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I grew up with music in the house. I was told I could sing as soon as I started talking. Everybody in my family sang, always lots of records, blues and jazz and soul, R&B, you know, like Mahalia Jackson, Aretha Franklin, Coltrane, that kind of thing.

I was the youngest of three kids, and from the age of four, singing was my way of getting attention.

When I was 3 or 4, I seemed to be bursting with music. They played Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, Frank Sinatra in the house, so I learned my vocabulary from song lyrics - I was literally singing before I was talking.

I started singing in church and I was probably around seven and I started singing anywhere that I could. I used to sing at my school. I was in musicals and then it kind of got to a point where I started to - wanted to do my own songs.

I have been tied up with music for about as long as I can remember. By the time I was four I was picking out little tunes my mother played on the reed organ in the living-room.

When I was little, there were so many people in my house. Everyone was enjoying themselves, rehearsing, having fun. It was like a playground.

I discovered at the age of five that I could sing, and I realised people liked it. The sound that came out made people happy, so I kept doing it.

My mother played piano so we always had music around the house.

My mother was a singer, and both of her sisters were singers. There was always music around.

I started out when I was about 12, playing drums. I started singing when I was about 15.