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Estelle: Coming To America

Estelle's new album is titled <em>All of Me</em>.
Keith Major
Estelle's new album is titled All of Me.

Estelle Swaray is a Londoner. But for the past few years, the British singer best known for the song "American Boy" (her 2008 Grammy-winning hit with Kanye West) has called the U.S. home. It was a particular American boy, she says, who convinced her to make the move.

"I worked with John Legend on my first record and he said, 'Come to America and I'll sign you,'" Estelle says. "I said, 'Are you sure? Because I'm a handful. I've got a lot of things to say, and you're not going to be able to put me in a cookie cutter. It's not going to work.' He said, 'I know. I'm clear about this. Come on.'"

In this interview, Estelle tells NPR's Scott Simon about her latest album, All of Me, as well as her love of heavy bass and how she first made contact with Legend and West in a Los Angeles diner.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.