Thursday, Aug. 26, 1999 | 8:50 a.m.
You can learn a lot by watching a legendary pop diva in action. Take it from the ladies of Wild Orchid.
The trio -- composed of pretty twentysomethings Renee Sandstrom, Stephanie Ridel and Stacy Ferguson -- is Cher's opening act on her current North American tour and performs Friday and Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. (Songstress Cyndi Lauper also performs.)
"We always say we're like little divas in training," Sandstrom, the brunette Orchid (the others are blond), said from a recent tour stop in San Francisco. "And Cher's like the ultimate diva."
Cher, she says, is "unbelievable. It's entertainment from the very beginning to the very end" of her performance. "She's got her dancers and her band rocking. It's amazing."
Lauper, on the other hand, is "really just about going out there and being yourself. She's spontaneous and she's constantly involved with the audience. She basically told us, 'Go out (onstage) and have fun. ... Go out there and feel what it's like and go with that.'
"We're watching their shows all the time," Sandstrom said, "and you definitely learn about the way they relate to the audience and (their performances). It's interesting to see how other people like to present themselves, and you learn from that and maybe take some things with us and incorporate it later and do it ourselves when we get to that level (of stardom)."
Wild Orchid has had some time to practice its own diva ways. The Los Angeles natives have been performing together since high school -- Sandstrom and Ferguson even longer: As preteens in the early 1980s the two co-starred on the children's musical show "Kids Incorporated," which also served as the launching pad for actor Mario Lopez ("Saved By the Bell") and "I Know What You Did Last Summer" heroine Jennifer Love Hewitt. (Ridel also did some acting as a child, mostly on television and commercials.)
One advantage provided by "Kids Incorporated," Sandstrom said, was that she, Ferguson and other cast members recorded their musical numbers for the program in a studio.
"So we got used to singing behind a (microphone) with headphones on," and became accustomed to the recording process. "Since we were 8 and 9 years old we've been in the studio; when we recorded our first album it was like old hat. It's become so natural and you feel very comfortable."
That first album, a 1997 self-titled debut, spawned the singles "At Night I Pray" and "Talk to Me," the remixed versions of which became dance club hits. Its 1998 offering, "Oxygen," produced "Be Mine" and featured covers of Linda Ronstadt's "You're No Good (But I Like It)" and "Our Lips Are Sealed" by the Go-Gos.
Larry Flick, of Billboard magazine, reviewed "Be Mine." "The song," he wrote, "beautifully showcases the diva-fashioned vamping and smooth harmonies" of the group members "within an arrangement of chugging, jeep-styled beats and tasty blues guitar licks."
"We have a lot of musical influences," Sandstrom said, ranging from rhythm and blues to pop. "The era that we grew up in (the '80s) there was such a mix of music playing on Top 40 radio that you'd (be) influenced by all different types of music. We're fans of all different kinds of music and I think in our records we show that."
While dance music is the group's calling card, it's surprising to some that soulful sounds are also typical from these honest-to-goodness "Valley Girls" (Sandstrom and Ridel were raised in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley; Ferguson called the nearby San Gabriel Valley home).
"I guess because of the look of the group, people are skeptical that we can really pull it off live," Sandstrom said. So the women make it a point to include at least one a capella song in each performance. "To show people that we all three have voices and this is really us, it's not anything that's done in the studio through computer work or anything like that."
The three take turns singing lead on songs (Sandstrom tackled the majority of the lyrics of "Declaration," the fourth cut from "Oxygen.") "We each have distinctly different voices, yet when we come together we blend so well. ... We can usually tell right away whose voice fits which part best," she said.
"We've worked really hard on creating the blend (of sound) that we have now and we're proud of it and sometimes it's a little frustrating when people are skeptical. I guess if I saw Stacy and Stephanie and I heard their record, I might be skeptical, too. ... People are always gonna have opinions, and that's fine. We can prove that we have the goods."
The trio returned to its television roots last year when it began hosting the Fox Family Channel show "Great Pretenders" (1:30 and 5 p.m. Thursdays, 10 a.m. Saturday, Cox cable channel 37).
The show takes children and teens, gives them makeovers and sets them on stage to lip-sync to their favorite tunes before an audience of their peers. Before beginning the Cher tour Wild Orchid taped 13 new episodes of the show, as well as an hour-long "Great Pretenders Family Style" prime time special to air at a later date.
But why would rising pop stars take time out to host a kids' show? Simple, Sandstrom said: "Because it involved music.
"Actually, it kind of reminds me sometimes of 'Kids Incorporated' -- getting up there on stage in front of all these other kids and performing. It's kids who we see as kind of like how we were when we were that age, aspiring to maybe get into the music business. We were in that position once, too, so it's fun to be a part of that."
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