Talk:Duffy (singer)

Early life

Duffy was born Aimée Anne Duffy in Bangor, Gwynedd and raised in Nefyn on the Llŷn Peninsula in North Wales, with her twin sister, Katy Ann, and older sister Kelly. She grew up speaking Welsh as her mother tongue. Her parents divorced when she was ten and she moved to Pembrokeshire with her mother and sisters. She dropped her first name, calling herself Duffy professionally and personally.

Duffy's introduction to soul music and inspiration to get into the music industry occurred while watching Whoopi Goldberg's performance in the movie Sister Act. It is known that Duffy watched her father's videotapes of the 1960s television rock show Ready Steady Go! – she says she grew up without a record collection of her own. Duffy began singing at age six and carried around a notebook which she filled with scribbled lyrics. She was later asked to leave her school choir because her voice was "too big" and she "didn't fit in."

In 1998 (aged thirteen), Duffy was briefly put in a police safe house when authorities uncovered a plot by her stepfather's ex-wife to pay a hitman £3000 to kill her stepfather, identified as Philip Smith. Smith's ex-wife, Dawn Watson, was sentenced to a 3½ year jail term for soliciting to murder. "I was so terrified. I felt so ill", Duffy recounted in 2008, as reported by the NME magazine and The Sun. A 1998 article in the Daily Mirror, another British tabloid, quotes a man identified as Philip Smith describing similar circumstances, though the stepdaughter's name is spelled Aimy — not Aimée — and the surname Duffy is not mentioned. Duffy describes living in the safe house as a dog eat dog, claustrophobic and isolating experience. At age fifteen she ran away back to her father's house in Nefyn. Duffy said in retrospect, "It was a horrendous thing to do". Her mother and her sisters did not speak to her for about a year afterwards.

Duffy has admitted to smoking "not just cigarettes" during her teenage years, at a time when she was "quite mischievous" and always looking for trouble. She says that these activities with friends occurred as a result of boredom. Duffy cites the effects of her stepfather's ex-wife's alcoholism as well as her desire not to become a "celebrity" as reasons she does not use drugs or alcohol currently.

References

Career beginnings

After finishing her GCSEs in Pembrokeshire, Duffy returned to Nefyn when she was fifteen, and started singing in various local bands.

She then spent a year working in Switzerland, collaborating with the writer-producer Soren Mounir under the name Soulego.

Duffy returned to Wales in 2003 and was invited to appear on Wawffactor, a Welsh television show on S4C, which has been compared to Pop Idol. She was expected to win, but came second to winner Lisa Pedrick. Duffy claims that she was conned into the appearance; she later called it "the unhappiest time in my life."

In her teens Duffy wanted (and expected) to be a world famous pop star, and as such felt that she let others use her "as a vehicle for their vision not mine." At age eighteen, thinking her dreams were not going to come true, she "became almost a quite withdrawn singer". After a re-evaluation she decided to just make music for no other purposes than her own fulfilment.

Duffy was elected president of the Students' union at Coleg Meirion-Dwyfor in Pwllheli, North Wales before transferring to the University of Chester in England. She was advised by a lecturer to "Go on the dole, love, and become a singer". She also built up a following at Alexander's, a local jazz and blues club, performing with guitarist David Burton from the band The Invisible Wires.

In 2004 she recorded a three-song Welsh EP, written and produced by Paul Eastham of international celtic rock band "Coast". Simply titled Aimée Duffy, the 3 tracks were "Dim Dealltwriaeth" (No Understanding), "Hedfan Angel (Fly Angel)", and "Cariad Dwi'n Unig (Lover, I'm Lonely)". She also appeared on two tracks on the album See You in the Morning by Mint Royale while working as a waitress in a fishery. Owen Powell of Catatonia and Richard J. Parfitt of Newport band 60ft Dolls, introduced Duffy in August 2004 to Jeannette Lee, former Public Image Ltd. member turned music manager and part-owner of Rough Trade Records. Lee moved Duffy to Crouch End in London, and orchestrated a meeting between Duffy and Suede's ex-guitar player Bernard Butler.

After Butler had given Duffy a soul music "education" by downloading tracks on to her iPod that she could listen to while around London or travelling back to Wales, the pair co-wrote with her and helped create a new retro sound. The tracks included Al Green, Bettye Swann, Ann Peebles, Beyoncé, Doris Duke, Scott Walker, Phil Spector and Burt Bacharach. Duffy was quoted as saying Bettye Swann "is one of my biggest inspirations" particularly her song Cover Me because "it marks the time I got interested in physical contact. I was 19, and here was a woman singing "Cover me, spread your precious love all over me". It's very tender, but it's also, hilariously, quite crude".

References

Career

Breakthrough

On 23 November 2007, Duffy was signed to A&M Records. Recording began for her debut LP, to be entitled Rockferry, after the area of Rock Ferry, in The Wirral. This is where Duffy's grandmother lives. Early promotion of the album began with an appearance on BBC Two's Later with Jools Holland. This resulted in an appearance on sister show New Years' Eve Hootenanny, where she performed her debut single "Rockferry" among other tracks, and dueted with singer and soul "legend" Eddie Floyd.

In January 2008, she came second to Adele in the annual BBC News Online poll of industry experts Sound of 2008, for acts to emerge in the coming year. A number of commentators have remarked on her unaffected personality and natural charm. In February 2008 her self-titled Welsh language EP Aimée Duffy, recorded four years earlier, reached the top of the Welsh C2 chart.

References

Rockferry

Main article: Rockferry

230px|thumb|Logo used by Duffy (2008-present) Butler and his musical partner David McAlmont, and a number of other musicians formed the backbone of Duffy's band for her debut album, Rockferry, which was released on Polydor Records on 3 March, 2008. The black and white album art and video for the title track were shot by directors Luke Seomore and Joseph Bull, on and around the Ffestiniog Railway in Porthmadog, which was renamed 'Rockferry' for the occasion. The album was named after Rock Ferry in the Wirral where Duffy's grandmother lives.

According to Duffy,

"The album took nearly four years to make. We had to hire cheap, tiny studios and sometimes there would be three-week periods between writing and recording." Bernard Butler, who was not initially paid, produced four songs for the album, including the single, "Rockferry".

The first single released from the album was neo-soul song "Rockferry". This release was digital download-only in the United Kingdom and Switzerland, although there was a limited-edition 7" vinyl copy of the record available. "Rockferry" eventually reached the charts and placed at number 45 on the UK Singles Chart. The second single from the album, "Mercy" is single-handedly credited for establising Duffy's career worldwide. It reached number one on nearly 20 worldwide charts. "Mercy" was the last song written for the album. By May, "Mercy" was a staple on VH1 and a hot Adult Contemporary radio hit and had been featured in the season finale of the American television medical drama Grey's Anatomy as well as the soundtrack album for Sex and the City: The Movie. A remix of "Mercy", featuring rap artist The Game, was released on 10 May. On 13 May Rockferry was released in the United States to positive reviews.

"Warwick Avenue" was the third single released from Rockferry. At first the video for the song was meant to be an elaborate production but ended up a tearful head shot in a taxi cab with Duffy's mascara smudging. Duffy has said "That's as close as I'm ever going to get to doing a performance that's real in a video."

Because of its cheap production values Rockferry is reaping Duffy substantial financial benefits. Despite her album's success in the United States Duffy was quoted as saying “I don’t like how big American stars consider themselves an exception from humanity".

In November 2008, the single "Rain On Your Parade" was released. The song was co-written & produced by Steve Booker. The song was first released on download sales only on 10 November 2008 before being released physically on 17 November 2008. Duffy describes this song as "a big, disco-y dance song". The song entered the UK Singles Chart at number twenty-two before rising to a peak of fifteen the following week. The track was included on the deluxe edition of Rockferry.

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Recognition

At the 2008 MOJO Awards, Duffy won the "Song of the Year" award for "Mercy" and was nominated also for "Album of the Year" and "Breakthrough Act". These three nominations were the largest number of nominations for any one act. She also received a 2008 Q Award in the category of Breakthrough Act, a nomination for the Q category of Best Track for "Mercy", a Music of Black Origin Award nomination for Best UK Female. At the MTV Europe Music Awards, she received three nominations in the categories of Album of the Year,Most Addictive Track, and New Act. She performed at the EMA show.

Duffy equalled Coldplay with four 2009 Brit Awards nominations. She eventually won three awards, including Best Album for Rockferry, one behind the record held by Blur for the most won in one night. "I cannot tell you what this means after five years of hard work," said the singer. At the awards ceremony she performed "Warwick Avenue". Record producers & songwriters Steve Booker & Bernard Butler gained awards for their work on the Rockferry album. She shared a 2009 Ivor Novello Award in the category "Most Performed Work" with with Steve Booker for their work on Mercy. Songwriter Eg White won the award for "Songwriter of the Year" in part for "Warwick Avenue" which he co wrote with Duffy.

Rockferry was the fourth best selling album of 2008 worldwide, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. The album went on to win the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album at the 51st Annual Grammy Awards, which were presented 8 February 2009.

References

Touring

Duffy in live performance

Her first American performances took place at the SXSW conference, and the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival was her first festival gig. The Coachella performance started off with sound problems but she "delighted the crowd with 'Rockferry', 'Serious', 'Warwick Avenue' and 'Mercy'." To coincide with the release of Rockferry Duffy performed at the Apollo Theater in New York City Duffy commented "Every time I'm in America, I feel there's some atmosphere -- I can't put my finger on it -- but there's some excitement that exists nowhere else. And I think it's because soul music, black music, is basically what started pop music".

Duffy has played a number of festivals in Europe, including the Vieilles Charrues Festival in France, the Hove Festival in Norway the Accelerator Festival in Sweden, Glastonbury and Evolution Festival's in England, the Electric Picnic festival in Ireland, Connect Festival in Scotland on Sunday 31 August, Wakestock in her native Wales, the V Festival on 16 August and the Roskilde Festival in Denmark.

In North America she has performed at Lollapalooza on 1 August in Chicago and the All Points West Music and Arts Festival at Liberty State Park, on the 8 August. She played the Virgin Mobile Festival at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore on 10 August. On 3 September Duffy played an intimate club gig and then answered questions at New York's China Club.

On television, Duffy performed on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, The Late Show With David Letterman, Saturday Night Live, and Austin City Limits. Her 45 minute concert at an East End of London church was aired on BBC1 on 12 October. During the show she performed a new song "Rain on Your Parade". On the 28 October Duffy sang "Stepping Stone" on The View. The singer became star struck when she was interviewed by co-host Whoopi Goldberg.

Duffy played a fourteen-city North American tour. Plans had called for her to open for Coldplay on six of the dates. A performance at the Quicken Loans Arena left The Cleveland Leader to wonder why Duffy was not the headlining act. Duffy is using the tour to test new songs including "Rain On Your Parade" and "Fool For You".

Duffy accidentally set the entire left side of her hair on fire in a Cleveland dressing room. The incident occurred when after blowing out a candle that was melting she bent down not realizing the candle was still lit. The incident caused her more embarrassment than harm. At New York's Webster Hall, Duffy apologized to the audience after briefly bursting in to tears. Duffy explained this happens in one out of every 15 of her shows when she feels exposed for reasons she does not understand.

Duffy toured the United Kingdom and Ireland during November and December 2008. She performed at the Live In London concert at the O2 Arena on 26 November. Duffy was quoted in a British tabloid as saying she is proud to represent the British Music Scene abroad and to explain that Great Britain encompasses more than London.

In December 2008, Duffy was among several singers who performed for Prince Charles, and his wife Camilla, The Duchess of Cornwall, at the London Palladium for the 80th anniversary Royal Variety Performance. On 20 December she performed on the final of the BBC television show Strictly Come Dancing and on the 2008 editions of Jools Holland's New Year's Eve Show and the Top of The Pops Christmas special.

In February 2009 Duffy performed on United States talk shows Rachael Ray, The Tonight Show With Jay Leno
as well as Austin City Limits and the 2009 Brit Awards.

Duffy performed at a BBC sponsored Children in Need benefit concert, singing her new single Rain on your parade and Mercy.

On 2 April Duffy performed at the V Festival in Melbourne, Australia.

References

Future projects

As of August 2008, Duffy with several other artists were working on the soundtrack to an upcoming independent film about the British northern soul scene of the early 1970s entitled Souled Out.

According to Duffy's website the singer will tour Japan in 2009.

Duffy has been confirmed to perform at the SOS 4.8 48 hour Music Festival on 1 May.

Duffy plans to begin work on her second album later in 2009.

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