Histrionics? Not my style at all

There is a battle for this week’s No 1 album but since it is Dido Florian Cloud de Bounevialle Armstrong hoping to keep Leona Lewis at bay, it is a typically low-key affair. Only James Blunt attracts similar derision to this “Bridget Jones with a guitar”, who has sold 21 million albums of unfussy, introspective pop. Safe Trip Home, her third album, is no great departure from the 2001 breakthrough of No Angel, although the death of her father in 2006 has darkened the mood.

The Islington girl, 36, who dabbled with law before finding global chart success when Eminem sampled her vocal for Stan, is happy dwelling in Los Angeles, where she takes UCLA English Lit classes unhindered. Her songs of love and loss resonate with a largely female audience, much to their boyfriends’ irritation.

“I don’t want to get histrionic when I’m singing,” she says. “For me that’s just not interesting.”

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