Duffy

Welsh retro-soul singer Duffy became a superstar with the release of her mega-selling 2008 debut album, Rockferry. • Duffy got her start singing in local bars and caught a huge break in 2003, when she finished second on the Welsh TV competition show Wawffactor. • She soon met Jeannette Lee of Rough Trade Records, who became her manager and introduced her to Bernard Butler, guitarist for the band Suede. Butler helped the singer craft the retro sound that would become her trademark. • After signing with A&M Records, she released her debut album, Rockferry, in 2008. It reached No. 1 on the UK charts and became the year’s best-selling album in that country. The single “Mercy” hit No. 1 in the UK and cracked the Top 40 in the US. • Rockferry brought Duffy a slew of accolades, including a Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Album and three Brit Awards: British Breakthrough, Best British Female and Best British Album. • In 2010, she made her acting debut in the film Patagonia and released her sophomore effort, Endlessly. The album went Top 10 in the UK but fell well short of its predecessor. • Duffy went on hiatus in the decade that followed, releasing only one song, 2015’s “Whole Lot of Love”, off the soundtrack for the film Legend, which she appeared in. • In 2020, the singer revealed that she’d retreated from the spotlight after being kidnapped and assaulted.