Emeli Sandé's Diary

Performing 'Winter Wonderland' at the opening of the Tiffany's ice rink at Somerset House last week got me into the Christmas spirit nice and early. I made it on to the ice rink briefly, thinking that I was a lot better than I actually am, with Pippa Middleton skating alongside me. Luckily I didn't fall over, so that was some achievement.

When I was a kid, growing up in Aberdeen, I always used to put on Christmas concerts for my family. My dad and I are the only real singers and we used to do duets of 'Silent Night'. For Christmas I will go back up to Scotland and then on to New York for New Year's Eve. I was there last year and saw in the New Year in Times Square. I love how crisp and cold it is in the Big Apple.

Then I'll be off on tour with Coldplay as their support in Europe. I first met Chris [Martin] at the Q Awards earlier this year and he was lovely. We played on Later with Jools Holland on the same night and he approached me about the tour. I think they first heard about me when I covered their song 'Every Teardrop is a Waterfall' for The Sun's Biz Sessions and they tweeted about it afterwards to their four million followers.

Recently I was awarded Alumni of the Year at Glasgow University. My parents came from Aberdeen for the day and they were really proud. I was at Glasgow University for four years studying medicine, specialising in neuro-science, and I had 18 months to go until I qualified as a doctor, but at that point everything started happening with my music. I decided that the door was open so I had to seize the day. My life is now so different compared to my friends', who are working as doctors in London. I do feel a bit of nostalgia, but I don't think I'd enjoy being a doctor right now as I feel a need to be creative.

I finished my debut album a couple of weeks ago and since then everything's been crazy. It feels like it's gone on forever: there are some songs that I wrote three years ago. As soon as I'd wrapped things up in the studio I flew to Holland to sing on their version of Next Top Model. It was fun being involved in the crazy fashion world for one night among all the tall, extremely beautiful models.

And from there it was straight to New York to write songs with Alicia Keys. She has been one of my biggest inspirations, so meeting her was pretty cool. I was quite nervous but she is very down-to-earth. In between writing we made it to a Radiohead concert at the Roseland Ballroom in Manhattan and picked up some inspiration. The next artist I would love to write for is Nicki Minaj. I think she's really cool. I haven't met her yet but I've seen her perform and she's incredible. I'd like to write her a really dark song.

As soon as I got back from the US I performed with Professor Green on Children in Need at 1am. We worked on my album together and he's a really cool guy, very humble. We've performed 'Read All About It' a lot now, including on The X Factor. When I was getting started people would always ask me, 'When are you going on The X Factor?' I've always thought that it would be a good place to get exposure, but because I'm a songwriter it wasn't the best place to get a start for me.

In London I live just off Brick Lane so there is always a party on. I hang out a lot in The Big Chill; they play pure music, which I love. But I haven't been in London on Saturday evening for a while now. Maybe that's my New Year resolution

Emeli's new single 'Daddy' is out now. Her debut album, Our Version of Events, is out next February