Little Gem

FORGET chart success, cheering crowds and critical acclaim; Marina Diamandis only realised she had become a star when she drove past her old home – and was confronted with a giant poster of herself.

“It was really surreal,” says the half-Greek, half-Welsh singer better known as Marina and the Diamonds.

“I was driving through Camden, right next to the house where I used to live, and I saw a billboard with my face on it. I had been in a terrible state when I lived there – and now there was this huge picture of me. I’m not usually a person who gets excited about stuff, but that was strange.”

Marina is at home in London, getting ready for a tour, which on October 24 brings her to Oxford.

And while as energetic as ever, this princess of hook-laden pop and soaring choruses, is croaking. She admits it’s not a great start.

“My voice is terrible today as I’ve got a dreadful cold,” she says in uncharacteristically husky tones.

“I’ll be all right when I get on tour though,” she says. “I’ve got a double bedroom on the bus, which is lovely. Mind you, I have to share the bus with 11 guys, so I deserve it.

“But I really like being on tour,” she adds. “And this is the largest yet.”

The tour, which follows a mad festival season, will take her to 21 venues in a row to promote debut album The Family Jewels, which has got a lot of people very excited. It’s clear Marina has had a great year but she is not ready to sit on her laurels – or even take a breather.

“Nothing is ever good enough for me,” she says, sounding every inch the perfectionist. “I don’t want to sound like I’m up my own bum, or arrogant, but I feel like I have so much more to do. I want to be playing massive venues – and it’s going that way.”

So has she set her sights on being the next Britney Spears – the singer she grew up admiring. Or even her other teenage idol Madonna?

She splutters. “I’d rather do my own thing,” she says. “I haven’t got the drive to rule the world!”

But she is ambitious. “I don’t think you have a choice,” she says. “You have to make the best of what you’ve got. I’m not in their league yet, but the most interesting stars are those who are resourceful and visionary. I don’t like the idea of having someone imposing their ideas on me.

“I’m very hungry for what I want to achieve, and feel that what I’m doing is the most normal thing ever.

“But I’m never star-struck or impressed by other people, unless I respect their work.

“Sometimes I’m such a misery guts!”

Fiercely independent, Marina never tires of telling how she got where she is entirely through her own efforts. Unlike so many other artists, she was not forced through music lessons or stage classes or hyped up by controlling impressarios.

For one thing, there wasn’t time. Up to the age of 18 she moved a total of 17 times, from her birthplace of Abergavenny, in the shadow of Wales’s Brecon Beacons, to, among other places London and her father’s family home in Greece.

She taught herself the piano, at the age of 19. Then, as a budding artist she refused to relinquish control – not even to a professional band manager.

“Until 10 months ago I was still managing myself,” she says proudly. “In fact, I’ve only got a manager now because I found the perfect person.”

In many ways, I suggest, she is the perfect pop role model – a go-getting woman in charge of her own destiny.

Would she describe herself as a feminist?

“Absolutely. It would be weird for any woman not to be a feminist, as it would mean they don’t believe in sexual equality. But no one wants to be called a feminist; it seems outdated and scary.

“One of the things girls relate to is that I’ve never combined my identity as an artist with any kind of sexual identity. It’s much better to promote with thoughts than image – and I have many thoughts.

“I guess you could say I’m a drama queen,” she confesses. “But if you’re not like that, it probably means you don’t care because you’re not passionate.

“And if there’s one thing I am, it’s passionate.”

* Marina and the Diamonds plays the Regal, Oxford, on Sunday. Tickets are £15 from wegottickets.com New single Shampain, taken from album The Family Jewels, is out now.