Joss Stone

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Sometimes, some one comes along with so much talent that nothing can hold her back. It’s certainly that way for Joss Stone (Joscelyn Eve Stoker), the affluent English hippie who’s sold more than 10 million copies, won a few Brits and a Grammy and performed with James Brown, Stevie Wonder, John Legend, Sly Stone, Johnny Lang, Laurynn Hill, Van Hunt, Tom Jones-- you name it -- all before she was 18.

Not bad for an affluent, dyslexic teen-ager who thought school was a waste of time for her. Instead, she wanted to sing soul music, and did so with an authenticity that had people like Stevie Wonder and James Brown shaking their heads, wondering how a little white girl from the English country could be so good.

"I kind of clicked into soul music more than anything else because of the vocals. You've got to have good vocals to sing soul music and I always liked it ever since I was little," she told MTV News when doing promotion for her first album, The Soul Sessions. She also did her homework. Instead of going for obvious commercial sources, she sought out musicians’ musicians, like Betty Wright, Kenny Latimore, Angie Stone and The Roots. lt was an inspired move, because it gave Stone a street credibility well beyond her years.

That album went triple platinum, raising the stakes somewhat for Stone’s sophomore effort, Mind, Body & Soul, which was released in late September 2004. A more accessible album, it saw Stone stretching a bit, preferring her singing here to the first record. It went to number one in the UK the first week, taking the record for the youngest female to have a number one record in England away from Avril Lavigne.

The first bump in her career came a year later, when the Gap hired Stone to be their spokesperson. She was a perfect choice until the Internet started crawling with rumors that the underage Stone was living with 25-year-old Beau Dozier, son of the Motown producer, Lamont Dozier. Everyone involved denied the relationship, which ironically came to a halt later that year. Stone has since credited the breakup with the inspiration for her third album, Introducing Miss Stone, which she recorded in the Bahamas with producer Raphael Saadiq and collaborators Lauryn Hill, Common and Joi.

She chose the name because, although it was her third album, it seemed to her more like a first album. This album, she said, “is truly me. That’s why I’m calling it Introducing Joss Stone. These are my words, and this is who I am as an artist.” The fans agreed, particularly in the States, where it entered the Billboard charts at number two and sold 118,000 copies in its first week, demolishing a record set earlier in the year by Amy Winehouse.

In between the music and the adverts, she has also found time to break into acting, appearing on the big screen several months ago in the Harry Potter-esque Eragon. She had a Jessica Simpson moment when, during the re-recording of “Do You Know It’s Christmas,” she not only didn’t know who Bob Geldorf, calling him Bob Gandalf instead.

As if on cue, Stone, now 19, worth more than six million pounds, pot advocate and animal rights activist (she was P.E.T.A.’s sexiest vegetarian of the year in 2005), is having her problem with the tabloids, who are calling her lonely, confused, disoriented and tempermental.

But she’s done nothing that even compares to her peers in Los Angeles, New York and London in terms of bad behavior. And, as Joss Stone, teen-age superstar can tell you, sometimes it really can get lonely at the top.