Musician

At 15, I did a ouija board with my best friend. I pretended I was possessed by a ghost, and she believed it.

I'll go through the budgets for tours and recordings, royalty statements... You have to wise up about it a bit more.

I know I've been lucky, but I'm not very materialistic - I don't believe in collecting many unnecessary things and I'm not into girlie shopping.

I love the French philosophy that everything starts with great-looking skin.

I don't cook very often but when I do I try and make Georgian food. I made a hinkali recently, which is like ravioli but is the size of your palm, with meat in the middle and thicker dough.

I wolf food down like you've never seen. For some reason, I have no self-control when it comes to the pace of eating.

When I was younger I dreamt of intrepid travel and whenever I had some time off I wanted to scuba dive. Nowadays I'm a bit more relaxed but I'd still like to do an Amazonian trek.

My focus was, and still is, totally on making music, getting on the road and performing live.

But I do believe in living life to the full and so I have no problems spending money on travel and holidays.

Ever since I left the Brit school I've been so protected. I had a woman to do my hair and makeup every day throughout my 20s.

We Georgians are really into food and drink. We would never have finger food at a party or a wedding - celebrations are always one long meal, on one long table, with endless toasts.

I spend eight to nine months working abroad and cram in a holiday when I have the odd week off.

I don't mind doing publicity but I want to make sure it's the right type and it's about promoting my music and not me.

And I did feel there was an album to be made about winter that can make you feel the way Sinatra and Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline make me feel - warm, nostalgic and comforted.

I love being out in nature. That is really important. It's everything actually.

But I'll never forget my trip to Las Vegas. I'm a huge rollercoaster fan and we did the one at the Stratosphere, which curls around the hotel, and there's one that dips out from the roof then comes back in. That was intense.

The Georgians will treat you like royalty, and the odds are you'll do a lot of eating, drinking and toasting.

I think singing is such an important and incredible art form and it is quite undervalued at times.

Granddad was deported to a Siberian prison camp at the age of 15.

Because of things like 'The X Factor' and 'Autotune', the real art of communicating a song is not treasured any more. But singing other people's songs can be an intensely personal experience. I want the songs to be vessels that people fill with their own imagination, the same way that I fill it with my thoughts and feelings.