Duffy, the soul queen with steel

By Adrian Thrills for MailOnline
Updated: 22:37 BST, 18 November 2010

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An ordinary girl with an 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の発言する／表明する, Duffy was 開始する，打ち上げるd two years ago as the Amy Winehouse you could take home to 会合，会う your parents.

She topped the UK charts, 割れ目d the U.S. and sold seven million albums. She also won a Grammy, three Brits and an Ivor Novello before buckling under the 緊張する.

At least that was the story. It was a good one, too, casting our ヘロイン as a wide-注目する，もくろむd innocent from the Welsh seaside who failed to 対処する with fame. The only problem was that it wasn’t 現実に true, those ?impressive sales 人物／姿／数字s aside. Duffy is a 堅い cookie and took success in her stride.?

One tough cookie: Duffy insists she hasn't been tortured by fame and clams she has been ruthless

One 堅い cookie: Duffy 主張するs she hasn't been 拷問d by fame and clams she has been ruthless

Now 26, the singer from Nefyn, むちの跡s, is happy in her personal life ― she has been with boyfriend マイク Phillips, the Welsh rugby 星／主役にする, for over a year ― and is about to make her musical return with new 選び出す／独身井戸／弁護士席, 井戸／弁護士席, 井戸／弁護士席 and her ?second album Endlessly.

報告（する）／憶測s of her fragility, it seems, have been 誇張するd. ‘It’s ?something I を取り引きする,’ she says, speaking with a strong Welsh lilt. ‘People think I’m a 攻撃を受けやすい little girl sent around the world like a puppet.?

‘They think I’ve been ?拷問d by fame. But I knew what I was getting myself into. I’ve never said this before, but I’ve been ruthless. I moved away from home and never looked 支援する. People see this 5ft 3in blonde and think I’m not in 支配（する）／統制する. But I’ve had to make some big 決定／判定勝ち（する）s.

‘Why do we always 減ずる pop stardom to doom and gloom? I’ve had the time of my life. I’ve shed a few 涙／ほころびs along the way, but no one should fe el sorry for me.’?

Soul singer: Duffy performs at the Brit Awards 2009

Ruthless but sensitive: Duffy plays at the Pigalle Club in London, 2008

The tiny girl with the big 発言する／表明する: Duffy's soulful sound is 支援する in her new album

Duffy pauses, before 反映するing: ‘Maybe it’s part of the 一括. I’m a 極度の慎重さを要する singer. Maybe you can’t have that without people 推定する／予想するing some baggage.’

There is certainly plenty of sensitivity on Endlessly, which stays faithful to Duffy’s blue-注目する，もくろむd soul roots. In the two years since her debut album, Rockferry, the UK charts have been taken over by machine-engineered pop and electro-driven 非難する. Duffy didn’t even think about joining that club. Her love of retro-soul and classic Sixties pop was too strong.?

‘I don’t fit in with the electro move ment, so I’ll just have to stand by what I do,’ she says.
にもかかわらず that, her new album, out on November 29, 押し進めるs her sound 今後. 跡をつけるs like Keeping My Baby and 井戸／弁護士席, 井戸／弁護士席, 井戸／弁護士席 have familiar, brassy 繁栄するs, but the 渦巻くing, disco-pop of My Boy and the saucy トン of ?Lovestruck are a sassy 出発.?

As with her debut, though, it is the ?ballads on which Duffy 向こうずねs: Breath Away and Don’t Forsake Me could become 署名 tunes to 競争相手 2008’s Warwick Avenue.

The biggest surprises come with her choice of 協力者s. 退役軍人 British singer-songwriter Albert Hammond co-令状s, while acclaimed Philadelphia hip-hop 行為／法令／行動する The Roots 供給する a tight, funky 支援.

The latter, 広範囲にわたって seen as America’s best live dance 行為／法令／行動する, have already had a busy few months, 支援 John Legend on his new album Wake Up!, but ?Hammond, 66, has been out of the limelight for over a １０年間.

Best known for his 1973 攻撃する，衝突する The 解放する／自由な Electric 禁止（する）d, his only 最近の（人命などを）奪う，主張する to fame is the fact he is father to Albert ?Hammond Jr., ?guitarist with indie-rockers The 一打／打撃s. So, what 誘発するd such an ありそうもない pairing? ?によれば Duffy, Hammond ‘迎撃するd’ her career after catching her on U.S. show ?Saturday Night Live.

‘I hadn’t even been thinking about my next move, but he saw me and made the call. He is the age of a pensioner, but wears a leather jacket.’

The 共同 got off to a rocky start. ‘We met and had a drink, but I wasn’t taking in what he was ?talking about,’ says Duffy. ‘He was rambling on. Then he について言及するd a song, Don’t Forsake Me, and the 肩書を与える stuck. I ?すぐに手配中の，お尋ね者 to 令状 it with him. So, the next night, I went to his house in LA. His wife made me a cup of tea and told me she liked the way I dressed. She said I wasn’t like “those girls on MTV in their ?bikinis”.?

‘But, after Albert played me the song, I went away and wrote my own melody. He couldn’t believe I had the audacity to 引き裂く his song apart ― b ut it had to be a ?reflection of my life.’?

That life has taken Duffy from an ?itinerant childhood in むちの跡s, where she was born Aimee Duffy, to Hollywood and London. Raised on the Llyn 半島, she moved with her mother and sisters to South むちの跡s when her parents 離婚d, only to 長，率いる支援する alone to her father when she was 16.

Her pop career has been 平等に nomadic, 会社にする／組み込むing a year ?working with a ?songwriter in Switzerland and an ?外見 on a Welsh TV talent show. But, if her 26 years have been a roller coaster, Duffy’s unorthodox 旅行 is 反映するd in her ?artistry and her 運動.
‘I can’t explain why I’m so 選び出す／独身-minded,’ she says. ‘Maybe I’ve been running from something all my life. I can’t explain why I left home. All I know is I’m still searching.’

n 井戸／弁護士席, 井戸／弁護士席, 井戸／弁護士席 is out as a 選び出す／独身 on Monday. Duffy’s album, Endlessly, follows
on November 29.