(andPOP) - You may not know her name yet, but you know her song.
KT Tunstall, originally from Scotland, is the latest export from the United Kingdom. Her smash single, "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" ? off her album "Eye to the Telescope" ? is quickly rising up the charts.
Before tackling the North American market, Tunstall was a huge success in the U.K., but the road to stardom didn't come without its bumps.
In 2002, Tunstall had a deal with Tommy Mottola and Columbia Records. Tunstall was all set to leave for America when the deal fell through because Mottola left Columbia.
"I had gotten to this place thinking I'm going to be moving to New York and thinking about what I was going to take and what I was going to leave behind ? so yeah it was a hard time because I think there was a suspicion from the record labels in the U.K. after that as to why it had fallen through. Maybe on some level you're sort of seen as second-hand goods, if the American side decides they don't want you," Tunstall tells andPOP.
Tunstall kept persevering because she knew music was in her blood and she was meant to play. But there was another hurdle ? she's in her early 30s.
In the grand schemes of things, 30 isn't that old. But in an industry right now that celebrates youth and signs more artists like Britney Spears than Sheryl Crow, it was tough for Tunstall to overcome, but she didn't let her age worry her too much.
"It never ruined me because I knew I was doing something different. I wasn't going to try and be the girl wearing a bikini and high heels," she says, adding that Crow was 31 when her first album came out. "So there's a chance of it working. I didn't really understand why I was getting that attitude ? but I did. It made me realize I was the wrong side of 25."
But Tunstall did get her record deal. Her big break in England came when she was asked last minute to perform on the British Talk show "Later with Jools Holland," where she performed "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree." The spot sent her into superstardom.
"It sparked something that really started something rolling. The effects weren't immediate. It was this slow fire that spread. I mean I got 800 emails the next day. It was really insane because I had been playing at coffee shops and people looked up from their latt?s saying, 'oh that's not bad.' It started very quietly but ended up really, really loud," she says.
Similarly, nearly the same thing happened last year when she went to NBC's "Today" show in New York. She went on a Tuesday afternoon just to play for the show's booker, hoping something would come of it. She says he invited her back to sing on the Friday morning episode of "Today," which Tunstall thought was normal until her manager told her that "Today" usually books weeks ahead of time.
Not only is Tunstall's voice on the radio, her song seems to be appearing in every television show as well. She was featured on "Grey's Anatomy" and the "Will & Grace" retrospective last week. As well, a few weeks ago, "American Idol" finalist Katherine McPhee performed "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" on the show. Tunstall says she was shocked when she got the email saying the show wanted to use her song.
"It was so crazy to see a song I had written like a year and-a-half ago on the TV. It was so weird and for a week afterward at all my gigs, I just felt like I was doing a cover of her song," she says on the performance, adding that she downloaded the episode to see how McPhee sounded before she did an interview with Ryan Seacrest.
"It was great. My general feeling after watching it was it could have been a lot worse. (Before the show) I got the email (request) through my manager and he handed it to me and said 'they want to use your song for Pop Idol.' And I just laughed. When you write songs you never imagine that will happen.
"I'm going to have to buy Katherine McPhee a beer," she laughs, before wondering if she's even old enough for one.
Although Tunstall's goal was always to play music, she admits that she has other interests if the music career didn't work for her. She says even if she couldn't do her music full time, she would still have it in her life somehow.
"I'd love to be one of those mad professional gardeners. I love painting and all that stuff but I've never been to art school so I'd have to go to art school," she says.
Even though she is a huge success in Britain, Tunstall said the United States holds a special place in her heart and she would have been hurt if she never made it in North America. She lived there for a year when she was four when her father was teaching at UCLA and then spent her senior year of high school in the U.S., which is when she first got heavily involved in her music and recorded some of her songs with the help of a friend's dad who owned a radio station.
But Tunstall says the best part of her success is just being able to play and get people out to her see her perform.
"The goal was always to travel and play and have people actually turn up to the show. Of course being able to do that on a tour bus and being able to do that with a great band and to do that on a big stage ? it's been a really nice surprise," she says, adding she goes into the recording studio next month and hopes to have another album out by the end of the year.
As for tour plans in Canada?
"I can't wait to come to Canada (again)," she says. "I love it! I would imagine we'll be coming back to places like Toronto in September."
Check out the video for Black Horse and the Cherry Tree: video: Real Windows Media
