Entertainment In-Flight

There is something reassuringly shy and awkward about the school girl on the other end of the phone. Even though she has lived in considerable limelight since she won Open Mic UK as a twelve year old back in 2008, Jasmine van den Bogaerde (aka Birdy) still fumbles to answer questions in anything but the simplest terms. Beneath the well-honed ingénue image and assured singing voice, Birdy is clearly not a cynical media savvy starlet milking the universal obsession for pretty girl precocity (unless, of course, she's playing yours truly for fool).  

From her home in New Forest, Hampshire, the now sixteen-year-old chart topping singer/songwriter reflects nervously on the oddness of her post-talent show life. “It's very strange, but I've kinda got used to it,” she giggles. “Well, I'm getting used to it. I'm kinda at school a lot, so everything's kept quite normal there. But I'm really enjoying everything. I love it.”

Halfway through sixth form, she balances her pop star and student lives with what appears to be relative ease; although she does confess that the juxtaposition of the two is occasionally difficult. “Sometimes it can be, especially when I've just gone away and come back; but I get back into the routine quite quickly,” she explains. “Y'know, I hang out with my friends and I learn the subjects.”

As she contemplates her somewhat crammed 2013 schedule, her Australian tour in April looms as the first big international commitment of the year. With a five-piece band already in rehearsal, the aim is clearly to reproduce her cover driven debut album note for note. “But we are experimenting a bit,” she adds, almost as an afterthought.

Birdy's numerous fans will surely be confident that their star will deliver. Whatever else you can say about talent show winners, Birdy is an obviously gifted performer. To imbue songs like Skinny Love and The xx's Shelter with as much ache as she has signifies an instinct and assurity not evident in her interview answers. While her artistic lineage, (Dirk Bogarde was her great uncle, her mother is an accomplished pianist, her brother's band has just been signed), might well be said to help, she also admits to being incredibly self-critical. “I definitely am,” she says with ironic certainty. “And I get really nervous before every show as well; but once I'm playing I really love it and everything, all the nerves kinda just go.”

For all the hype and cynicism that surrounds her, it's hard to disentangle the talent (genuine, overblown or otherwise) from the fact she is just sixteen. Parents of teenagers and those who recall their own adolescent folly could well be forgiven for wondering how it will all turn out for her. Unsurprisingly, the girl herself is not so fretful. Recalling the moment when she knew she had found her calling, she says, “I think it was probably doing that competition [Open Mic UK]. It was the first big performance I'd ever done and after winning that and releasing Skinny Love I just realised how much I loved performing and writing.”

As an artist known for covers, it's that last part that's most interesting. “Next album's all originals,” she declares. “I'm going to experiment a bit actually. The songs are quite bare at the moment so I'm not really sure how they'll finally come out.” However, unlike most girls her age, she has a wider range of topics to write truthfully about. “The new songs are all about the last year and all about change really … and love and other things.”

Either way, the course is set for the foreseeable. Bolstered by a supportive family, Jasmine van den Bogaerde looks forward with charmingly youthful simplicity. “I'd love to be doing this for as long as I can. I can't imagine myself doing anything different really, although I wanted to be a hairdresser when I was younger.”

Birdy will be playing the following dates:

Friday 12 & Saturday 13 April - Sydney Opera Houyse, Sydney NSW