25 on USA TODAY's top 40 airplay chart and has sold 356,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.Īctress, singer, student: Mendler will enter the University of Southern California as a freshman in January. "So we did that and became familiar with The Delfonics' version also and kind of came up with our own. "One of the writers played The Fugees' Ready or Not, and we were, like, 'Let's do an interpolation that'd be kind of fun,'" she says. "If I could be born again as a Brit? Love that."ĭidn't she blow your mind this time?: Yes, Mendler was aware of The Delfonics' 1968 hit Ready or Not Here I Come (Can't Hide From Love) – or, more accurately, The Fugees' 1996 Ready or Not that borrowed the chorus from the Philadelphia soul group – when she, Emanuel "Eman" Kiriakou and Evan Bogart wrote their song. "I love British sassiness, and their style is so cool," she says. Mendler expresses fondness for artists like Ellie Goulding, Florence + the Machine, Marina and the Diamonds and Lianne La Havas. Musical anglophile: Though Mendler was born in Washington, D.C., and has lived in California since she was 8, her debut album unmistakably bears the influence of British neo-soul. Mendler made her stage debut around that same time, playing Princess Multiplication in her first-grade play: "I sang a song about how you can't multiply with zero." But she has been writing songs since she was 6 or 7, when she composed a ditty about "little baby Jesus, resting in a manger" inspired by her younger brother's Play-Doh nativity scene. You can't compare that, because each person has a different path they want to go down."Ī princess is born: Mendler co-wrote every song on her debut album, Hello My Name Is …, released in October. "I try not to think too much about the other artists that have come before or are coming up. "I guess I meet a type or something," says the actress/singer/songwriter, who played a recurring character on Disney Channel's Wizards of Waverly Place before getting her own series, Good Luck Charlie, which will enter its fourth season in 2013. Mendler, 19, seems well-suited to the role, having branched out from Radio Disney and realized a legitimate top 40 hit with Ready or Not. Bridgit Mendler is following in the footsteps of Hillary Duff, Miley Cyrus and Selena Gomez, parlaying her popularity on the Disney Channel into success in the music world.