People are getting ready for music that makes them feel happy again rather than being depressed at the way the world is going right now.
I can't stand quitters. My mother is a very strong, determined woman. I was peeling onions when I was seven, but I walked off when my eyes began to sting. She said to me, 'You start something and you finish it', and that stuck with me. I'm persistent.
With the first album, I wanted to do so many different things, and I was fighting with myself to try and see if I was worthy enough to do it.
I wear what I feel and what makes me feel happy.
If you cannot smile when you listen to music, then do not listen to it!
Americans have their issues with skin colour, even within the black community, with light and dark skin; it's crazy - but no one's oblivious to it.
I never do a show where the people just sit there and look at me. They always sing along. It's going to be a fun time.
My mom, for all intents and purposes, was a single parent.
The Americans love me because I'm so completely unwilling to change my whole Britishness.
I never feel that far away from the tabloids.
I've still gotta come across as happy when inside I feel crap!
You know, sometimes you fall in love and you get treated badly, sometimes you get treated well.
Me being a black girl in London, whose mom is first-generation African and whose dad is West Indian, gives me a different view. I'm coming at soul from my own place.
I have my family; I'm never alone.
I just have a way about me where people know that they don't tell me what to do, they kind of just wait for me to do it.
I got into hip hop from my uncle; he was always playing us Kool G Rap and Big Daddy Kane. He was a bad boy, and my mum was not really happy that I was hanging out with him.
Conservatives, they're like the Republicans to me. They don't do much. They have this whole hierarchy and boys' club thing going on. That doesn't help the regular person.
You can be sexy, but respect yourself and make sure you get that respect.
I love rom-coms. Any will do. Films such as 'How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days' or 'Funny Face' with Audrey Hepburn.
People like the shows I do. I want to be real, to have fun, even when I dance on stage... it's a buzz.
