Emeli Sande is the voice of British rapper Chipmunk’s 2009 music video Diamond Rings – but you wouldn’t know that watching the clip. They replaced her in the video with someone who lip-synced her vocals.
“It was really horrible. But it is part of the business and you do have to know what you’re getting into,” she says.
“You really just have to be tough and you have to just keep going.”
It was around this time that Emeli changed her name from her birthname, Adele, figuring the world was only big enough for one superstar named Adele.
“I learnt where my music comes from. It’s in the earth.”
But 2009 is a long time ago in Emeli's fast rise to fame. In 2012 alone she released the biggest-selling UK album of the year and performed at the London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony.
Only it hasn’t been smooth sailing all the way.
In 2014, she divorced her partner of 10 years, Adam Gouraguine, and moved to Zambia. It was there, living with her family, that Emeli found her voice again.
“I learnt where my music comes from. It’s in the earth,” she says.
“It really made me understand the other half of me.”
