Singer Gabrielle is ready to rise again after 11-year wait

IT’S been a long 11 years since Gabrielle released her last album.

The 48-year-old soul singer boasts two UK No1s and, in Out Of Reach from Bridget Jones’s Diary, a rom-com classic.

And finally she’s back. A return to the studio was motivated by a desire to tour new music after deciding it was unfair to expect diehard fans to continue paying to watch her sing well-worn material.

Revitalised, she heads out on tour next month, including a show at Glasgow’s King Tut’s, after a successful run of dates supporting Michael Bolton.

“He reignited my ambition to go back on to the road,” says Gabrielle. “The seats were filled and I was really chuffed. I was singing my songs for 45 minutes and I realised I actually liked this. By the time it ended, I really was depressed.”

Dressed all in black with beautiful gold rings, Gabrielle’s hair is short, but styled to cover her right eye, which has a drooped eyelid. It was her eye – which is affected by a condition called ptosis – that initially stopped her from dreaming of being a pop star.

However, it didn’t stop her clambering on to a table and singing an original song in the school canteen.

Nor did it stop her, years later, singing over the Tannoy in her first job at a supermarket.

Despite citing those two incidents, she was initially ashamed of her pop star dreams.

“I didn’t look a particular way, I had a lazy eyelid. How dare I even imagine that I could possibly be a singer? It wasn’t an aspiration I had. It wasn’t something I would have told people because it would have been deemed ridiculous.

“Who do you think you are? There’s no one on TV who looks like you. Even when I was moonlighting in a nightclub in Greek Street in Soho, there were always people that were thinner than me, had better voices than me.

“So again my stage was confined. I was happy with that – if that’s all it ever was, I’d have been happy.”

She proved her doubters wrong, topping the UK charts first with Dreams 25 years ago, then with Rise in 2000, and grins with glee as she recalls someone signing her school leaving book with the sarcastic message: “See you on Top Of The Pops Ha Ha Ha.”

“I kept the book,” reveals the Brit Award winner. “So carry on laughing. I’d like to think I paved the way for anyone who has hang-ups on how they look. If I can do it, then you can be whatever you want to be.”

The new album, Under My Skin, arrives in August and Gabrielle has already been blown away by the reception to lead single Show Me, which she co-wrote with Steve Chrisanthou.

He’s the man who helped Corinne Bailey Rae make Put Your Records On a smash-hit. “He played this amazing piece of music and I just said to him, ‘You need to get that mic up’.”

A mother of two, Gabrielle realised the industry had changed in her time away from the spotlight.

However, it remains male-dominated.

“I walked into the record company and met a whole heap of staff and they were like, ‘This is your team’. And for every woman, there were like five men. For years I’ve been used to there being more guys at everything I do.”

But she does notice a slight shift, citing Adele as an example of there being less of a demand on stars to fit a narrow, rigid look.

“She’s freaking incredible and she’s here as a role model for so many women, including myself. I am in awe of her.”

With track titles including Won’t Back Down and Stronger, it’s no surprise Gabrielle is pitching Under My Skin as an inspirational album.

She also confronts domestic violence on Every Step after a friend once ignored her advice to leave her partner.

“Sometimes we stay in things through fear, the stars align and it’s actually a golden opportunity to leave.”

Gabrielle is excited by the next stage of her career but, as always, remains level-headed.

“I’m not really that ambitious,” she says. “Just to have a new album, go out and performing new songs makes me happy. I love what I do.”

Gabrielle, King Tut’s, Glasgow, August 14; Under The Skin released August 17