I don’t want to decorate them with too many frills. I play proper, traditional songs that come from the heart. “The main thing we all want is for me to write music that I believe in. And could she be the new Adele? “I think everyone would hope for that level of success,” she answers, diplomatically. Does she think that anyone has come close to doing that recently? “Adele on Someone Like You,” she decides. She believes that competition is healthy (“It’s good to have female comrades”) and says that when she was growing up, the intimate, conversational songwriting of Carole King turned her head. “People can’t connect to a band the way that they can to a solo artist,” she asserts, on the phone from Washington, midway through a US tour supporting James Bay. For now, though, she’s playing down her chances.
She is not beyond being co-opted by a cooler contingent: she shares management with Disclosure and has recently collaborated with Howard Lawrence, one half of the dance act sibling duo. “I don’t look like the typical pop star,” she says, but she could still prove to be the next mass-market household name. She graduated from the Liverpool Institute of the Performing Arts, whose notable alumni include Sandi Thom, the Wombats and Stealing Sheep. We’re bringing a bit more realness.”Īge 22 Home Newbury, Berkshire Biggest YouTube hit Grow For fans of Adele, Sam Smithįrances is a composer of florid piano ballads and is the one act who is most likely to appeal to the Tesco demographic – she was shortlisted for the Brits critics’ choice award, losing out to Jack Garratt. Before, everyone was singing about how amazing it all was. There are so many great new girls, and we’re able to tell the truth now about what being a teenager is really like. “It’s a good time to be making music that is seductive and sweet but doesn’t sugar-coat it. “I write about the dramas I saw every night, the dark side of nightlife,” Lipa says. Be The One – co-written by Lucy Taylor, AKA Pawws, and with electronic producer Nick Gale AKA Digital Farm Animals at the controls – is fabulous, with a smoky vocal redolent of a younger, poppier Lana (LDR associate Nicole Nodland directed the video), giving it some of the latter’s lived-in quality. And the producers she has worked with – Emile Haynie (Lana Del Rey, FKA twigs), Andrew Wyatt (Miike Snow, Charli XCX) – suggest all sorts of possible futures for the former Sylvia Young Theatre School student, nightclub hostess and model. She has already worked in studios in Berlin, LA, Stockholm, New York and Toronto, and could be from any of those cities. She might live in London (via Kosovo), but singer-songwriter Dua (“love” in Albanian) Lipa is a more cosmopolitan proposition than a girl-next-door type such as Jess Glynne. That’s my solution to everything.”Īge 20 Home Pristina, Kosovo Biggest YouTube hit Be the One For fans of Lana Del Rey, Rihanna Is she the “new” anyone? “The new Rihanna,” she ventures, then has a brainwave. So they better do their job right,” she says. “Anyone who gets in my way, I’ll fuck ’em up.”Īnd what about her label? “Basically, they want to make me the biggest thing in the history of life. The market may be crowded, but she has a solution.
“Beyoncé, Sia – I’m coming for you,” she warns. She may have been working with electronic, experimental wunderkind Two Inch Punch, but tracks such as Gemini and Boy are sublimely commercial, high-end pop. Her intricate R&B – imagine a cockney Aaliyah – is at odds with her no-nonsense character. The three-times karate world champion (in the shotokan discipline) and former child star (alongside Jessie J in the West End musical Whistle Down the Wind) fears nothing and no one. “It’s only backing vocals, anyway.” A centre-stage solo spot in 2016 wouldn’t faze her either.
Anne-Marie is appearing on the X Factor in three hours, with her touring buddies Rudimental, for a performance of Lay It All On Me, their team-up with Ed Sheeran.