Quotes

"I know I should keep this a secret, but Céline Dion is something of an icon to me".

On who she'd like to be stranded on a desert island with: "I'd say Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin. They come across as lovely - so warm, so bright and so talented. I imagine that we'd have great chats. And, if we ever ran out of things to say to each other, I could sing and write songs with Chris Martin, and play charades with Gwyneth. I reckon that they would both be good at strategies and tips for survival as well, which could obviously come in handy if we got stuck there for a long time".

I don't want to be the next anyone. I just want to be me, now. And that means all different things.

A lot of my songs are about taking whatever life throws at you and making the most of it.

[on performing a tribute to Donna Summer at the 2012 Grammy Awards, just 3 days after Summer's death from cancer] I was very emotional out there because I knew Donna Summer and we didn't know she was ill. It was so precious to me. It felt so important to me that we should honour her. She was a very kind woman... and she brought love and light to people.

[2004] Although I don't smoke I find that just being in smoky atmospheres affects my voice. I've never tried it - it's just not attractive to me.

[2004] [You abandoned a psychology degree to sing. Are you a thinking person's pop star?] I like music that's intelligent, which means something. But I'm also a heart person. I started the degree but quit halfway through because my heart was in music. However, the psychology aspect helped me to write deeper lyrics. So I guess that's a yes.

I've titled the album Strip Me because it's about stripping down who we are as humans. We're united about our needs, our desires and our pain, all the different things we go through together. Strip Me felt like it explains what the songs are about more than any other title I could think of. So it has a double meaning, but I think people kind of know me enough to know what I mean by it.

[describing her album Strip Me] The next level from what I've already done... It's just more vibrant and exciting. And I can't wait for people to hear it.