The old soul in Duffy

HONG KONG — It’s not unusual for a 24-year-old to sing about sexual liberation the way Welsh singer-songwriter Duffy does in her hit song Mercy.

What’s unusual is for a 24-year-old to talk about life as if she has been there, done that for the past 60 years. Neither fame nor fortune can change Duffy’s belief that she can please some people some of the time, but she can’t please all the people all the time.

“That’s life,” she muses. “Just imagine how hard it would be if everybody liked the same thing. It’s nice to have colors, shadows and shapes! And you can’t carry the burden of everyone else.”

If you read between the lines, it’s also nice to face dissent, or criticism, even controversy, for your work. This makes Duffy shock-proof in the face of people who disagree with her and her work.

“Controversy is a good thing,” she declares. “It’s exciting. If half of the people hate what I do and the other half like it, that’s a great combination! I get a kick out of that.”

So far though, more and more people are getting a kick out of this Grammy winner (Best Pop Vocal Album for Rockferry) and her songs.

Rockferry, her debut album, entered the UK Album Chart at No. 1, making it the best-selling album in the UK last year. The album has been in the Top 100 on the Billboards Euro Albums chart for 34 straight weeks. It reached gold status in China, with Dandan Liang, assistant marketing manager, Universal China, giving Duffy her award a few hours before her concert at Asiaworld-Arena, Hong Kong. Worldwide, Rockferry has sold over 5.5 million copies.

It also got the critics talking. Aside from the Grammy, Rockferry won for Duffy three Brit Awards: The British Breakthrough, Best Female Solo and Best British Album.

Rockferry, named after the place where Duffy’s grandmother lives, didn’t pop out of record outlets the way instant noodles is served in fast-food stores. It took almost four years to finish.

Only goes to show Duffy is the kind of artist who won’t hurry an album just to get things done.

“I just focus on good music. And if I’m smart about it, I’ll stay on (in the industry),” she relates.

The album, released in the Philippines under MCA Music, Inc., shows an old soul who takes pride in having friends more than three decades older than she is.

For Duffy, it’s a blessing as much as it is a curse.

“I have a lot of older friends,” she reveals. “I’m lucky to have them. But I hope I don’t lose them. I have twice my life ahead of me compared to them.”

These more senior influences are serving Duffy well. Musically, her love for Diana Ross, Michael Jackson and Madonna has put an old-world vibe into her songs. Rockferry’s Rain on Your Parade and Fool For Love, for instance, are as retro as you can get. They make you want to sway and swing the way ‘50s music fans did.

“I’m old school,” Duffy admits.

And a fast learner in the school of life as well. Stepping Stone, another track in Rockferry, cautions against expressing feelings to a person you’ve fallen in love with.

If she’s cynical about showing her feelings, it could be because Duffy has been through a stage where she felt used.

In her teens and raring to be a pop star, she felt that others used her “as a vehicle for their vision, not mine.” Since then, she learned her lesson. Duffy vowed to make music to please herself first. If it pleases others, well and good. That would be a bonus.

“In history, you have so many rules,” she observes. Duffy thinks that’s where the danger lies.

“After 20 years, you might find out that you missed out on everything in listening to so many rules,” Duffy the free spirit warns.

This aversion to rules makes Duffy insist that she’s not the new Amy Winehouse or Dusty Springfield, as others believe she is.

“Nobody is replaceable,” Duffy explains.

So she’d rather make her own sound, write her own music and refuse to rest on her laurels. Duffy cannot pinpoint just what her future sound and music will be, though.

“I can’t classify or pigeonhole my music,” she reasons out. “Soul is a beautiful genre. But it’s wrong to say I’m a soul singer because I don’t know where I’m going. It’s just like saying this girl will marry at 30 or she’ll end up a nurse.”

The world of music may have started beckoning for Duffy. But she’s not entering it with eyes closed, head giddy with all the fame and fortune her music is bringing her. Duffy knows now’s not the time to be complacent. She has more songs to sing, more melodies to write.

And, just like the six-year-old girl with a notebook of scribbled lyrics that she was back in North Wales, Duffy will again look within. She will plumb the depths of her thousand and one emotions for inspiration.

After all, if she grew up a singer-songwriter in a remote coastal community where Top 40 hits were unheard of, and the first songs she heard were the Beatles, the Stone and My Boy Lollipop. She grew up away from Billboard charts. Most importantly, she grew up with her own sense of musical identity.

These will see Duffy through changing musical tastes and genres.

Rockferry is just the beginning. There will be more albums to come, more places to hold musical tours in. And Duffy is ready for them.