"Maybe too happy," she jokes. "It does become harder to write songs then. My mum always says 'things are going so well, maybe you need a bit of an upset to write' and I think there is a bit of truth in that.

"When you think of all the old soul artists, like Billie Holliday, all their most remembered songs were the ones from really troubled times which had that real emotion. "But now I've just found alternative ways to write songs. I've just had to dig a little deeper I suppose."

When she's not writing, Gabrielle loves performing live although after touring for most of last year she's giving herself a more time off the road.

Instead she's performing selected one-off gigs, including a date at Liverpool's Summer Pops next Thursday.

It will be her first foray into the famous Big Top, but she's full of enthusiasm for the idea.

"Wow, I think it will be so exciting," she says. "And I'm on with Beverley Knight who is truly amazing so I'll just be looking forward to watching her.

"I think we'll make an interesting combination because we're so very different. She's a real performer and I look at her and think, where does that fantastic voice come from? In comparison to her, I don't sing, I just talk.

"So before I go on I'll just be enjoying her ... try stopping me!"

* Gabrielle, with special guest Beverley Knight, is at the Summer Pops on Thursday, July 7 (0870 151 4000).