Jan 31: Today's Telegraph Article

Backpacking Duffy rocks Sydney
By Kathy McCabe, The Telegraph

LONG before she helped to usher in the new soul wave, hit the top of the British charts or scored Grammy nominations, Welsh singer Duffy played the Sydney Hilton's Marble Bar.

One of the hottest new artists to burst onto the world stage last year with her debut single Mercy revealed yesterday she made her Australian performance debut a couple of years ago as a backpacker.

But when she returns in March to play songs from her acclaimed album Rockferry, it will be at the Sydney Opera House and V Festival.

"Actually my first gig ever was here in the Hilton about two years ago,'' she said yesterday, relaxing in the hotel's Zeta Bar.

"I was out here for three weeks visiting my sisters and that bar really kicks. I remember getting on stage with this band who had a Spanish girl singing and five gorgeous guys and I did an Aretha Franklin number, I think.

"It was so much fun and we stayed there until the early hours of the morning.

"Although now I have a big rule about that; you never rain on someone else's parade.''

Before she returns to Australia in March, the assured soulstress will be a fixture on the red carpet at the world's big music awards nights.

Duffy is up for three Grammys in Los Angeles on February 8 and four Brit Awards in London on February 18.

Tickets for her Sydney opera House show on March 26 and the V festival in Centennial Park on March 28.