Duffy

(UK)
soul, pop, R&B

Charming the whole world with her fresh debut album Rockferry, the Welsh chanteuse is a heady combination of the pop-soul of British singers, like Petula Clark or Dusty Springfield, and the bluesy deep soul of Americans, like Ann Peebles and Irma Thomas.

Rarely has any artist’s first album floored people like Duffy’s Rockferry, from which the Finnish radio stations have mostly played the second single Mercy – a faster and more modern sounding number compared to the other tracks that include gems, like Rockferry, Stepping Stone, Distant Dreamer and the blood-stoppingly sparse and moody Hanging On Too Long.

Like Amy Winehouse, the 25 year old Aimee Ann Duffy, who grew up in Nefyn, North Wales, speaking the ancient kymr (she has even recorded in Welsh), is also a clear sign that the uncut and un-processed old school soulfulness reaches, once again, people in a big way.