When I first started, especially because I got the Critics' Choice before I'd released an album, there was a lot of scrutiny on what my character was, what my background was, what colour my hair was. I fought quite hard for the music to overtake the personality aspect.

Love is horrible. I mean, when you're in love, it's like a sickness. Such madness.

I love that sense of release as you throw yourself into the crowd as hundreds of arms are carrying you.

Everything has such order and everyone is so focused on doing what they're doing that no one ever pays attention to you spinning and dancing around supermarkets. It's something you find in places like supermarkets and airports, where everything is really ordered. There's something about those places that makes you feel really anonymous.

It's very flattering when you look into the crowd and people have made an effort and dressed in your style.

I always wanted to sound like a man, like Jeff Buckley or Tom Waits.

Bono told me how to dance in high heels and he also told me about U2's Glastonbury performance and how everything that could have possibly gone wrong went wrong, including him ripping his trousers on stage. I think he was lunging and his trousers ripped! He was telling me how he had to find a new way of performing that didn't involve moving.