Shining Bright - Estelle

Estelle has just completed a mini UK tour supporting Kanye West but responds like a giggly teenager at the drop of his name – she’s so content right now that she may not have had the time to take in quite how massive an achievement that very tour is. “Trendsetter, diva, visionary, nice person, musician” is how she’d described herself in five words or less (OK, she cheated a bit) – and when Gigwise speaks to the songstress, she comes across as all of these things and more.

In the past few years, West London-born Estelle Swaray uprooted to New York City, ditched her old label V2 Records and in the process has made a new album featuring what can only be described as the A-list. ‘Shine’, out at the end of February, features Kanye West, Swizz Beatz, Wyclef Jean, Will.i.am, Mark Ronson and Cee-Lo. And not only that, but she’s now signed to Homeschool, a newish label owned by John Legend, another collaborator and long-term fan. Legend himself describes her as “a unique blend of hip hop, pop, reggae and soul…a special voice”, and this is certainly ever true in her new material which sees her exercising her vocal chords through new foils, and creating a unique identity for herself as “a strong, pretty vulnerable woman that’s pretty much everybody”.

We chat to Estelle just after the penultimate night of her tour with Kanye to find out what she thinks of the tabloid press, what her influences are, and establish that she’d choose a book over a film, love over lust, and is non-committal when asked to choose between sight and sound, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, and the UK and the US.

On the fact that she’s being touted as a breakthrough artist so long after she first entered the scene, Estelle sees it as an opportunity rather than a misinterpretation: “I keep breaking through because they keep thinking that I’m done. Being the first rap girl to come through on a mass scale and then obviously doing it again in the US…no-one expected it to go there so they keep using ‘breakthrough’ which is cool.”

Touring with Kanye West has given Estelle a huge opportunity to get her name out there, and the artist certainly wasn’t daunted by playing large venues, despite being equally at home in small jazz cafés. In fact, this is her second large-scale tour, the first time around supporting John Legend. So how has she found the audiences? “The reception’s been amazing, I didn’t expect people to have a memory so good, to show as much love as they did the first time around… People are like ‘I wanna see you, I wanna hear you’… they came really early.”

Her debut album ‘The 18th Day’ was released in 2004 to widespread critical acclaim, and saw Estelle receive various tips for the top, which to an extent she achieved. Fickleness of the UK audience meant that her three-year hiatus left her forgotten, but she’s just released lead track and Will.i.am collaboration ‘Wait A Minute (Just A Touch)’, which is infectious, intense, immediate, and should lead to her being one of the biggest stars of 2008.  Estelle couldn’t be happier with her sound, and is extremely excited about the release of Shine in Febrary. “It’s completely recorded, ready, done. There’s so many great people on the album… I’m just so happy.” She reveals to Gigwise that the next single to be released will be ‘American Boy’, featuring Kanye West himself, and says that “it’s going to be hot next year.”