Definitely baby

Listening to Rhianna’s recent dance/pop smash, ‘Oh Baby’, you’d never guess that her influences run to the likes of punk poetess Patti Smith, ’70s thrush Kate Bush, Tuam’s finest The Sawdoctors and London legends Squeeze. But for the 19-year-old Yorkshire lass growing up in a house full of music, variety was the order of the day.

“Squeeze just happened to be the first gig I ever went to with my dad,” she explains. “I was only nine at the time and didn’t know who they were until they played ‘Cool For Cats’ but I thought they were great. Later he brought me to see The Pogues and The Sawdoctors, where I got soaked in beer. My dad also liked Van Morrison, Rod Stewart and all the Motown stuff and my brothers had loads of music in the house. Later I got into Prince and hip-hop stuff like Nelly Furtado and Missy Elliot.”

Raised in Leeds in a mixed race family, the music-mad Rhianna Kenny began her performing career at just 14, singing backing vocals for her older brother’s band. Within a couple of years she was working on her own demos which were duly despatched to the major record companies. The response was by all accounts overwhelming, with over 20 labels queuing up to meet the talented teenager with the striking looks.

“It was pretty amazing,” she recalls. “It was just me and my brother Leigh, in his bedroom working on a four-track tape machine. The whole idea was about me looking for a record deal but it happened very quickly. I wasn’t expecting things to happen so soon. In fact I was getting ready to go to University two years ago, probably to do theatre studies or some kind of art related degree. We recorded, ‘Oh Baby’ straight away and it became a hit.”

Currently putting the finishing touches to her debut album, Rhianna has already appeared on Jools Holland’s Later TV show and this summer will appear at a handful of UK festivals. Does the success of the single put additional pressure on her to deliver the goods album-wise?

“I suppose it does,” she ponders. “Through no choice of my own the single was a huge success and expectations are high. But I’m quite enjoying the challenge. The harder it is for you, the stronger you push. I’m kind of at the stage where I’m establishing what kind of artist I am. I’d say the album has a positive outlook and will be the kind of record that an older brother can have in his record collection without being embarrassed, as well as his little sister.”

Despite Rhianna’s whirlwind success, she insists she’ll remain in her hometown rather than heading for the bright lights.

“I’m a Northern girl at heart,” she says. “There’s no way I’d move to London. I’ve just got a house in Leeds. At least you can get a garden up here, which I couldn’t live without.”