Growing up I really loved Mazzy Star, The Cranberries, Fiona Apple, Everything But The Girl. I listened to a lot of really random things too that I would find by myself. I would find Minnie Riperton albums that I would fall in love with, also, a lot of old country records.
We always have a really bad dancer on 'Strictly,' like Kate Garraway or Fiona Phillips, and that's great, and we love it, but when it comes to the quarters and semis, you want the best dancers left in.
I love Lauryn Hill, Tracy Chapman, Fiona Apple. People like that. People you can really connect to on the most basic human level.
I'm still a very big fan of Fiona Apple.
I listen to the Mars Volta and Fiona Apple every day. I feel if you do write music, you write what you listen to, and you couldn't possibly write in another genre. So those are the two that I usually use.
I remember my dad saying to me, 'But Fiona don't you want to go and do the dramatic society. You can still do your women's groups as well.' And I said, 'Dad, feminism is a way of life! It's not a hobby!'
I thought I would be in a band like Arcade Fire or be like Fiona Apple - but pop just made sense to me.
Female artists I love the most are Fiona Apple, Paramour and Regina Spektor - those girls that really write amazing songs themselves, and they're younger and cool. I'm not quite sure I could ever write songs like any of them, but if I could, I would.
I'm good friends with Jay Leno, good friends with Ed O'Neill, Melanie Fiona and Russell Simmons.
I'm a really big Fiona Apple fan, and more times than not, when I put her on in the car, people are surprised. I think they associate her less as a songwriter and more as a '90s MTV generation artist.
