Many may compare this new Welsh singer to the vocal prowess of Amy Winehouse, but Duffy brings the US a new flavor all her own. Make sure to look for her this Sunday at the Grammy Awards.

Grammys midway Part 2: Duffy, Zooey, Santogold and more- Source: LA TIMES

The year may be at its midpoint, but when it comes to the Grammys, that mark has long since passed. With the eligibility period for next year’s awards ending on Sept. 30, there’s little more than three months left in the world of Grammy.

One of Grammy’s most confounding — and most debated — categories is the best new artist field. So with Grammy season only weeks away, this week Extended Play is taking a look at some of 2008’s notable new artists, and how they may fare come Grammy time.

Duffy: Young British soul singer with a ’60s bent. This year’s Amy Winehouse?

Grammy potential: Duffy’s vintage soul should be Grammy gold, if voters don’t shy away from lauding a U.K. soul star two years running. On her debut, “Rockferry,” Duffy is a bit more traditional than Winehouse, but there’s a warming lushness to her retro songs, as her cool, low-key vocal approach is framed with buoyant and amiable arrangements. At times, Duffy sounds as if she could be fronting the Shangri-Las, but she’s after more of an acoustic smokiness. Ultimately, she’s the kind of artist Starbucks would be all over, if the coffee chain was seemingly as excited about stocking CDs as it once was. Also working in Duffy’s favor is her early success. Nearly two months after the album was released, it’s still in the top 20, which is an impressive feat for a newcomer.

Grammy deserving: She’s a perfectly inoffensive choice. Like Winehouse, Duffy’s retro-themed tunes recall an era more than stand on their own. There’s a bit more of a vagueness to an act like She & Him, a sense of familiarity that one can’t quite place, but Duffy’s appealingly sweet sense of song-craft works to her advantage.

BIOGRAPHY

Aimée Anne Duffy was born on June 1, 1984, in the tiny north Wales coastal village of Nefyn, where she grew up speaking Welsh as her mother tongue. Following her parents’ divorce in 1994, she accompanied her mother and her mom’s new boyfriend to the larger community of Letterstone, Pembrokeshire, along with sisters Katy (her twin) and Kelly. There, English eventually replaced Welsh as her main language.

The future pop singer had no record or CD collection at home to influence her style, save an old video tape of her father’s that included an episode of Ready, Steady, Go!, a British pop music program from the 1960s. She viewed the classic performances so often that she wore the tape down. They became her main source of musical inspiration early on, and gave her the taste to eventually take up singing.

DUFFY DECIDES TO BECOME A SINGER

At the age of 15, Duffy left school to concentrate on a career in music. She moved back to Nefyn where she sang in a number of local groups, and eventually returned to school to study culture at the University of Chester in England. During that time she sang at a local jazz and blues club called Alexander’s. She left university after two years, and eventually found herself involved in a musical project originating out of Switzerland.

When the Swiss musical venture failed to live up to expectations, Duffy returned to Wales. In 2003, she participated on the Welsh American Idol-style program Wawffactor. Although she was heavily favored to win the competition, she came in second place after being bested by winner Lisa Pedrig. In April 2004, Duffy’s debut recording was issued on the Recordiau Awen label. The three-track EP topped the Welsh charts, and she also provided vocals for a couple of tracks on Mint Royale’s See You in the Morning album released the same year.

DUFFY HOOKS UP WITH ROUGH TRADE

In the summer of 2004, one of the many demo recordings that she sent out to record companies reached the ears of Jeanette Lee, impresario and part-owner of Rough Trade Records. Impressed with her voice, Lee began managing Duffy after convincing her to relocate to London. Lee soon set up a meeting between the Welsh singer and Bernard Butler, former guitarist for Suede. The pair hit it off musically and quickly began writing songs together. Other songwriters and producers, including Jimmy Hogarth and Steve Booker, were brought in to help with the recordings.

In 2007, Duffy signed a deal with A&M Records. Her debut English-language single “Rockferry” was released that December, and was named Single Of The Week by Radio 1’s Jo Wiley. Duffy made her BBC television debut on Later with Jools Holland in November, reappeared on his show a month later, and once again in February 2008 to promote the follow-up single “Mercy.”

DUFFY RELEASES MERCY AND ROCKFERRY

Available as a download during the first week of February, “Mercy” debuted at the top of the download sales charts, and was released on disc and seven-inch vinyl formats two weeks later. The single topped the charts in Britain, Ireland and Croatia, and also did very well throughout the rest of Europe. Duffy’s debut album, Rockferry, was released on March 3, 2008, and debuted in the No. 1 slot in the UK and Ireland. “Warwick Avenue” became the third single issued from the album during the spring.

Hear and see music from Duffy: www.myspace.com/duffymyspace.com