E S T E L L E
 Estelle Unimpressed By Groupies
Date added: July 26, 2008
British rapper/singer Estelle never gives out her number to groupies - because they use idiotic chat-up lines. The American Boy singer has enjoyed a surge in male attention since releasing her hit second LP Shine - which she recorded in the U.S. with the help of R+B heavyweight John Legend and Kanye West. And the star admits that when she is back in her native U.K. she is often bombarded by guys trying to get a date. She says, "They'll come out and say, 'Yeah babe I really respect you.' Then they're also like, 'The beautiful Estelle', and I'm like, 'Euh, what do you want?' And they'll go, 'I have seen you a lot...' And I'm like, 'Because I'm a rapper and a singer and I'm on TV?'" She adds, "It's funny. I'm like, 'Yeah cool, nice to meet you. You don't need my number. You really don't. I don't have a U.K. phone. I don't live here anyway.'"

 Estelle: 'I'm the Female Version of Jay-Z'
Date added: July 26, 2008
Estelle reckons she's the "female version" of Jay-Z; and says that having one of her songs sampled by the rapper helped her realize she'd made it as an artist. The British songstress -- who worked with Kanye West on her smash hit single American Boy -- was on cloud nine after the '99 Problems' hitmaker used her work. She says, "I am the female version of Jay-Z. And I thought, 'When Jay-Z knows who I am, when he wants to work with me, then I'll have made it.' "Everyone else could go to hell." Estelle recently said she was "blessed" to have had the chance to work with Kanye on American Boy. She revealed, "I'm blessed. I definitely believe in fate, there’s just no other way to explain what happened, just to bump straight in to Kanye West. "I don’t know how else it would have worked. I'd had a nice little build up and then it all went downhill. I still would have been doing music, but not like this."

 Estelle set to shine bright
Date added: July 26, 2008
Estelle may sing about an American Boy but she insists she is not dating record label boss John Legend. The Brit singer, who this week was announced as one of the Nationwide Mercury Prize nominees, is angry at the rumours. The 28-year old blasted: "Stop insulting me with that. It's like I couldn't have got where I am because I do good work? "You lot have seen me hustle and struggle, so if someone comes along and is appreciative of my talent, guy or girl... I'm supposed to sleep with them? "We're good friends and that's as far as it goes. "Have respect for me and for him because, obviously, he wouldn't have signed me if I was sleeping with him. "Not a lot of groupies get signed. To me that's borderline disrespectful. He appreciates my talent." After a decade trying to make it, Estelle scored a number one with American Boy this year featuring Kanye West and her second album Shine went top 10. While singing about an American Boy it seems she's still single. "Yeah," she sighs, "I get a lot of guys talking about 'you're too this, you're too that' and I haven't got the energy. "I say to them, 'I have four day jobs at any one given time. If you're gonna be my fifth you need to step up.'" Now that the follow-up to her 2004 debut The 18th Day has made her a UK star, she reveals she gets male groupies she calls 'He-Hoes'. She laughed: "They'll come out and say, 'Yeah babe I really respect you.' Then they're also like, 'The beautiful Estelle' and I'm like, 'Erh what do you want?' And they'll go on, 'I have seen you a lot...' and I'm like, 'Because I'm a rapper and a singer and I'm on TV?' "It's funny. I'm like, 'Yeah cool, nice to meet you. You don't need my number. You really don't. I don't have a UK phone. I don't live here anyway.'" While she's too busy for men, her success has been cemented with Shine's nomination for the Nationwide Mercury Prize - seen as a list of the best Brit albums of the last 12 months. The 12-strong nominees include Radiohead's In Rainbows, The Last Shadow Puppet's The Age Of The Understatement, Adele's 19, Elbow's The Seldom Seen Kid, British Sea Powers' Do You Like Rock Music?, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss's Raising Sand, Burial's Untrue, Laura Marling's Alas, I Cannot Swim, Neon Neon's Stainless Style, Rachel Unthank and The Winterset's The Bairns and Portico Quartet's Knee Deep In The North Sea. While some hope for a cat fight between Estelle and Adele, after Estelle claimed Adele "ain't soul", the singer isn't thinking of problems at the ceremony in London on September 9. She said: "It feels really great. "I'm happy that, after all the feeling and hard work that went into this album, people love it. "I feel Blessed." With another top 30 hit, No Substitute Love, and a new single Pretty Please out on September 15, it would be no surprise if Estelle put two fingers up to the doubters who thought her career was over when The 18th Day tanked. But Estelle claims she didn't go out to prove to anyone that she could make it. She explained: "That was never my aim. If that was my aim, I wouldn't be here. "My aim has always been to make music that I can listen to in 10 and 15 years time. "I don't give a damn about what they say because, at the end of the day, none of them pay my bills. "None of them look after me when I'm sick or buy my records anyway. "I worry about making music that can be classed in the same vein as Burt Bacharach or Gershwin or Ella Fitzgerald, you know what I'm saying? "I don't care about the haters. You're like this." The singer drops her hand to the ground. "You're not this much, your nothing to me." With a number one single and a Mercury Prize nomination, Estelle has one big shining A for attitude.

 Estelle's real-life romantic troubles
Date added: July 10, 2008
British artist Estelle, who recently introduced herself to American audiences with the buzz-heavy single "American Boy" featuring Kanye West, credits four years of crazy men and another four years in a rocky relationship as the catalyst behind her U.S. debut disc, "Shine. The album "was kick-started by me dumping my boyfriend," she said. "Part of the crazy was me, so I had to get over myself, and get out of my own way. The other half of the crazy was like 'No, it's you. You're crazy!' " Estelle then cracked open her notebook and lyrically chronicled her real-life dealings with men: "Straight down, every song is a guy -- a situation I went through." The 28-year-old grew up listening to Mary J. Blige, and calls Pepa of rap duo Salt 'n Pepa one of her greatest influences. She harnesses the soulfulness of the first in her singing, and exudes the tough girl stance of the second in her rhymes -- switching from one style to the other with ease. Estelle calls her on-stage persona "Audrey Pepa" -- a character that embodies the elegance of Audrey Hepburn and the realness of the rapper. Her fashion sense is just as two-sided -- she names Edie Sedgewick and Grace Jones as her fashion icons. While some draw a line between their music and private lives, Estelle unabashedly connects those dots. She said her creative process requires recording "whatever comes out my face." "It doesn't have to be 20 different colors and tribal sounds to be 'Wow,' " she said, referring to advice given to her by crooner, friend and collaborator John Legend, who signed her to his HomeSchool Records label. "She's not trying to be like Amy Winehouse. She's not trying to be like any of these other kind of retro-soul artists that are coming out of Britain," Legend said. "The only reason people are comparing them is because they're all from England." Estelle's first album, "18th Day," was released in Europe in 2004. She now lives in New York City, and says she hasn't yet found her American boy, U.K. boy or any other boy for that matter. She's playing the field these days, and laughed about trying not to check out other guys while on dates. "I'm on a mission to keep my head straight believing that I'm not crazy."

 Estelle: 'Brit boys are terrified of me'
Date added: July 10, 2008
Estelle's feisty attitude scares off prospective suitors - and leaves English men terrified of asking her out on a date. The rapper/singer, who moved to New York to further her music career, fears she will never have with a British boyfriend because of her straight talking approach. And the star says it doesn't matter how tough they act - she can detect their terror just by looking at them. She says, "Guys here (England) are scared of me. They may deny it but when I look in their eyes I see the fear."

 Grammys midway Part 1: Estelle
Date added: July 7, 2008
Estelle: No, not a new artist, per say, but Grammy isn't one to get technical on that fact. Estelle's "Shine" was her second album, but first to get a push in the U.S., and the British R&B singer has a fast-rising song with the swift "American Boy" featuring Kanye West.

Grammy potential: Estelle should be the type of artist Grammy voters love. Her fresh take on R&B spans genres, from the reggae bump of "Come Over" to the jazzy inflections of "Wait a Minute (Just a Touch)" to the retro timelessness of "No Substitute Love." Estelle's more inventive than 2006 best new artist nominee Chris Brown, and just as elegant as 2005 best new artist winner John Legend, who also, by the way, guests on "Shine." Although her association with Chicago's West might bring out the Kanye West Grammy Curse (lots of nominations, no pop wins).

Grammy deserving: Absolutely. See all the reasons above. Read more.

 Estelle bigs up Jay-Z at Glastonbury
Date added: July 1, 2008
Estelle thanked Jay-Z during her set on the Jazz World Stage at Glastonbury tonight (June 27). The chart-topping star gave praise to the rapper for covering her Number One hit 'American Boy' during his gig in Dublin last night (June 26). "I thought mad things when I heard Jigga playing my song last night," she told the crowd. "I gotta pay tribute to Jay-Z." Jay-Z headlines the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury tomorrow (June 28). The star inspired mass dancing and clapping during her hour-long set, which featured '1980' and 'No Substitute Love', and introduced most songs as being written about former boyfriends. Closing the set with 'American Boy', she thanked the crowd for taking the track to Number One in the UK. Keep up with all the action from Glastonbury this weekend (June 27-29) as it happens on NME.COM. For news, pictures and blogs keep checking the NME.COM's Glastonbury Festival page. Plus make sure you get next week's issue of NME – on UK newsstands from July 2 – for the ultimate Glastonbury review.

 Estelle's Kanye boredom
Date added: July 1, 2008
Estelle is tired of talking about Kanye West. The British singer - who teamed up with the 'Diamonds from Sierra Leone' rapper on her hit single 'American Boy' - says she is fed up of having to relate the story of how they met. Speaking to music website PopJustice, Estelle hit out: "I feel like sometimes people haven't read the script, they're still asking me about Kanye. I'm like, 'OK, I know you've read the press cuttings - so please don't ask me how I met Kanye again'." Estelle's career took off after a chance encounter with Kanye in a waffle house led to an introduction to John Legend, who helped her get back on track after she was dropped by her record label. Yet Estelle still believes she would have met the singer-and-producer even if she hadn't met Kanye. She added: "I'd probably be where I am. I'd have met John Legend some other way - I feel like I would have met him somehow. Regardless of Kanye there's too many other people who are connected to John for me not to have met him. "If something's mean to happen, it will."

 Jay-Z Calls On Estelle
Date added: July 1, 2008
Jay-Z used samples of songs by Estelle, Rihanna and Michael Jackson as he closed day one of the Wireless Festival in London last night (July 3rd).Making his second headlining appearance at a festival in under a week, following his controversial performance at Glastonbury, the rapper treated 30,000 fans and a host of celebrities in Hyde Park to a set laden with his greatest hits. After arriving on stage nearly half-an-hour later than scheduled, Jay-Z was relentless, launching into songs including '99 Problems' – which featured the riff from AC/DC's 'Back In Black' – and 'Is That Your Bitch', which morphed into The Prodigy's 'Smack My Bitch Up'. He also drew a rapturous response from the crowd when he rapped along to Amy Winehouse's 'Rehab'. Although the night was fine weather-wise, the crowd were forced to put up their umbrellas half-way through the rapper's set as he rapped over Rihanna's 'Umbrella', a song which he co-wrote. As Jay-Z's set continued the hits kept coming with the rapper's own songs 'Izzo (HOVA)' and 'Girls, Girls, Girls' sounding in their natural environment alongside covers of Estelle's 'American Boy' and Panjabi MC's 'Mundian to Bach Ke'.

 Estelle at Shepherds Bush Empire, W12
Date added: June 30, 2008
Pausing to address the audience for the first time, Estelle announced: “I've got s*** to get off my chest.” Although only ten minutes of her London show had elapsed, the choice of words was unfortunate. As she struggled to contain herself in a black strapless dress, it had already become clear that keeping something - anything - on her chest might be the greatest short-term challenge facing her. But then, Estelle Swaray isn't averse to challenges. A year ago the notion that the singer - who scored an isolated hit four years ago with the autobiographical 1980 - might have spent a month at No1 this year would have seemed implausible. Still less that the song in question - American Boy - would have had Kanye West providing a cameo role. The US may have taken to the 28-year-old West Londoner, but the relatives crowding the balcony above Estelle served as a reminder that this is still where her home and much of her inspiration lies. Assisted by an assured band performance, Magnificent exhibited all the qualities that make Estelle, at her best, such an attractive pop proposition right now. Fossilising soul, pop and Jamaican dancehall into one single source of fuel, the singer projected a charisma that acknowledged where she came from while, at the same time, transcending it. For one fan, who leapt onstage for Hey You, it was all too much. Estelle invited him to dance. For a moment forgetting the onlookers - including one uncontainably excited woman with a luminous foghorn - he even rested a hand on the back of her leg. From here on Estelle could have done worse than sing the whole of her current Shine album. But after six songs she handed over to her DJ, who played records while Estelle's band danced to them and the headliner had a 15-minute breather. When she returned Estelle had changed into another dress, but her ability to stamp her presence on this homecoming show seemed slowly to slip away. When the time came to sing Shine, she did so with the declaration: “I still get PMT.” Was this an assurance that fame hadn't changed her or merely an excuse? Whatever, on the inevitable climax of American Boy Estelle had - like the woman with the foghorn - run out of puff.

 Estelle - No Substitute Love (Homeschool)
Date added: June 30, 2008
There comes a point in any hack's career when the very sight of another cover version of George Michael's Faith in the singles pile is enough to make you melt the week's offerings into shiny ashtrays. Estelle's technique then, is a wise one: sneak it in when the aforementioned hack is looking in another direction and her head is locked in an infectious bob to some smooth a cappella R&B. In short, after she's already impressed. Then there it is, manipulated and reworked between genuine slices of Motown soul and delivered in Estelle's Laaaaandon purr (think Adele singing something by Mary J Blige). Surprisingly though, it doesn't jar. Instead, it's woven neatly into a summery torch song that's made all the more interesting by the many hats Estelle adopts: soul, reggae, hip-hop, No Substitute Love has really got it all. Released on June 30.




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