By Liam Sellick

Duffy is back with a new single called ‘Well, Well, Well’. It is the first single taken from her second studio album, ‘Endlessly’. The song was co-written and co-produced by Albert Hammond and so is the album. ‘Endlessly’ is the follow-up to her 2008 debut ‘Rockferry’. ‘Endlessly’ begins with the soul-disco track ‘My Boy’ and followed by the heartbreaking ‘Too Hurt To Dance’. ‘Don’t Forsake Me’, a Duffy personal favourite, is filled with emotion.

Duffy is one of  nine female solo artists in UK chart history to hold the no.1 slot on both the singles chart and the album chart simultaneously with ‘Mercy’ and ‘Rockferry’. She was awarded Breakthrough Act of the Year at the Q magazine awards, Song Of The Year for ‘Mercy’ at the Mojo Awards, an Ivor Novello Award for songwriting, three Brit Awards and a Grammy Award.

‘Rockferry’ sold 6.5 million copies globally and was the best-selling album of 2008 in the UK and the fourth best-selling album of 2008 worldwide. It had a total of five weeks at no.1. It was still in the top five a year after its release. The album title, according to Duffy, is based on Rock Ferry, a suburb of Birkenhead, on the Wirral Peninsula. The album art and video for the title track were shot on and around Ffestiniog Railway in Porthmadog, renamed ‘Rockferry’ for the occasion. The album was at no.1 a year after its release.

‘Mercy’ was the second single from ‘Rockferry’, co-written and co-produced by Steve Brooker. It was Duffy’s first international release and is credited for establishing her career and is now considered her signature song.  The song was the fourth most played anywhere in the United Kingdom in 2009, revealed in a list compiled by PRS. ‘Mercy’ charted at no.1 on the UK Singles Chart due to downloads alone on 17^th February 2008, three weeks before the single was released, remaining at no.1 for five consecutive weeks. It was the third best-selling single of 2008 in the UK, selling 536,000 copes in 2008 alone. It remained inside the UK Singles Chart for over one year.

‘Endlessly’ is the next chapter in the story of Duffy’s rise to stardom. ‘Endlessly’ shows several new sides to one of our most successful soul singers. “I’m not the same as I was back then,” she says “I was just a girl back then’. ‘Endlessly’ simultaneously showcases songs that are more uptempo and dancefloor-friendly than anything the 26-year-old has done before, as well as stripped-back, acoustic-led numbers that feature Duffy at her most philosophical. “At one point I thought ‘is this going to be an indie record?” she laughs. “That’s what it was beginning to sound like. “Lyrically its more empowered, heartfelt and wordly-wise, but also saucier (‘I’m his lover/ Not his mother’ are the first words we hear) and more fun. “I think one can be a little bit afraid of being frivolous with music, of being tongue-in-cheek,” she says. “Sometimes it really is just about having fun.” The sweeping strings and the sassy brass we know from ‘Mercy’ and ‘Warwick Avenue’ are still on there. But this is very much ‘Chapter 2′.