Her Amy is true

“I’m really not a very interesting person,” proffers Scots pop sensation Amy MacDonald, in what one desperately hopes is a moment of Steve Davis-like self-deprecation rather than a statement of fact. “I work really hard, and don’t have too much spare time to let my hair down. I’ve no interest whatsoever in drugs, and I think it’s really pathetic the way certain people do that to themselves, in full view of the public. It’s embarrassing.”

Hmm. Well, it takes all kinds. As the girl freely admits, Ms MacDonald isn’t one for the rock’n’roll lifestyle, and isn’t likely to start sharing crack-pipes with the other Amy any time soon (her debut single, ‘Poison Prince’, was a withering excoriation of Pete Doherty and his possibly less-than-wholesome offstage existence). Shy and softly-spoken, the 20-year-old professes some astonishment at the scale and speed of her recent ascent, debut album This Is The Life having gone gold within four days and sold upwards of half a million copies.
“With the amount of work I’ve put in, I’m just glad it’s paid off,” she states. “The reaction from the fans makes it all worthwhile. I love touring, and I love playing live – it’s the most enjoyable part of what I do, so I never get intimidated or nervous at all. I got into this because I love singing and I love to perform, and if I had the chance to do this for the rest of my life, I’d be happy.”
Press duties aren’t exactly Amy’s first love: “I’ve no interest in fame or celebrity, and I’d prefer not to have to deal with that side of things. It doesn’t appeal to me at all, I wouldn’t want to be all over the gossip pages, I’d say it’s a nightmare. I think a lot of people get into this business for the wrong reasons. They want their faces on the front pages of magazines, they’re addicted to seeing their name in print, and that’s something I really could live without.”
One of Amy’s more recent compositions, ‘Footballers’ Wives’ addresses the subject directly: “In this day and age, you don’t seem to need any talent to be cast as a celebrity. They’re all reality-TV rejects and gold-diggers. I’m trying to stop looking at Heat magazine and the like, cause it’s so trivial when you think about it. I’ve a terrible habit of buying fashion magazines. I’m trying to give up. It’s a bad habit.”
Amy’s blog, not notable for being especially gripping, crackled into life last autumn with a spectacularly vicious rant against Manuel Enrique Mejuto Gonzalez, the Spanish referee who presided over the Scotland-Italy match which terminated her nation’s involvement in Euro 2008. The mere mention of Senor Gonzalez still causes Amy’s youthful face to darken:
“His name is etched in my brain. I’m still angry. It was like a knife in the heart. You watch that game again. It should never have been allowed to happen. Anyone can see that was never a free-kick to Italy. It was ridiculous. The only good thing was that the staff at Glasgow Airport went out of their way to make his life as miserable as possible on the way home, and stopped him at every available opportunity. He got searched three times. It turns out that UEFA would have lost £80 million in revenue if Italy hadn’t qualified. I don’t think I’ll ever get over it. I’m extremely proud of being Scottish, and I absolutely adore my country. I’ll never leave it.”