Her single Chasing Pavements and her album '19' - named in honour of her tender age - have
piled up the plaudits
as rapidly as they shifted units ('19' is already well on its way to going gold). Her prodigious voice, with all its soulful, world-weary yet life-affirming ardour, had her booked on Later... with Jools Holland as a virtual unknown (we're talking the morning after her latest appearance on Holland's new live show: 'It's got a special place in my heart, has Later...,' she says, breathlessly, 'because, since I was four, my mum always allowed me to stay up and watch it on Friday nights'). Superstar rapper Kanye West posted the video to Chasing Pavements on his blog, with the comment: 'This shit is dope!!!!!!!' Beyonce has lauded her enthusiastically, if vaguely, as 'the new British singer'. Later this year, she's heading off on a sell-out UK tour. Only
Estelle
, who also performed on the previous night's Later, has so far spoilt the party, saying that the new breed of soul diva in general, and Adele and Duffy in particular, are 'not soul', adding, for good third-person-singular measure, 'nothing to do with Estelle's world'.