How Emeli Sandé went from serious kid to neuroscientist to a singing smash

Emeli Sandé wanted to be a Spice Girl when she grew up. “They took over my childhood,” she laughs. “We had Spice Girl games in the playground. I was always Mel B, cos that was Scotland, I was the only black kid. I had leopard skin leggings ready to roll any time we were doing a talent show.”

It is, frankly, hard to imagine Sandé in tights singing “zigazig-a!” The singer, who applies powerhouse vocals to emotional songs that are a blend of gospel, hip hop and soul, cuts quite an imperious figure on stage, with her huge sculpted hairdo and flowing designer dresses.

In person, though, it’s a different story. She is smiley and soft spoken, dressed down in baggy grey sweats, her untended hair emerging in a tangle of unruly blonde curls barely constrained by a hairband. She is simultaneously reserved yet friendly, articulate without being effusive, keeping the mood light with a lot of laughter, as if she finds the whole interview situation slightly absurd. “I’m still very shy when it comes to talking to people,” she insists, with the lightest Scottish lilt. “I like to be on my own, I like to make music and perform it. That’s about as far as it goes.”

Sandé was born in Sunderland in 1987 to a Zambian father and English mother who met whilst studying. (Her given name is actually Adele Emily Sandé. She changed it in 2008, after the other Adele won the Brits Critics Choice award. “People kept ringing me saying you’ve won a Brit, it’s amazing, congratulations. I was like, ‘oh, it’s not me.’ I’d never even met another Adele before.”) The family moved to sion of Events,