Back to Scotland and why finishing her medical degree is still a possibility
Music was always on my mind, not studying. So I do think it’d be cool to go back to uni
And she reckons there is nowhere better for the academic life.
“Glasgow was the perfect city to be a student in. People were open and you could make friends at a bus stop. “Even when I was in med school and you’d go round the hospitals people had such a positive outlook and you could have conversations.
“London is such a fast, ambitious city and I miss Glasgow’s openness.”
Emeli’s rise was stratospheric, with 2012 debut album Our Version of Events selling over two million copies. She released her second, Long Live the Angels, in 2016.
Her singles Read All About It, with Professor Green, and her duet with Labrinth on Beneath Your Beautiful both went to number one.
Now Emeli is burning the midnight oil to complete her new album.
“I’ve built a studio in my house which has allowed me to work around the clock. Sometimes it’s after midnight but I’ve found you can’t do too much of that otherwise you go a bit stir crazy.
“You do get inspired in the middle of the night, though, and that can be the idea you really need for the album.
“It’s cool having the studio there, not having to travel anywhere, and I’m living my dream at the moment. “I’ve been working on this album for the past four or five months and I’m hoping to get it out later this year,” she said.
That news will hopefully keep her dad happy – and Prince Charles “People are always asking about it,” she said. “My dad’s a teacher and he’s always telling me about how the kids want to know. And when Prince Charles was giving me my MBE, he was asking when the album was coming out.”
Following her early success, Emeli, who split from husband Adam Gouraguine in 2013, knows there is a level of expectation about her work.
“My record label has never really put pressure on me, but it is a business at the end of the day. There wasn’t really a formula with the first album, it just came from what I felt like saying. That’s really the only way I can approach the music.
“I feel like I’ve found my musical identity and I really feel comfortable with this. I’m just trying to make the best piece of work I can and hope it connects with people.” Receiving her MBE and performing before a global audience at the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2012 Olympics are among big moments Emeli looks back on with a mix of pride and wonderment.
So, too, was being invited to the White House to sing at a concert celebrating Carole King during the Obama presidency.
“I was literally a metre away from Barack and Michelle Obama and Carole King,” said Emeli. “And I was playing with some of Aretha Franklin’s original band. Thankfully it all went well, but it was lot to take in. It’s a day I’ll never, ever forget.” While Scotland brings peace and tranquillity, London affords an anonymity Emeli welcomes.
“I guess people don’t expect you to just be normal and use the Tube. I get ‘You look a bit like Emeli Sande’ a lot but it’s not a hassle. I told one guy who asked that, yes, it was me. He refused to believe me, asking why I was dressed like I was and why didn’t I have a bodyguard.” Although she’s passionately focused on her work, Emeli says she has another side.
“I think people might be surprised that I’m a lot funnier when I’m with my friends – at least I think I am – than when I’m really serious with my music.
“And I love watching cartoons. I’d rather watch them than anything.
“I’ve watched all the series of Bojack Horseman on Netflix about three times now.”
BBC Music presents The Biggest Weekend on BBC TV, radio and online, 25-28 May