Lianne La Havas ... Prince's favourite pop star

Lianne La Havas, the Mercury Prize-nominated singer, was having a drink in a pub with her boyfriend when Prince called. It wasn’t totally un-expected, her record label Warner Bros had warned her that the purple one had requested her number, but what 23-year-old wouldn’t be a little flustered to hear from her hero? La Havas just about managed to keep her cool while Prince told her that he had been watching her gigs online, adding that he liked to imagine her song ‘Age’, about her dating a man ‘old enough to be my father’, was about him. ‘He was just joking,’ she insists. ‘He’s completely kosher, funny and lovely.’ They got on so well that Prince invited her to spend two days at his Paisley Park home in Minneapolis. ‘He’s a night owl, so I’d go over at about eight, and we’d just hang out and play guitar.’ They still email and she hopes they will collaborate in the future.

Life has moved fast for La Havas. She only released her debut album Is Your Love Big Enough? in July, but as well as the Paisley Park minibreak, this year has seen her flown to Milan by Tom Ford to perform at the launch party for his Noir fragrance and the surprise appearance of Stevie Wonder at one of her gigs. He hung about after the show to play her some new songs; she cried like a baby.

Today, sipping coffee in Spitalfields, she is more composed. Her neatly coiffured hair is pinned back and parted, her thick black eyeliner is reminiscent of Amy Winehouse. Her style, she says, is influenced by Diane Keaton: ‘I love Annie Hall. Diane and Woody Allen together were just magical. But I’m also very influenced by Prince — the little ribbon bow tie he wore in Purple Rain, his buttoned-up shirt, the way he did his hair…’

La Havas’s look is as eclectic as her background. The only daughter of a bus-driving Greek father and a Jamaican postlady, her ethnic mix was different to the other mixed-race children at school in Norbury — ‘There would usually be a white British mother and a Jamaican British or African father’ — and she gravitated towards peers who were creative in their outlook. ‘I always maintain it is possible to like rock music and R&B,’ she says. ‘I thought, “How come you can’t like Erykah Badu and The White Stripes?” There was a whole group of us that liked everything.

Then there were people who only listened to R&B, and there were Goths. I very nearly crossed over. I love that being a Goth is about completely not wanting to look like anybody else. I loved the make-up but I also love colour too much, so I didn’t go that far.’

La Havas’s father encouraged her to play the keyboard, while her mother introduced her to Mary J Blige and Jill Scott. She dropped out of an art foundation course after two weeks when she realised that she would rather pursue music. Soon afterwards she met Paloma Faith, who invited her to join her band as a backing singer. But the pitfalls of the rock’n’roll lifestyle soon became apparent. ‘I was 18, so I couldn’t handle my drink very well,’ she says. ‘[Being on tour] was the first time I’d been confronted with free alcohol. There was one festival in Jersey where I just drank so much, and ended up being sick… Paloma was very watchful of me after that.’ Today she never drinks before a show, pointing out that she needs co-ordination in order to play guitar, but adds: ‘You always want to celebrate if it’s good and drown your sorrows if it’s bad.’

She moved on from the band — though she remains close to Faith — established her signature soulful, folky sound and made some demos, which eventually led to a deal with Warner in the US in 2010 and a UK deal last year. But her career got its kick-start last November with a show-stopping performance on Later with Jools Holland. By then she was in a relationship with Faith’s piano player, 14 years older than her and the inspiration for ‘Age’ — ‘Is it such a problem that he’s old? As long as he does whatever he’s told,’ she sang.

This was the boyfriend who was with her when Prince called and at first she speaks about him as if they are still together (‘he’s my biggest fan’), before confessing they have recently split. ‘I haven’t been telling anyone. Before this I’d never broken up with anyone, I’d always been dumped. But this time I needed to find out who I am on my own. I’ve had boyfriends since I was about 17. I don’t remember what it’s like to be single and not be with anyone.’

Her love life may now be on hold but there are shows in New York, LA and Montreal to keep her busy, and a US tour supporting John Legend. She’s a hit in the States; The New Yorker recently compared her to Lauryn Hill. And her current British tour. ‘This has been the most exciting year of my life,’ she says, ‘and the most emotional, in a good way. I’ve had my eyes opened to so much.’ ES

Lianne La Havas plays The O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire on 11 October (o2shepherdsbushempire.co.uk)