Duffy releases first music since rape ordeal reveal
● Song called Something Beautiful played on Radio 2
A new song by Duffy has played on BBC Radio 2 just weeks after the singer explained why she had disappeared from the public eye for several years.
Last month Duffy, 35, said she had previously been “raped, drugged and held captive” for several days.
The Welsh singer added that many of her fans “wonder what happened to me, where did I disappear to and why”.
Her new song, titled Something Beautiful, was played by presenter Jo Whiley on Thursday evening.
Whiley said that Duffy had written to the show to send in the track.
According to Whiley, the message said: “You might have read the words I wrote a few weeks back, I do feel freer.
“I tried to follow it up with a spoken interview, but it is harder than I thought. I will follow up in writing soon.”
The email added: “It is just something for you to play people on the radio during these troubling times, if you like the song of course. If it lifts spirits.
“I don’t plan to release it, I just thought it is something that might be nice for people if they are home, if they are on lockdown.”
When Duffy shared the message with fans on Instagram last month, she said that following the incident her “recovery took time”, but added that she is “OK and safe now”.
She wrote: “The truth is, and please trust me I am OK and safe now, I was raped and drugged and held captive over some days.
“Of course I survived. The recovery took time. There’s no light way to say it.
“But I can tell you in the last decade, the thousands and thousands of days I committed to wanting to feel the sunshine in my heart again, the sun does now shine.”
Duffy last released an album in 2010 with Endlessly.
She briefly re-emerged with a cameo role in the 2015 film Legend and two songs on the soundtrack. Those tunes were covers of songs by Willie Nelson and Hank Cochran rather than originals. Duffy’s 2008 debut album Rockferry was sensationally successful.
Powered by the chart-topping single Mercy and the ballad Warwick Avenue, which peaked at No.3 in the British charts, it became the UK’S biggest selling album that year.
She went on to win three Brit awards for the album.
Rockferry eventually sold over nine million copies worldwide and was a hit in the US, reaching the top five and winning a Grammy.
In a 2011 interview with Marie Claire, Duffy had noted how her musical heroes were victims of tragedy.