She may have a platinum-selling album and a national tour, but TIM HUGHES discovers Rebecca Ferguson is still as down-to-earth as they come.

IT is impossible not to like Rebecca Ferguson. With her rich voice, film star looks, soulful songs and commanding stage presence, she’s every inch the star.

Yet she is also endearingly modest, charming and down to earth.

This Liverpudlian single mother is genuinely excited about what has happened to her since being propelled to fame by TV’s X-Factor, where she came runner-up to Matt Cardle.

“I can’t believe it!” she says, in a lively Scouse accent. “It’s unimaginable. It’s been like a whirlwind. I haven’t even had a chance to think about it; it’s crazy and amazing.”

The fact things have worked out is all down to her determination and her refusal to accept defeat. The legal secretary from Bootle failed her first audition for X-Factor and for P. Diddy’s Starmaker in New York.

On coming back to the series, though, she knocked the competition for six, winning over Cowell and Cole.

“I look back on my life and remember that day when I went to audition, and then think about what’s happened in a year,” she says.

“I’ve always had a really ambitious streak, ever since I was a young girl. I’m a dreamer and I have been since a young age.

“And I’ve always known what I wanted to do. As I got a bit older I realised I’d have to be mature and try other things – but singing was still where my heart was.

“When I was little I started going to singing lessons really early, but then I started work at 14, being paid £20 a day, which I used for more singing and dance lessons... not that I can dance, though I try!

“But it has to come from you. I never had anyone pushing me. I knew if I wanted it, I would have to go and get it myself.”

Already being mentioned in the same breath as greats like Aretha Franklin, Dusty Springfield, Nina Simone and Etta James, Rebecca, who is still only 25, seems to have more in common musically with the greats of soul music than her pop contemporaries.

She agrees. “My real love is that classic old school soul sound: Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, Sam Cooke. There’s something about them as singers isn’t there? They just ooze soul. They feel every word. I would love people to say the same about my music, so the inspiration came from them.”

Rebecca’s tour, in support of platinum-selling debut album Heaven and second single Too Good to Lose, which is out next week, hits Oxford’s New Theatre next Friday – the fourth night in a 14-date journey that will take her the length of the country.

And, true to type, she is finding the whole thing one big adventure, though with a typically Scouse level-head.

“I’ve had so much happen to me, but I certainly don’t see myself as a star,” she says. “Other people see me as a different person now, but I’m not.”

And what has she enjoyed most? The fame, the adulation, the posh hotel suites?

“None of that really,” she says thoughtfully. “When I was little I was obsessed with the film Beaches and loved Bette Midler. And she tweeted me the other day. It was one of those moments; I was starstruck.”

So what do her own two kids think of their pop star mum? Are they suitably impressed? She giggles. “I don’t know. I think they’re used to it. They’re really enjoying their new life, but they don’t see me as a star; I’m just mum! They’re getting into the music though and do all the dances – and keep asking me to do them too.”

Does she find it hard to juggle motherhood and the life of a singer so popular her album went straight into the charts at Number 3?

“It wasn’t easy at first,” she admits. “I do drive straight home from venues to be with the kids, though. It means I’m travelling a lot but I have to do that to do my duties as a mum.”

And, while she may be young, Rebecca is no pushover. When it came to recording the album she rejected all the songs the record company gave her and choose her own. “If something doesn’t fit with me then I won’t do it,” she says.

“To be honest there wasn’t that much of a struggle with the record company. I told them that if they wanted me to be credible artist then they definitely needed to let me write the album.”

So does she have any advice for other aspiring young stars?

“Just do it... but always remember to be yourself,” she says.

* Rebecca Ferguson plays the New Theatre, Oxford, on Friday, February 24, at 7pm. For ticket details, see gigsandtours.com or call 0844 811 0051.