The first thing you notice about Samantha Fox is that she isn’t dumb. The former topless model-turned-pop-starlet talks more like a seasoned businesswoman than Page 3 plaything.
Page 3 — of London’s Sun newspaper — is where Fox got her start. She was 16 when the newspaper signed her to a five-year contract to pose seminude each week on the inside cover page.
“Yes, it created quite a ruckus,” Fox said, speaking by phone from Orlando. “I suppose it’s because I was so young, but you know, I don’t think anyone thought there was really anything wrong with it.
“The Sun is actually a working-class newspaper despite what people think about topless pictures over here. The models on Page 3 were just a regular feature, nothing more. If you’re brought up seeing something every day of your life, it’s natural. In Europe, you just don’t ever see anyone in a bikini top in the summer, but here everyone has to wear one.
“I go out sunbathing here, and I end up with white (breasts), which I really hate. We perceive the whole thing differently over there. It’s different cultures that make the world go ’round at the end of the day. I’ve never ever been embarrassed to pose topless.”
Fox, 23, had little problem parlaying her looks and status into a singing career when her contract with the Sun was about to expire. Several record companies came after her, but initially she wasn’t interested because she was afraid they were interested in her strictly for novelty value.
“Everyone thinks I just turned around one day and said, ‘Oh, I’ll become a singer,’ but that’s not the way it happened. I had actually been performing with a group, when I was 16, called SFX, but I had a really horrible time in the music business because I think I was too young for it.
“When the record companies came back around at me I wanted to make sure these were serious offers.”
Eventually, Jive Records, an affiliate of RCA that also promotes British artists such as Billy Ocean, offered Fox a multialbum contract. “They said they wanted to make me the British Madonna.”
Fox’s first song, Touch Me, was an instant hit, going to No. 1 in 15 countries in a matter of weeks.
“We were surprised because the song was big not just in London, but everywhere — Finland, West Germany, France — places where the people didn’t know me and had never seen Page 3.”
That success buoyed her and the record company. An album followed, then another, and now, her third for Jive, I Wanna Have Some Fun. Though the music isn’t anything special, it is catchy and radio-friendly. She’s now on her first American tour, playing theme parks, clubs and small theaters. She’ll perform tonight at City Limits in Fort Lauderdale, then move to Decos on Miami Beach tomorrow.
Her show is about an hour long and features a live band, unlike the shows of many other young pop stars who sing to recorded tracks. “I think by waiting through three albums we have enough material and momentum for a real show. I just don’t talk through it. I’m performing every minute.”
She wouldn’t say if her show, like her videos, trades heavily on her long- cultivated sexual image.
“First I want to set one thing straight,” she says. “There is a porn star out there making movies now, billing herself as Samantha Fox. That’s not me. Yes, there are two Sam Fox’s, but I’m the singer, not the porn star.
“Secondly — yes, I’m sexy. I consider myself sexy. But the sexy image doesn’t bother me, and I don’t think it detracts from my singing. I didn’t set out to be this way. I just suppose some of us are, and some of us are not. I’m an outgoing girl, and I can’t help the way I look.”
Looking back on it all now, however, she says that era in her life was “really weird.”
“I think everyone assumed I was getting paid vast amounts of money, but that wasn’t the case. We used to do one photo session a week for about 90 minutes, and maybe I earned 35 pounds an hour.”
Ever since that time she has learned to weigh new offers carefully and take her time making career decisions. A film or another television show may be next. She is also about to record another album, and says she is quite intent on improving her stance in the industry as a serious artist.
“You know a lot of people said to me, Sam, you’re really missing out on your teens by doing all this, but geez, I was rompin’ ’round doing things most people wait a lifetime to do.”
— Samantha Fox will appear at 8 p.m. Wednesday at City Limits, 2520 S. Miami Rd., Fort Lauderdale. Tickets $15 advance, $18 day of show. Call 524-7427. Also 10 p.m. Thursday at Decos Nightclub, 1235 Washington Ave., Miami Beach. Tickets $15 advance, $18 day of show. Call TicketMaster, 839-3900 (Palm Beach), 358-5885 (Broward and Dade).
