There's More To Wales Than Meets The Eye

By Joe Kavanagh

Over the years, Wales has provided the world with some of the most memorable female vocalists ever to emerge on the international stage. Whether it is the power and charm of Shirley Bassey, the mellifluous tones of Katherine Jenkins or even the innate allure of Cerys Matthews, the land of the valleys has produced some of the most compelling female vocalists ever committed to record. Now another name joins their tanks with the rapid emergence of a 23-year-old singer who packs at least as much soul as recent multiple Grammy winner, Amy Winehouse. That, however, is almost where the comparison stops, as Duffy is in many ways the anti-Amy Winehouse. Charming, personable and very much grateful for the position she holds in life, this young woman is undoubtedly a star in the making.

I say, almost where the comparison stops with Winehouse, because Duffy was actually born Aimée Duffy, in the tiny village of Nefyn, a place so ensconced in the wilds of North Wales that she actually grew up with English as a second language. As an illustration of just how quiet life was in this idyllic setting, Duffy once recounted in an interview that the birth of her and twin sister, Katey, was actually a cause of local celebration, given the fact that they were the first set of twins born in the village since 1890, with the elderly original set of twins even photographed holding the new arrivals in their arms, for future posterity. Despite the obvious allure of being raised in such surrounds, one obvious drawback for a young girl who dreamed of being a singer was the lack of access to music, with the nearest record shop being three bus journeys away. Aside from the recording she made of the weekly chart show on local radio, her only other musical inspiration came from an old VHS tape of the TV show Ready, Steady Go!, which belonged to her father. The video contained performances by the Beatles, Rolling Stones, the Walker Brothers and Sandi Shaw, and, so taken was she by its contents, that she effectively watched it repeatedly until the tape had worn out.

At 10-years-old, however, her tranquil life was thrown into upheaval when her parents divorced and she and her siblings relocated with their mother to Pembrokeshire, which was hundreds of miles away from Nefyn in a physical sense but was effectively another universe to one so young. Enrolling in her new school, the music teacher initially showed some interest in Duffy's voice but shortly afterward she was asked to leave choir because her voice was too "rough around the edges", something that is virtually impossible to imagine when you hear her now. Unsettled and unhappy, she dropped out of school by 15-years-old and returned to the safe haven of her father's home in Nefyn, where she enrolled in several courses in local Welsh-speaking educational centers and began singing with local bands. Shortly afterwards she decided to continue her education in the nearby English city of Chester and although she endured it for two years before dropping out, it was her residency as a singer in a local jazz and blues club that confirmed for her that no other career could provide her with the sense of fulfillment that singing did. Putting all her eggs in one basket, she set out on an ill-fated trip to Europe, where she scratched a living out of music, until returning only a few months later feeling "battered and bruised", to work as a waitress, and then later at fishery.

Having tried the band route, she now attempted a different tack and signed on for a TV show called, Waw Ffactor (a Welsh-speaking version of American Idol), and went on to come second in place. Although her label tends to airbrush over these facts now, the result saw many in Wales hail her as the new Katherine Jenkins, while certain segments of the media even referred to her as "Evanescence meets Clannad". If it all sounds a little convoluted, then it is perhaps down to the fact that nobody really knew what they had on their hands and the three-track EP that she released on the tiny Awen Records label under the name AimÈe Duffy, sung entirely in Welsh, proved a poor vehicle for her talent. Although the voice was obviously there, the soul definitely was not, and her initial optimism soon faded as quickly as her brief moment in the sun. From being the toast of Wales, only months later she was back in her hometown once again, working in a clothes shop and resigned to the fact that her dream of becoming a working singer would remain just that.

Although she had all but given up, others who had heard her voice were not so quick to consign her to obscurity. Owen Powell, former guitarist with Welsh band Catatonia and one of the judges on Waw Ffactor, and Richard Parfit, singer with Welsh band 60 Foot Dolls, both became two of her strongest backers as they passed around her demo to anyone that would listen, searching for the right fit for a person they believed to be one of the true talents of her generation. Their endeavors eventually saw Duffy's demo get passed to Jeanette Lee, former member of Public Image Limited and co-founder of Rough Trade Records. So taken was she by what she heard that she immediately asked Duffy to make the long trip from Nefyn down to London. Instead of foisting other people's material on the young singer, Lee instead made Duffy an instrumental part of the songwriting process, hooking her up with experienced producers such as Steve Booker, Jimmy Hogarth and Bernard Butler. Ordinarily accustomed to working with big stars with commensurate egos, they found the shy, humble Welsh girl to be a pure delight, with Butler later claiming: "It's hard for cynical music industry types to comprehend how far removed she was from our world. But what you've got as a result is someone who acts and sings utterly unselfconsciously and from the heart, a most rare and magical thing." Making the move to London permanent, Duffy and the producers spent the next three years collaborating on tracks and fine tuning the nuances of her talent. As a person that genuinely had no idea quite how talented she was, she had never tested the limits of her gift, and it was only under the careful tutelage of her new colleagues that all of them came to realize just how special she was. The higher they set the bar, the higher she soared, leading to a sound that merged the laid back groove of southern soul with the grittiness and pounding pulse of its northern counterpart. Her songwriting skill too was a revelation, with Duffy later claiming: "Nobody knew what I was capable of - I had never put pen to paper, Rockferry and Warwick Avenue just came out. They were about hanging on for too long and breaking up - it all just unfolded. The moment that I delivered those demos to Jeanette she got quite emotional and told me how amazing they were."

In November she released Rockferry, which was immediately made single of the week by influential radio deejay, Jo Whiley, and word began to filter out to the masses about this diminutive girl with the huge voice. Her appearance on the BBC television show, Later With Jools Holland, shortly afterwards only confirmed her status as a bona fide star. Making it all appear entirely effortless, to the point where she actually looks like she's miming, and retaining an infectious grin on her face throughout, Duffy oozes poise and I honestly cannot recall a soul singer looked quite so happy when performing at such a level. Her next single, Mercy, is already faring even better, having hit the top of the download charts and turned into a massive radio hit, despite the fact that it will not even be officially released until this week. Thankfully, Duffy remains wholly unaffected by the hullabaloo, constantly telling interviewers of how much she appreciates the fact that she has finally gotten the chance she fought so hard for and her amazement at how far she has come. It's a fairly safe bet to say that this young star's journey has only just begun.