the opportunity to open local shows for Hilary Duff and perform at the Radio Disney festival.

The root of these gifts isn't lost on Hogan, who was born Brooke Bollea, and she's just fine with the fact that she was fortunate enough to be born into wrestling royalty.

"I'm not going to lie; it grabs people's attention," Hogan said of her adoption of her father's pseudonym. "It creates a buzz, and that's great. But people would criticize me if I didn't use my dad's name, like I'm embarrassed of being his daughter. [And using it], people are going to criticize me and say, 'Oh, she's just using her dad's name,' or 'Oh, she's just getting this push from her dad,' but he can open the door, and I'm the one who has to walk through it. And it'll slam right back in my face if I can't."

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