Katie melua how many times

I used to be into not making an effort at all so this is definitely a step up," she laughs. It's hard not to be charmed by this enchanting young woman who has shunned the publicity-hungry ways of some of her contemporaries and in a quiet determined style has done it her way.

No Hello! From the moment the record producer Mike Batt spotted her at the Brit School of Performing Arts and signed her to his record label Dramatico, she knew how she wanted to play it. But instead of packing in her studies and leaving immediately, she stayed on till her graduation with distinction in July I never wanted to be a celebrity.

There are all these tests that are done on young kids and they all say they want to be famous but I just always felt that for my generation being famous was kind of corny and cheesy. Maybe because fame isn't something that proves you're good at something. I've never viewed it as a great aspiration but I won't lie and say it doesn't feel good when my albums sell.

Articulate as she is, her conversation is peppered with the obligatory mantras of youth. The words "like" and "kind of" and "wicked" meaning "good" feature strongly along with the occasional swear word that has a slightly shocking effect, as it is emitted from such angelic features. They didn't try and push me into anything but they were like kind of 'ultimately you need publicity to get your music heard'.

There was never anything like getting me photographed with someone. I don't mind doing publicity but I want to make sure it's the right type and it's about promoting my music and not me. To do that you can't do interviews with Hello! Her determination to avoid the Amy Winehouse route to notoriety has meant freedom to move around without being noticed or followed everywhere by paparazzi.

She doesn't need or want that kind of recognition. The negative of it is that people do think you're boring because you haven't got a personality in the media.

If people are trying to stir up a public spat between the two they will be disappointed. That's not Melua's way, although it did cross her mind to confront the troubled star. I didn't face her up, though. It was weird. There wasn't a confrontation. We were doing the same Christmas carols gig. It was quite bizarre.

The weirdest thing was that she was totally nice. I thought in my head if she was going to be horrible she should do it up front, but at the same time knowing what it's like, things can get out of context. I think it's good to be totally open and very frank and not mystify it, which is maybe my problem.

I do tend to drape my real feelings with pretty words and different layers and stuff. I'm I love to party. You just don't party where there are photographers. I haven't got that kind of profile. Pictures was released in the UK earlier this year. It's her third album in collaboration with the highly successful songwriter Mike Batt, who became a household name in the Seventies with his Wombles records and went on to write scores of top ten hits like Bright Eyes for Art Garfunkel and It Was Only a Winter's Tale for Cliff Richard.

Melua, who writes many of her own songs, acknowledges that most of her top singles were written by Batt, including The Closest Thing to Crazy and Nine Million Bicycles. When Pictures was released, the pair announced that it would be the last time they wrote and produced together. Batt wants to work with other artists and Melua feels it's time she stepped out on her own, although she is staying with Batt's independent Dramatico label. Mike is still my manager.

I think people assume that when it came out that we were making the last record together it meant the end of the whole relationship, but it didn't. It's just the creative side of things.

What next? God knows. But I always love listening to the poems during the toast-making. Sometimes those nights would end with granddad and his friends shooting guns into the night sky, as a celebration.

She was just eight when her parents moved to the UK. In England, I was curious about the reserve and the orderliness. All the wild feelings were underneath.

She was also baffled by the English ambivalence around hard work and success. Or they hide it. I wanted to be a singer. My parents knew I could sing. Against all the odds, it turned out they were right and things just worked out for me. Batt signed her to his Dramatico label and produced her first three albums. Her first sold 11 million copies and enabled her to buy her parents a house in leafy Holland Park.

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Team or Enterprise Premium FT. Pay based on use. Does my organisation subscribe? In , Melua returned with In Winter , her first holiday-themed effort and first album after parting ways with longtime collaborator Batt. Recorded in her native country of Georgia with the Gori Women's Choir , In Winter featured original material from Melua alongside a cover of Joni Mitchell 's "River" and several traditional classical holiday songs.

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