Music News
Duffy’s ‘Rockferry’ sales top 4 million as singer picks up three Grammy nominations
By Patrick Luce Dec 4, 2008, 12:05 GMT
Singer Duffy is having a good year. Her debut album, ‘Rockferry,’ has sold more than four million copies worldwide, and Duffy grabbed three Grammy Award nominations at Wednesday’s "The Grammy Nominations Concert Live!! — Countdown To Music's Biggest Night."
Duffy picked up nominations for Best New Artist, Best Pop Vocal Album, and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for “Mercy.”
‘Rockferry’ includes the hit singles “Mercy,” “Warwick Avenue,” and “Stepping Stone.” It was released on Mercury Records.
Duffy was voted Breakthrough Act Of the Year at the Q magazine awards in November, and just finished her major headline tour of North America - where she opened six major-market arena shows for Coldplay.
The singer also graced the cover of the August issue of SPIN Magazine and performed on Saturday Night Live, Ellen, The View, Regis & Kelly, CBS Early Show, Leno, Letterman, Conan, Ferguson and “Fashion Rocks” .
“Fashion Rocks” marked the launch of Duffy’s exclusive endorsement deal on behalf of Nivea’s line of Kiss lip-care products, and coincided with her appearance on the cover of Women’s Wear Daily that week.
Nivea’s campaign extends into 2009, encompassing massive print and television advertising, with “Mercy,” “Syrup and Honey” and “Oh Boy” featured prominently in all television spots.
In Addition, Clear Channel Online Music & Radio has supported Duffy from the beginning of her career, spotlighting her as Featured Artist in their NEW program and adding her to the roster of artists for their live performance series, Stripped. Duffy has also performed “The Interface” for AOL and is currently featured as Yahoo Who’s Next- Success Story. In addition Duffy was featured as a VH1 You Oughta Know artist for 6 months.
“Mercy” hit #1 on iTunes and Amazon, and was heard everywhere in 2008. The song appeared on the season finale of Grey’s Anatomy and on episodes of ER, Smallville, The Ghost Whisperer, The Hills, and American Gladiator.
COMMENT
blog comments powered by DisqusLatest Headlines in Music
- 1. Tegan & Sara to tour with The Black Keys in October
- 2. The Heavy back with ‘The Glorious Dead’ and U.S. tour
- 3. 2012 Billboard Music Awards Press Room Pictures
- 4. Rita Ora and Marina and the Diamonds Concert Pictures
- 5. Justin Bieber hits the road for North American Tour
Older Talkback
page: 1
To see Duffy live on stage at this point in her career (Oct. 24 at the Metropolis in Montreal) is to marvel at the beauty and wonder of crocuses and daffodils poking through the last vestiges of snow in the early spring. The seemingly fragile flowers are so obviously tenacious and not to be denied.
Duffy’s dignity and power are unbridled. She has the decidedly rare ability to evoke a sense of ecstacy. “The pain was so great, that it made me moan; and yet so surpassing was the sweetness of this excessive pain, that I could not wish to be rid of it.” (St. Teresa: Chapter XXIX; Part 17, The Autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila)
It is time to move past questions about whom Duffy sounds like, to an acceptance that her heart is true and her sound is her own. Musicologists acknowledge that anyone singing or writing in blues, soul, rock, jazz, pop, rap, dixieland, swing, scat, and even country and folk is, at least tangentially derivative of, and owes a debt of gratitude to, Louis Armstrong. Furthermore, the great Satchmo himself happily acknowledged incorporating influences from such disparate sources as Guy Lombardo, Latin music, American folk songs, classical symphonies and opera. The bountiful tree of Western music is just that —fruitful and generational.
What is wrong with Duffy’s music or voice reminding listeners—for a myriad of reasons—of Roy Orbison, Diana Ross, Billie Holiday, Norah Jones, Janice Joplin, Darlene Love, Amy Winehouse, Ronnie Spector, Dusty Springfield, Brenda Lee, Connie Francis, or any other performers? No one has a monopoly on singing about unrequited, dangerous, painful love.
Duffy’s stage performance provides incites into her talent and character. When listening to her recorded work one is left with the question: Can she really sing that powerfully and mournfully, or is her voice somehow enhanced or doctored in the recording process? Such doubts are forever laid to rest throughout her live performance. Nuance, power, depth and “harrowing rawness” (Walters, Barry: SPIN Magazine, May 13, 2008) are stunningly confirmed.
The brilliant musicians who form her band are more than capable of producing the breadth of sound necessary to enhance Duffy’s range of mood and volume, which are, at various times, subtle, haunting, throbbing, and pounding. As a measure of her force as a singer, at a few points when the band was fully rocking out—the percussion at a level that changed the pulse of your heart, the keyboard and guitars taking your breath away—almost as an auditory illusion, there was Duffy’s soaring voice, somehow dominant and above the tumult.
It is not just her voice that one is struck by. The quirky hand gestures that are oddly endearing in the videos, seem, on stage, to be indicative of communication between Duffy and her band mates, similar to the orchestral directives employed by Van Morrison in concert. She may not be a “control freak” but, as she says, she has “nothing else in [her] life that [she cares] about right now.” (Duffy in, Petusich, Amanda: Duffy: Girl From the North Country. SPIN Magazine, Aug., 1, 2008, p. 61)
Duffy definitely cares. My girl friend and I were standing four to five feet back from the very center of the stage at the Metropolis in Montreal on Oct. 24th, and from that vantage point one could see the sweat, the passion in her eyes, the knowing glances between the band mates, and the pride on the faces of everyone on stage—knowing they are part of something very special. One does not make music the way Duffy and her band mates do unless one cares.
Saw her in Vancouver at the Orpheum I echo your well said comments. She indeed was a pleasant suprise live. And from the first moments of her opening song Syrup and Honey (incedently not one of my favorites on her album but stunning live) I new we were witnessing the emergence of a potentially once in a decade type artist.
page: 1
word upDec 5th, 2008 - 19:10:58
This is what a real musician with talent looks like.
Report this comment