By Eleanor Davies
She sold over one million copies of her debut album, Lessons to be Learned, reaching the top 10 in 10 countries. Her debut single, Sweet About Me, spent 37 consecutive weeks in the UK singles chart. The video was viewed over 20 million times on YouTube and was PRS (Performing Rights Society) certified as the most played record of 2009. And she’s still only 18!
But for Gabriella Cilmi, her success in her home country of Australia happened much earlier.
After signing her first record deal at the age of 13 and quickly winning critical acclaim, Gabriella notched up six ARIA (Australian Recording Industry Association) awards, catapulting her to worldwide stardom.
Yet Gabriella knows how to keep her feet firmly on the ground and finds ways of remaining close to her home country, even when she is on the other side of the world!
“The hotel I’m staying at in Leeds left me a DVD of Neighbours in my room,” she laughs. “So I’ve just been watching that!”
Watching Neighbours must come as a welcome break for Gabriella who has been touring non stop since the beginning of the year, including supporting Leona Lewis on tour.
“The tour was cool,” admits Gabriella. “Until then I had only played smaller sort of acoustic venues, so to play a massive arena tour was amazing, it was full pretty much every night!”
And it’s given Gabriella the bug to return with her own arena tour later on in the year, but until then she has been touring the European festival circuit playing tracks from her new album, Ten.
But this album came as a shock to many music critics, who were surprised at her sudden grown up image which came with her debut single, On a Mission. However, Gabriella is quick to play down the hype surrounding her second album.
“I think that’s just what happens, you grow up and want to try new things and it was something different,” reveals the teenage singing sensation. “I love different kinds of music and genres, it’s very much disco inspired.”
And fans will be thrilled to hear that Gabriella will be bringing her disco sound to Essex later this month when she appears at Virgin Media’s V Festival in Chelmsford next weekend!
It’s not the first appearance at the festival for the Aussie either, but she’s hoping it goes a bit smoother than last time.
“I started crying!” she laughs “I overran my set slightly and they cut me off, so I got really emotional, but hopefully it won’t happen again this year! Apart from that it was really fun, I was on after Taio Cruz and before Alphabeat.”
And it’s not just her set which Gabriella is looking forward to. As much as she loves performing herself, she’s also excited to check out the other artists who are going to be at V this year.
“I think I’ll get a few chances I to see other artists,” she says. “It’s annoying because I wanted to see Paulo Nutini but he’s on a different day to me. I am looking forward to seeing Kings of Leon, Passion Pitt, Temper Trap, Tinie Temper and Groove Armada though.”
So it seems that even the stars of the stage are looking forward to the biggest music festival in Essex kicking off next week. And Gabriella admits that it’s a great opportunity for new artists to get themselves heard.
“Festivals are unpredictable,” she says. “You never know how its going to go until you get out there, I don’t even decide what set I’m going to do until I get on stage.
“Performing at festivals is also a chance to win over people who might not come and see you otherwise. If people are just walking through and hear something they like they might stay and listen.”
And that relaxed atmosphere is most definitely what keeps fans coming back year after year.
But Gabriella won’t get much chance to catch her breath after V, as she will also be performing at festivals in Italy, Germany and Holland!
“I’m just having fun at the moment, next year I’ll probably start writing again and do something totally different!”
Catch Gabriella Cilmi on The Arena stage at Virgin Media’s V festival in Chelmsford on Saturday 21 August.