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Say hello to Mrs Jones

24/ 8/2007

Norah Jones: The Apollo, Saturday

Later this year, singer-songwriter Norah Jones is set to make her acting debut in an eagerly anticipated romantic comedy entitled My Blueberry Nights, starring opposite Jude Law.

It is a change of career path no-one really saw coming.

Despite being one of the world’s greatest-selling female artists (28 million sales and counting) and the daughter of legendary musician Ravi Shankar, Norah Jones has, to all intents and purposes, stayed relatively anonymous.

Notoriously media-shy, she’s never been one to encourage notions of celebrity or ostentatious glamour.

So just how did Norah Jones end up in the glitzy world of Hollywood?

It’s fair to say that Jones has always gone against the grain.

She’s the songwriter for whom the term ‘old head on young shoulders’ was probably invented.

At the age of 15, when most teenage girls are listening to superficial pop bands, Jones was immersing herself in jazz music with dreams of becoming the next Billie Holiday.

When she finally did realise that dream at the age of 22 with her debut album Come Away With Me – bagging 17million record sales and eight Grammys – she remained totally unfazed by the attention.

With little reluctance to play the fame game, Jones was clearly an ‘old fashioned’ pop artist in the best possible sense.

Those traditional values are evident in her music – gentle, soothing jazz-folk which has aroused suspicion in some circles (she’s been derided by sniffy critics as coffee table music).

The critics may have a point, but it would be criminal to dismiss Jones’ greatest strength – her spellbinding voice, a thing of characterful beauty which can shift between folky fragile and poppy uplifting.

And if rumours of her excellent film debut are true, it’s best to make the most of Norah Jones the musician whilst we can – she might just leave for Hollywood for good.