at 12:33 on December 4, 2006, EST.
By CASSANDRA SZKLARSKI


Keshia Chante performs. (CPimages /Marianne Helm)


TORONTO (CP) - Like that other pop star who grew up as a teen singing sensation, Keshia Chante says she's not a girl, not yet a woman.

But the Ottawa-born R&B singer is a driven performer, who at age 18 says she's focused on keeping tight control of her image and career as she navigates a demanding industry known for eating its young. "Being 18 can definitely be a struggle in making music if you allow it to be," says Chante, who admits she's kept an eye on the roller-coaster career of Britney Spears, whose demure 2001 single "I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet A Woman" came out the same year she staged a raunchy MTV performance featuring an albino python.

"(I'm into) making pop urban music that's honest to your age, that's not being in a rush to play dress up or to grow up or to be overly sexy and it's uncomfortable and it's not honest. It's making music that's 18. I feel very classy in a sense, sophisticated but still very young and still very fresh."

Chante, who began making music at age 13 when she signed to BMG, says her challenge is to continue evolving while being careful not to alienate her young fan base.

That audience was evident at a recent all-ages show in which Chante opened for sexy Ciara - girls as young as eight or nine were seen spinning cartwheels amid a crowd of beer-swilling 20-year-olds.

Those kids are looking for someone they can relate to, and need alternatives to the provocative images of artists like the Pussycat Dolls, says Chante.

"There's this void in music, especially in young music, in pop, R&B music," says Chante, who now lives in Toronto.

"And that bothers me. That's probably the only thing I'm really conscious about when I'm making music, is not to be in a rush. I'm in no rush to grow up."

During a recent promotional tour of U.S. shopping malls, Chante says she was stunned by the implied sexuality of little girls.

"There was a make-up store just for kids and it was dress-up and a lot of the little girls that were like, eight, had lots of make-up on. They were playing dress-up and they were having fun. . .but they were a lot more older, they speak a lot more older, they listen to a lot older music."

Nonetheless, Chante says response to her music in the United States was fantastic, and that young fans really seemed drawn to her wholesome approach.

A big push for U.S. exposure is planned behind Chante's second album, "2U", out Tuesday. She's in talks with MTV about a possible reality show and earlier this year snagged a cameo in labelmate Bow Wow's "Shortie Like Mine" video with Chris Brown.

Chante, a straight-A student who graduated this year, says she's excited about the prospect of breaking into the huge U.S. market.

In Canada, she's set to make her acting debut in a TV adaptation of the play "Da Kink In My Hair" next year. She plays a reserved teenager heading off to university.

"I would love to continue in acting," Chante says of the new medium, adding she's also working on a screenplay about a female assassin.

"I would love to write a movie or produce or direct or do something like that because I have a different kind of perspective when it comes to that kind of stuff."

With all her ambition (she would also like to go to university one day), it's not surprising that the phrase "role model" seems to come up frequently with Chante. But that title does not rest easy on the teen.

"The word role model is a little dangerous to me because it seems like it's just this perfect person. Nobody's perfect and I'm not going to sit there and calculate every move I make, everything I wear because that's not what I'm here for.

"I'm here to make music and as long as I'm making honest music and I'm making positive music, I think that's the best role model I could be."


©The Canadian Press, 2006

I get her mixed up with Keyshia Cole, who has fabulous juggz.