Updated 03 July 2004, 16.12

Doing what she loves doing best

How would you describe the sound - a little bit like Pink?

Oh, that's interesting - that's the second time I've heard that - I wasn't inspired by Pink - at all - I hasten to add!

My musical tastes reach further bank than Pink - I was thinking of Lenny Kravitz and really old people like 'Sly and The Family Stone' who people might not have heard of!

You're now a really big star - but it hasn't come overnight - why do you think you're so successful now?

I think basically I've been doing what I'm doing for so long - people get me a bit more now!

It's that whole thing of starting really small - you play in a club to 10 men and a dog - and then the next album gets a bit bigger then the next album bigger still.

This is my fourth album and it really has got big - at that stage you get Will Young and people into my music - it's grown and grown and grown over the years and it's really cool.

Tell me a bit about this album.

My new album called Affirmation is an incredibly personal and at times intense album - it's really, really diverse - really wide reaching.

One minute it sounds quite rocky, the next R n B, then soul, then gospel - very, very diverse.

			Fact File
	Writing with Beverley
		Usually I start physically with the instruments
		Get a series of chords which sound nice and hang together well
		Then work up the whole idea for the riff working with the chords
		Then go away and write the lyrics and then, finished!

You co-wrote a lot of it with Robbie Williams' old writer!

Yeah, it was fun working with Guy Chambers - most people know him for doing a lot of the writing for Robbie's material so I thought Robbie, me and Robbie - poles apart! Let's find some common ground!

We're both musicians and writers and arrangers so it was really nice to bounce ideas off someone else!

What do you love most - performing or writing?

The most enjoyable is probably going out on stage followed by a very close second creating. Me at home with my piano and my lyric book, pencil behind my ear just creating! But live totally has the edge for me!

What do you think of other solo singers around at the moment, like Javine or Jamelia? Who is the next big soul star?

When I think of those particular artists I think of them as mainstream pop, doing really well and doing big things with that.

When I think of soul - really I think of people like Joss Stone coming up with soul traditions - with a long build and hopefully a long career ahead of her.

Who do you worry about pinching your crown?

I don't worry about those stars that are "really big now" They may be big now but sadly for them it usually only lasts one, two, maybe three years.

I feel sorry for people who enter the business in a big bang cos often it fizzles out very quickly. The best way forward - certainly with my career was that I built it up slowly but surely.

Beverley's interview with Lizzie is on NR Showbiz at 9.50am and 3.50pm on Sunday 4 July on the CBBC channel

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