Katie Melua

Katie Melua was the biggest selling female Brit in the world last year. Her new single If You Were A Sailboat is really rather good but I'm still not sure what to make of a career based around being Eva Cassidy but young and not dead.

If You Were A Sailboat has something in common with Foundations by Kate Nash in that it mostly comprises a rather tricksy lyric about a relationship but then floors you with something genuine and touching. Kate: "My finger tips are holding onto the cracks in our foundations/and I know that I should let go/but I can't". Katie: "You took a chance on loving me/I took a chance on loving you".

While Katie is a decent singer, Eva was one of the great singers of all time. But Katie does seem like a nice person and I'm pleasantly surprised by her positive attitude to Mike Batt, who writes many of her songs, owns her label, and broke her by spending loads of money on TV advertising. Most artists would have turned against him and belittled his contribution by now, mistakenly believing their own talent to be the primary reason for their success. Not Katie (or not so far, anyway).

My favourite Eva track that's not a cover is Anniversary Song, but her two masterpieces are her versions of Somewhere Over The Rainbow and Fields Of Gold. If you haven't got those then you must buy the classic Songbird compilation.

buy Anniversary Song from iTunes