My family is still there but all my past is there too. Going home reminds me where I have come from, whoiam and what I am all about
Emeli Sande on life in London, coming
London is now her adopted home and the buzz of the Big Smoke fuels her energy and creativity.
But Emeli Sande admits the Scottish countryside where she grew up remains a bolthole, a haven from the capital’s hustle.
The singer’s parents and sister still live in Alford, Aberdeenshire, where she grew up and she loves nothing more than getting back to see them.
“I still feel such a pull,” said Emeli, 31, who is set to play BBC Music’s Biggest Weekend in Perth on Saturday. “We’re surrounded by countryside and it gives me so much peace.
“When it gets a bit too intense in London, I love having a Scottish getaway. It’s a very grounding place for me and helps me feel like myself again.” Sunderland-born Emeli, whose mum is English and dad is from Zambia, moved to Aberdeenshire aged four. And it doesn’t take her long to leave the bright lights behind and relive simpler childhood times.
“I definitely feel a lot of memories coming back when I’m there,” said Emeli. “It’s like I’m 13 again. I get the hunger back, the drive I had in wanting to pursue music and move to London to take risks.
“My school is there and the stage where I learned my craft, so it’s always a really good reminder for me.”
The Biggest Weekend takes in four sites in four countries – Belfast, Coventry, Perth and Swansea – over the late May Bank Holiday weekend. Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran are just two of the superstars appearing, with Emeli joined on the Scone Palace bill by Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Simple Minds and Amy Macdonald.
She’s hoping her parents make it, but isn’t sure about her sister Lucy, who is about to have a baby.
“I always want to make my mum and dad proud,” said the four-time Brit Award winner. “I’m always working and when I’m on stage it shows what I’ve been doing, so it’s important for me that they see that and enjoy the show.
“I know they get nervous beforehand, so I’m always happy when I look out and see they’re enjoying it.
“I was really chuffed to be asked. Radio 2 have shown so much support from the start of my career and getting back to be a part of it and share my music live was perfect.”
Emeli will be back performing in Scotland in just a few weeks as she’s the Sunday headliner at Fiesta x Fold on July 1.
It is being staged at Kelvingrove Park, in the shadow of the University of Glasgow where she studied medicine before taking up her music career. She was there between 2006 and 2009, leaving with a degree in neuroscience.
While it involved a lot of hard work, she says she may even fancy revisiting her uni days.
– Singer Emeli Sande
“I have two years to finish – it might be more as I’d have to revise – but I miss that level of focus and concentration,” said Emeli. “And sometimes I do miss the library, which is something I never thought I’d say. “Music is a big pull and was always on my mind, rather than studying.
“So it would be trying to get that balance right, but I do think it’d be cool to go back to uni.”