Emeli Sandé

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Emeli Sandé

We've heard you guesting with a lot of people on songs in recent years, including Professor Green, Wiley and Chipmunk. Has it felt like a long wait to release your own album?
Emeli Sandé: I can't wait! I just want it out! I'm really lucky that I've had these past three years to be in the background and feature on a few things and to see what it's like from them [other singers]. I feel a lot more prepared than if I had tried to come out with an album two or three years ago.

You grew up in a small village in rural Scotland called Alford and wrote your first song aged 11. In that environment, did having a career in music seem like an impossible dream?
ES: No, it didn't; that's the weird thing. When I look back, I always knew I was going to do it. I had no idea how I'd get to London - how I'd do anything - but I was definitely going to be a singer. I was always very confident - even as a kid. 'A lot of people will hear this song,' I always told myself. And I had no idea how.

So, if music was the goal, how did you end up studying medicine for four years?
ES: I was a real geek in school! I loved science, not as much as music, but I did love doing well in school. My dad was a teacher in the school as well so there was no mucking around! I loved academia and I knew I wanted to get a degree and I thought, 'What is more challenging than medicine?' I always knew I wanted to be a musician, but I loved the challenge of medicine.

While in med school, you used to play piano and sing in hotel bars. Did the experience stand to you?
ES: Absolutely. If you haven't done gigs where no-one's listening... You need to get a properly thick skin if you're going to be a musician. I think if you've gone straight from, like, I don't know, winning the X Factor and you're doing these arenas and it's great... That worries me a little bit. When I do gigs now, I appreciate that people are listening and that people want to hear stuff and how to speak to a crowd because I've been through people not listening and doing crappy little clubs and all the rest of it. I think it must count for something.

When was the moment that you decided to leave medicine?
ES: I think it was just seeing the med students that had dreamt of being a doctor since they were four: I knew I didn't have that in me. I knew, 'Yeah, I could be a good doctor and I could do this...' but I saw how passionate they were and how hard they worked and I knew that's how I felt about music. It was seeing that and then the song I did with Chipmunk [Diamond Rings] got into the Top 10...

Did you have any doubts that your music career might not work out?
ES: When I was studying medicine, it did get to a point of, 'Medicine's so secure and music's a big risk...' You get those little thoughts in your head but there's always something that says, 'No, you love music; you need to go for it'. I've been lucky to have people around me that really believed in me and whenever I did start doubting they'd say, 'Shut up!'

Once you started working on music full-time, was the reality of the business completely different to your expectations?
ES: I've always been pretty realistic about it. I never went into the music industry with romantic thoughts. There's a lot more politics in the business than I expected, even in the songwriters' world. It's in everything - you get it in the medical world, you get it in life. You just learn to deal with that. You get to do music for a living - that's all I really dreamt of doing and that's still the dream for me.

What would be your advice to kids who want to pursue a career in music - or their parents?
ES: It depends what kind of music they want to do. If they want to be orchestral musicians, I guess they need to focus on the music pretty hardcore! I would say don't be in a rush: if you're good at what you do people will always want to hear it. Get life experience. Learn your craft would be the biggest thing, I'd say. Learn what you're doing before you get involved in the industry, because you need to be confident about who you are and what you want to deliver.

You've written for the likes of Susan Boyle, Cheryl Cole and The Saturdays. When you're writing songs for other people, is it a wrench giving them 'away'?
ES: When someone would say, 'Will you write a song for Susan Boyle?' [I say] 'Ok, let's put this together'. But other times you just write a whole bunch of great songs and you think, 'So and so would sound good doing this'. But usually when I write a song that I love, I'm like, 'This is mine!' I'll have my pile, and then you have a pile for other people!

How would you define success for Our Version of Events?
ES: It's tough, because obviously I'd want commercial success and for it to do well in the charts, but I really just want to release it. I just want people to connect with it. It would be great if it did well in the charts, but I'd just love for the songs to be timeless. That's my main focus when I write anything: 'I want this song to last a very, very long time'. If I get an indication that songs will last longer than a year, then that's successful to me. What more could you ask for?

Our Version of Events is out now on Virgin.