Estelle performed June 21 at the W Fort Lauderdale hotel's first-anniversary party. (Photo by Seth Browarnik/Red Eye Productions.)
Wearing a Missoni dress and Proenza Schouler python platforms, Estelle sits in an oceanside suite at the W Fort Lauderdale waiting to meet with local reporters. The pop singer is acting exactly like she was in the “American Boy” video she filmed with Kanye West — bubbly, charming and vivacious. The Grammy Award winner was invited to perform a mini concert June 21 in honor of the W Fort Lauderdale’s first anniversary. Estelle’s next album, All of Me, will be released this fall. The British singer, who has collaborated in the past with Robin Thicke, Will.i.am and Wyclef Jean, is eager to show her fans a more personal side of her songwriting.
“Every other album has had the weight of other people. I don’t have anything or anyone to worry about,” Estelle says. “I don’t feel the weight of my friends or London or the whole of everything I’ve been through. I just feel like I can write for me. So I did.”
Estelle says the new songs are inspired by her personal life. “Some girls were trying to mess with me as far as my boyfriend goes, and I was like, ‘Stop it.’ I’m too much of a lady to be like, ‘Bitch!’“ says the singer, who lives in New York. “But I become that girl in a song. ‘Fall in Love’ is me being a total optimist.”
The 30-year-old, who can curse like a drunken sailor, says people often ask her if she’d ever consider acting. “People come to my shows and say, “You’re a comedian, bitch! Why don’t you do acting?’ ” Estelle says. “But being funny comes naturally to me. I can rehearse music, but I can’t really rehearse being funny. I think I will try acting at some point, though, because the opportunity will be there.”
While Estelle confesses that she has an American boy of her own now — though she won’t reveal his identity — she says many British women have a thing for American men. “It’s the accent and the swagger. Ladies down here know what they have. Sometimes, it becomes a game,” she says. “When you first meet an American guy, the general flirtation techniques are great. They dazzle you.”
Besides American boys, Estelle’s greatest weakness is shoes. She claims to own more than 500 pairs. “I’m a big shoe freak. I make sure with every single check I get, I buy a great pair of shoes,” she says with a laugh. “I love my Alexander McQueen shoes. He was a genius and I like Chanel, YSL — any shoes that don’t seem like you could actually walk in them.”
Contact Joanie Cox at jcox@citylinkmagazine.com.
